Why is the start-up time 5 minutes for Version 8?

[winni]

Thanks for all the recent ideas and advices,

we've checked about  these, but none of them solved the problem.

But now I finally disconnected the LAN and - you won't believe it - the program starts within 3 seconds.

So it obviously has something to do with the "Licence Manger" which is used for the first time in LabVIEW  version 8.

We have other tools like ADS (Advanced Design System from Agilent) within our company which use a licence manager and this probably is the reason.

But, contrary to these, we use a local installation and licence for LabVIEW 8 and this shouldn't be a problem.

Well, I'm an analogue hardware guy and I don't understand this software issues correctly, but I wonder why LabVIEW 8 wants to make external communication and I simply dislike this.

Best regards

Winni

[Shannon R]

Hi Winni,

If LabVIEW is licensed as a single-seat application, it doesn't require any network or internet connection to work once you've activated.  Even activation doesn't require an internet connection.  However, since the new LabVIEW 8.0 licensing does use FLEXlm, if you have any FLEXlm license servers configured, it is possible that LabVIEW is checking those FLEXlm license servers to see if there is a LabVIEW license.  You mentioned that you have other software on your computer that is also licensed.  It could be that since the other software and NI software use the same FLEXlm licensing program in the background, that LabVIEW is actually checking your other software's FLEXlm license server.  This would explain the long start up times (checking all license servers for a LabVIEW license and then starting LabVIEW).  If you could check the value of the environment variable, LM_LICENSE_FILE, that contains FLEXlm license servers for that client computer to check.  Also, if you have another FLEX license server running locally on that machine, whether or not it is an NI license server, you could see delays.  Lastly, if your NI software is set to use a license server, you'll be able to see it within NI License Manager by going to Start>>Programs>>National Instruments>>NI License Manager.  Then go to Options>>Preferences>>"Use Network License Server".  NI software will check servers listed there for a license.  If you have servers listed there that you don't need, you can just deselect that checkbox.

Let us know what, if any of those, you have and we'll see if we can do anything to help decrease your start up time.

Regards,
Shannon R

[winni]

Hi Shannon,

thank you for the good explanation which helped me in finally decreasing the start-up time significantly.

It really is the "NI License Manager" which causes all the delay, because it looks for servers even if the concerning checkbox under "Preferences>>Options" is not selected.
It looked for all license servers which were listed as values in the Windows Environment Variables>>System Variables>>"LM_LICENSE_FILE".

Including of "FLEXLM_TIMEOUT" as a Variable did not help.

I found out that if you include a variable "LM_LICENSE_FILE" within Environment Variables>>User Variables the "NI License Manager" takes those values instead. So I put a reduced set of license server values into User Variables. This reduced the first start-up time  to 85 seconds and repeated start-ups to 35 seconds.

Still quite a lot but much better than before. If the number of license server values is further reduced the program starts even faster of course. If the User Variable "LM_LICENSE_FILE" has no values listed (but still exists) LabVIEW 8 starts within 4 seconds.

Thanks again and best regards
Winni

[crelf]

I've tried all of these options (disconnecting my LAN cable, adding environment variables, turning off options in NILM), and my LabVIEW 8 load time is still around 110 - 120 seconds (95% of that time is spent "Finishing Initialization").  I'm a LabVIEW power user and need to start and restart LabVIEW many times a day - how can I fix this problem?

[Ben]

" I'm a LabVIEW power user..."

I have been called one of those as well. Experimenting with LV 6.1 7.0 7.1 and 8.0 has shown that the start up time is a exponential function of the LV version number.

That observation appies to the first time LV is started that day.

If you leave LV8 open, it opens VI's fast.

The second time you open it in a day it also opens fast. It just seems like it is trying to phone home at least once a day. No I found no evidence that it was actually phoning home.

Ben

[crelf]

Hey Ben,

    My start time doesn't change - both the first and subsequent loads are around the 100 - 120s mark  😞

crelf

[Ben]

Those are good times!

My laptop takes on the order of 300 seconds!

Its time to increment your blessings counter!

Ben

NOTE:

The times reported above are from my old and failing memory. I stopped timing these loads weeks ago. Your actual load times may vary.

[K C]

On my PC it takes around 50 seconds to startup and it’s also spending 95% of that time on "Finishing Initialization" like Christopher’s situation.

The second start-up is 5 seconds faster (woepie) but it is still long compared to LV7 and earlier

I also tried several things to get it faster but till now no result

I am going to try this at home one my old PC's (stiil using LV7 there) In a long free weekend  I think.

Message Edited by K C on 02-22-2006 04:16 PM

Message Edited by K C on 02-22-2006 04:16 PM

[tlivingston]

I am also seeing 5 minute load times. I add the environmental variable- I think. could yo please specify the variable names and values that need to be added. the change I made seems to have had zero effect on my 5 minute load time.

Its not a machine speed issue. I have a Centrino dual core laptop, 1G of RAM that is showing zero CPU while the splashscreeen is up.

Message Edited by tlivingston on 03-01-2006 10:11 AM

[tlivingston]

Additional note: Disabling the network has no effect on load time.