Relationship between "NI Web Server", "NI System Web Server", and "NI Application Web Server"

[JKSH]

The service descriptions are:

• The NI Web Server hosts web applications and web UIs. Stopping this service may disable functionality in some NI software.
  
  

• The NI System Web Server provides National Instruments Web services and Web-based configuration and Monitoring utility. Stopping this service may cause some NI software to not function properly.
  
  

• The NI Application Web Server loads Web service applications which are deployed using National Instruments LabVIEW. Stopping this service may cause deployed Web service applications to become unavailable.

From the name alone, "NI Web Server" sounds all-encompassing.

Just out of curiosity, is the "NI Web Server" intended to subsume the other two? Or is it intended to be a separate thing, for Skyline-based web services only?

[JoshuaP · Accepted solution]

The NI System Web Server is the older Appweb-based NI web server that hosts the Silverlight based web interface that can be installed on Windows as well as our Linux RT targets.  This was traditionally installed with MAX on local systems to provide a thin client option for a configuring the devices and interfaces on a single system.

The NI Application Web Server is the one used if you build a web service in LabVIEW.

The NI Web Server is our new Apache-based web server that is used for hosting the SystemLink web interface and is the only one required for SystemLink to work.

The NI Web Server is also used for the NI's new DataFinder and Analytics Server web interface (http://www.ni.com/tutorial/53662/en/) and will be used for other future web-based products.

[aartjan]

I have developed some labview webservices that use the NI web server. It had my initial preference, because NI states that it is a "production grade" web server based on Apache httpd. Also, it allowed me to easily install an SSL certificate and properly secure the website.

Should I have been using the application web server in stead? How would that have worked with the SSL certificate? If I am not mistaken, you still have to use the Silverlight interface to configure the application web server. It appears to me that the application web server and the system web server are somehow related..

[JoshuaP]

LabVIEW 2020+ now also uses the NI Web Server. The System Web Server and Application Web Server are more or less deprecated at this point, so I do not recommend using them.

[aartjan]

Hi Joshua,

You advised me in 2021 to stick with NI Web Server rather than application web server. I have two separate servers running several webservices mad with Labview. Both have an unlicensed version of Systemlink that I had to install in order to get the NI web server. 

Is there a document anywhere describing the available functionalities of an unlicensed Sytemlink server?