Build a Custom Installer for DIAdem

[Chris_P_SD]

Does anyone know it it's possible to build an installer for DIAdem that runs on a bunch of clients and sets up the right DataFinder Server, VLM settings, imports the DataPlugin, assigns predefined scripts, etc?  I think the .DDD file handles the scripts, but I’m still having to go through the process of importing VLM settings and DataFinder Server settings with each installation.  It’s not too labor intensive, but if we wanted to set up 20 employees with DIAdem, it would save a lot of time to automate all this.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Cpesko,

The DataFinder connection can be registered on the client computer by executing a *.urf file, and a DataPlugin can be registered on the client computer by executing a *.uri file.  You may be able to do something similar with the licensing settings, but you'd need to ask a licensing support engineer about that-- unfortunately I don't know the answer.

You should be able to configure your custom installer to DOS execute these two file types at the end of all the application installation steps.

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments

[StarSarina]

Cpesko,

To import the VLM settings on the client computers there are multiple options that you have outlined below:

• You can create a Volume License Installer. Once creating this specific Volume License Installer, the client software will automatically point to NI VLM to check for permission to run. The following article outlines how to create a volume license installer: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/FFB8BE95AE72EF4D862573E5007659ED?OpenDocument.

• VLM specifically uses Environment variables: NILM_LICENSE_FILE, this is a Windows Environment variable that is only used by National Instruments software. The format of the environment variable is Port_Number@Server_Name. There are programmatic ways to add environment variables and modify the values. For more information about the NI environment variable: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/66E8A3671010C6F18625715B0078D374?OpenDocument. For information about creating and modifying an environment variable I have pointed you to a Microsoft article: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682653(v=vs.85).aspx.

• You can edit the Servers.ini file which is located in the following location: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\License Manager\Data. You can create a batch script to programmatically edit this file. By default it will contain these two lines:

[Preferences] 
Order= 

You can have the batch script that adds the server’s IP address after the equals sign so the file would look like:

[Preferences] 
Order=@127.0.0.1 <-- (Placeholder for Volume License Server IP Address) 

[Chris_P_SD]

Brad,

Thanks for the quick follow-up.  I will try just running the *.uri and *.urf files from a script following DIAdem installation. That gets me most of the way there.

Chris

[Chris_P_SD]

Hi Sarina,

Thanks for the helpful links - I had forgotten you can create a Volume License Installer.  We only have one license server, so it seems I should just be able to call the Volume License Installer from my install script that runs the files Brad mentioned.  I'll report back on how this goes.

Best,

Chris