Announcing pilot program for Windows Server support

[REM1]

NI is considering support for software and hardware on the Microsoft Windows Server OS. To help evaluate the priority of adding Windows Server support, NI is coordinating a brief pilot program to get feedback from users. If you are interested in running your applications based on NI software and hardware on Windows Server, you are invited to register for participation in the NI Windows Server pilot.

You can register by visiting http://www.ni.com/beta and selecting "National Instruments Support for Windows Server" from the list of beta programs.  Please complete the profile questions that will help us understand your experience and use cases for using Windows Server.  Please make sure you agree to the terms and conditions of the program so that you can be approved.

As part of this pilot program, you will have access to a a private discussion forum set up for users to discuss support for LabVIEW and NI drivers on Windows Server. Note: NI is not releasing new versions of software and drivers for this pilot. Instead, we ask that you install and test the latest releases of NI software (e.g. LabVIEW 2009 and compatible modules, toolkits and drivers) on Windows Server, and provide feedback on any issues you find.

[Magma]

Hello Robert.

A little more information would be helpful here, since there are multiple flavours of Windows Server out there, and substantial differences exist between, say, 32 bit Server 2003 and 64 bit Server 2008 R2. Like many people I've considered running CPU intensive applications on 64-bit 2008 on an inexpensive four or eight core machine, but I haven't seen a compelling business case made for this yet. A noticeable lack of multithreading applications and 64-bit drivers doesn't help.

[REM1]

The pilot is open to 32-bit 2003 Server R2, 64-bit 2003 Server R2 and 64-bit 2008 Server R2.  Is there any other information you need?

[Magma]

Thanks Robert, that's all I was looking for.

Mark

[Jason_P]

Is the Windows Server beta still on-going, or has it been abandoned?  I checked the beta page, but found no entry for Windows Server...

Thanks,

JasonP - CLD 

[Magma]

Personally I've lost interest, since 64-bit Windows 7 Professional will accept two quadcore CPUs and up to 96 GB of RAM. Should meet most of my processing needs for quite a while...

[Jason_P]

I would like to say it doesn't matter to me either - but my company has a need to use executables developed in labview on a manufacturing tool that runs on Server 2008.  Our internal tests say it works fine, right up until we try to use DAQ.  I suspect our future apps (which will need IMAQ) will experience similar problems.

JasonP - CLD