NI MAX myseriously dropping all IP configured devices (with the exception of DAQmx devices)

[abenevides]

I have a weird issue with NI MAX popping up suddenly. I've configured an ATE to use an ITECH Electronic Load Mainframe and a Rohde and Schwarz Power Supply.

The R&S instrument is a VXI ethernet connected device, whereas the ITECH instrument is simply a raw socket ethernet connected device. They both connect to an Aruba network switch and are discoverable on that network now as I am writing this.

Both have static IP configurations and have been functional for several months with several power cycles.

I use the system configuration tools in LabView to help ensure all test instruments are connected prior to executing any commands to an instrument. One morning, operators boot-up the ATE to find these two instruments are no longer available. I found them no longer listed under the network device category in NI MAX. I had to add them back to NI MAX manually on my own. Never have I needed to do this before.

Short term solution is simply to leave the instruments running continuously, but I may need to implement my own methods in LabView to detect connected instrumentation. I would like to continue using NI MAX to do this, since it is more convenient and generally seems to work fine.

Is it possible that running the system config functions prior to turning on the instruments can cause it to be dropped from the config? That would seem like a bug in NI MAX to me. I'm just doing a query for NI MAX's configuration info, which should only update in the event of NI MAX being ran. Something test operators don't do at all.

Alternatively, is it possible for the config to lose network device configs if a switch disconnected? Typically if I simply unplug the device or power it down, the instrument is still in the config but shows up as unavailable. That's not what I'm seeing here. It's just gone completely.

[GerdW]

Hi abenevides,

our ATE devices usually load/update their MAX configuration upon start of the test software.

This way we make sure they never forget all the configured devices!

(Yes, we also noticed from time to time especially devices connected by LAN are forgotten.)

[abenevides]

Hi GerdW.

Thanks for corroborating my theory! 

Do you mind elaborating a bit on your implementation? I didn't think there were any tools for updating the MAX configuration from within the LabView environment.

If I can edit the config like you suggested, I could use some config files with the IP information to do a similar procedure where in the event of a lost device, the software can update the configuration so long as it is still connected to the network.

I think I may only have an incomplete understanding of the system configuration toolkit!

[ZYOng · Accepted solution]

Use NI System Configuration API to configure NI MAX programmatically.

See shipping examples at Examples Finder >> Hardware Input and Output >> System Configuration >> Export Configuration VI and Import Configuration VI

[abenevides]

Thanks ZYong.

I think the Import Configuration VI is exactly what I needed here.

Just to finish off this discussion, my process is now as follows : 

1. Configure the system in NI MAX manually, then export the config to a path which my software can find reliably.
2. On start-up of the test executive program, the system configuration file (if available) is imported from that directory, and it replaces the existing NI MAX config. This ensures the software always references the system configuration I generated while the system was functioning, and therefore prevents situations where NI MAX drops my third-party network devices.
3. One special case I have to add on-top of this is, for any network connected DAQmx device in this config, I must use the DAQmx Reserve Network Device.VI to allow the test software to access any channels on the cDAQ. I do not unreserve it, because the test system simply does not require to do so.