What permissions are required to image a Linux RT cRIO with RAD? Or update the software via MAX?

[cgibson]

Hi Folks,

I am looking at integrating a Linux based cRIO into our environment.

The questions I have today are about permissions required to update various pieces of the OS.

SOme of you know about RAD which can be used to do whole image management of the cRIO. Want to clone one cRIO to 100, use RAD.

NI RAD

For a Linux RT, what permission does RAD require? Does it have to be the admin account?

Apparently what RAD does is put the cRIO in safe mode, and use the safe mode OS to overwrite the main OS. This requires a password on Linux RT cRIOs.

2nd question. The cRIO has firmware. What permission is required to update firmware. (Which I occasionally have had to do when switching to newer versions of LabVIEW.)

(Also, what is the firmware? Is it the OS used in safe mode? The BIOS? Or what?)

FInally, what if I am installing a component like the Ethernet/IP driver or the network streams library? What permissions are needed here?

Is it all the admin account all the time?

Final question.

If we are not using web sevices, what are the implications of disabling the webserver account?

Thanks!

[GatorChomp]

Hi cgibson,

Most of the things you're asking about have permissions defined within the cRIO Web Configuration Interface. There are linked sets of accounts: the actual Linux user accounts and the ones used for NI Authentication. The latter is defined through the Web Configuration. While there are default permissions, these may be configurable depending on your needs and the users you have created. Note that this interface allows the creation of users and assigning permissions for the NI Authentication that many of these items use. 

To address defaults for some of the specific ones you call out:

• Firmware updates are admin or administrator group only but can be configured as described.
• Software Installation requires administrator privilege. I'm not sure if there's any way to change this one.
• RAD is tricky as it does a lot of different things and some of these require different permissions. That being said, I believe the default is to require admin since the underlying System Configuration API call to get an image requires those permissions. 

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(Also, what is the firmware? Is it the OS used in safe mode? The BIOS? Or what?)

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For Linux RT CompactRIOs, this is the safe mode OS. 

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If we are not using web sevices, what are the implications of disabling the webserver account?

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That account is actually used for system web services on the cRIO rather than user web services. I'm not 100% sure on if it *might* be used for user services as well, but I would advise against disabling it since it defines the permissions for many NI Web Services running on the system. Many of those web services are exactly what is used to do many of the things you ask about above.