Installation Order

[WillK68]

I'm a systems administrator setting up computers for an RF training environment and I have a question related to the installation order, if necessary.  I've read about installing LabView older programs first, then  drivers, etc.  

Below are the following items I was tasked with installing.  Based on what I have to install, is there any set order to the items? NOTE:  This is for an air-gapped system (intranet only).

Thank you.

I have the following to install-

NI-488.2 (v.19.5)

NI-VISA (v.19.5)

NI CompactRIO (v.20.5)

NI R Series Multifuntion RIO 20.0

NI DAQmx (v.20.1)

NI Industrial Commmunications for EtherCAT (v.20.0)

[Ahmed99 · Accepted solution]

There is no order you can install them one by one

[CylkDuke]

That is very untrue.  There is a strict order if you want all your hardware to work correctly and development software to recognize which drivers to install.  Your comment is irresponsible.  I will comment back later with the specific order.  I do this about every two years and have to teach myself the hard way again and again.

[altenbach]

Apparently, the development software is already installed, because it is not on the list.

[CylkDuke]

Actually, install the development software last.

I development for and on VXI & PXI platforms (I know, I know, old as dirt, pays the bills), so you need to make sure PXI drivers installed completely after 488.2 but before VISA.  Then install VXI 2016 drivers (because that was the last time that they were updated and make sure you install everything).  But then you need to repair PXI drivers as the VXI will overwrite with 2015 drivers.  Then install or uninstall and then repair VISA.  Make sure you reboot at least once between every install and.  Then finally install LabView development environment.  Always try repairs of drivers over uninstalls as uninstalls have unintended collateral damage that you won't know that you unintendedly uninstalled something you need that a reinstall or repair may not fix.  All other high-level languages and add-ons, and extensions can and should come last as you can uninstall and repair more harmlessly at this point.  Don't go out of your way to exclude default things on repairs and installs, as that can act like a crude uninstall.

[altenbach]

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@CylkDuke wrote:

Actually, install the development software last..

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When installing drivers, we need to select support for e.g. LabVIEW and this only works if LabVIEW is already installed. (I am not a hardware guy, but that was my impression long ago...)

See e.g. here:

[CylkDuke]

Just because it says it on NI site, does not mean it will work.  It's like Microsoft certification: the best answers that work, are not always the right answers to pass the test for certification.  Microsoft and NI want you to do it their way.

I have found when installing LabVIEW for PXI/VXI development and testing, I need to have those drivers installed first and since they are antiquated drivers, they end up breaking some VISA drivers that I have to repair after that.  And then NI Max will properly recognize my hardware.  I found that LabVIEW installed after this works best because if I install LabVIEW first it will need to be repaired after I install the old hardware drivers and even then, I have found it still doesn't work and I have to uninstall VISA, repair 488.2, re-install VISA then install LabVIEW to recognize the hardware.  Maybe I am dealing with antiquated niche environments.

LabVIEW and or any development environment can always be installed last.   And then of course you're going to install new hardware drivers later and you may have to repair 488.2 and VISA after the fact.  But I have always found that hardware must be installed first.

What do you if you get a new development environment, do you uninstall and break your stable hardware environment, so your first layer is always the development environment?  That makes no sense.

488.2

Specific Hardware Drivers individually - in this process some NI drivers can get overwritten with old drivers (PXI/VXI case in point)

then VISA as it will install properly over your hardware environment

I think you can install LabVIEW or programming environment anywhere in this chain but if you install it first you may have to go back and repair it later sfter everything is complete.

So, if your hardware requires your programming environment first, then so be it.  Just don't install VISA before your hardware. Boom!

But then again, we are talking NI here so maybe I am totally wrong as NI does things crazy weird, so you're stuck with their hardware - software - et al, but I know my environment works installed in that order above and only that order.  

Wait, I just thought of something.  Are you really installing LabVIEW development environment on production machines?  No, of course you aren't, you're just installing an RT engine, and distributing a n installation package to stable hardware configuration....or are you creating a client image and just installing hardware and software all from the installation package...and then on of it all you should be to develop and compile from a machine which has none of that hardware configured.