Launch Time of OI (and SeqEdit)

[Oli_Wachno]

Hi,

some weeks ago, we have experienced a dramatic slowdown of the launching of our OI (without having changed anything 😉)

We found this to happen also with the SeqEdit.

Digging deeper, we have reset our configuration to default (including search paths), still we see no improvement.

Eventually we found out, that disabling the company network brings launching times back to normal fast!

We're talking about 30s compared to >2min

We're running TS2016SP1 (16.1.0.52) 32Bit on a disconnected license, so in my thinking, there should be no neccessity for the license manager to check for a license server.

Two of our testracks are showing this behaviour. A third one (License Manger 4.5) is faster, still about 1min launch time

Does the License Manager "call home" during startup if a LAN connection is found? Is there a way to avoid this?

Best Regards

Oli

[~jiggawax~]

Are the machines pointed to the license server even though they have disconnected licenses.  License manager looks at the server first for a license and then looks at the local licenses if it doesn't find it on the server.  If you just remove NILM from looking at the server it should fix the issue.

BTW- that seems like your network has some issues.  Generally it should be really fast (less than a couple ms) to ping the server for a license. 

Regards,

[Oli_Wachno]

Hi jigg,

thanks for the reply. We have just re-checked: NILM doesn't have a License Server entry.

Will try upgrading to 4.5 on that machine to see, If there are any differences,

I agree on the strange network 😉

[~jiggawax~]

Things in TestStand that could be impacted by the network:

• Licensing as we've discussed
• Users.ini if you've pointed to a shared drive.  However, you'd get an error if this were the case
• Search Directories.  Especially if they are at the top of the list.  TestStand iterates through the search directories looking for everything as it botos up.
• Environment.  If you have any environments using shared drives and are starting TestStand with one of those
• Configuration Files Directory.  If this were on the shared drives and you were pointed to it somehow (most likely environments)
• Front End Callback using code from a shared drive

A couple questions:

• Do you see the login dialog before or after the long period of waiting?
• Do you use a source code control that is on a shared drive or that looks to the network for anything?

Hope we get this solved.

[Oli_Wachno]

So.... last night my colleague has updated one of the NILM 4.1 installation to 4.5. Problem has vanished on that one.

Next step is trying on the other one.

The recently updated machine reacts much faster than the one I have described in my first post. So there is still some room left for research. I shall write up our findings in this thread for future reference.

@ jigg: thanks so much for compiling all this information. I would indeed invite you for a BBQ, but I won't be able to join NI Week on the new date 😞 Maybe next year 🙂

Cheers

Oli

[magnux]

Hi Oli, we've seen a similar issue with our manufacturing test application, where we have integrated TestStand 2017, also using NI offline-licenses. However, it looks like TestStand is trying to "call home" sometimes when we are starting up the TestStand Engine caling

AxApplicationMgr.Start() When this happens, it causes a 40-50 second UI freeze before the application becomes usable.

No licensing volume server have been configured in NI License Manager (we do have one, but it is not reachable from the manufacturing network). The computer is running Windows 10.

I did some Timeline profiling (using Resharper DotTrace) during startup, and found that LicenseManagment engine seem to fail to connect to some url, it makes two attempts, each failing after 21 seconds and throwing a SockedException as in the stacktrace below:

Start 00:24,806
Thread Main Thread (#3188)
Type System.Net.Sockets.SocketException
Message A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond

[clr.dll] [ntdll.dll] [clr.dll]
System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint, SocketAddress)
System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean, Socket, Socket, ref Socket, ref IPAddress, ConnectSocketState, IAsyncResult, out Exception)
System.Net.ServicePoint.GetConnection(PooledStream, Object, Boolean, out IPAddress, ref Socket, ref Socket)
System.Net.PooledStream.Activate(Object, Boolean, GeneralAsyncDelegate)
System.Net.Connection.CompleteStartConnection(Boolean, HttpWebRequest)
System.Net.Connection.CompleteStartRequest(Boolean, HttpWebRequest, TriState)
System.Net.Connection.SubmitRequest(HttpWebRequest, Boolean)
System.Net.ServicePoint.SubmitRequest(HttpWebRequest, String)
System.Net.HttpWebRequest.SubmitRequest(ServicePoint)
System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
System.Net.WebClient.GetWebResponse(WebRequest)
System.Net.WebClient.OpenRead(Uri)
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.Engine.LicensingEngine.f()
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.Engine.LicensingEngine.IsConnectedToInternet()
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.EngineInterface.LicensingEngine.IsConnectedToInternet()
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.UI.Model.WizardModel..ctor(IReadOnlyList, CustomWizardInfo, Client, SourceOfActivation)
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.UI.WizardActivationHandler.Activate(CultureInfo, SourceOfActivation, IReadOnlyList, CustomWizardInfo, Client)
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.ClientInteraction.CoreClient.StartLicensingWizard(IReadOnlyList, CustomWizardInfo, CultureInfo, SourceOfActivation, Client, out WizardResponse)
NationalInstruments.LicenseManagement.ClientInteraction.CoreClient.StartLicensingWizard(IReadOnlyList, CustomWizardInfo, CultureInfo, SourceOfActivation, CultureInfo, out WizardResponse)
.<Module>.StartLicensingWizard(Client*, CheckoutRequest*, Int32, CustomWizardInfo*, SByte*, SourceOfActivation, WizardResponse**)
.<Module>.CNiLmClient_StartLicensingWizardWithSourceOfActivation_Managed(Int32, CheckoutRequest*, Int32, CustomWizardInfo*, SByte*, SourceOfActivation, Int32*)
.<Module>.CNiLmClient_StartLicensingWizard_Managed(Int32, CheckoutRequest*, Int32, CustomWizardInfo*, SByte*, Int32*)
[tefwk.dll] [TSEngine.dll] [teapi.dll] [tsui.dll]
NationalInstruments.TestStand.Interop.UI.Ax.AxApplicationMgr.Start()
Spider.Client.MainForm.MainForm_Load(Object, EventArgs)

[bienieck]

I think NI should have a look a this. Create a service request.

[bienieck]

I'm currently struggling with a very similar problem. NILM 4.1, Windows 7, TS 2016 and 2017, no internet access.

From my observations, when SeqEdit is starting it communicates with something at address 104.16.34.15:443 or 104.16.35.15:443. The same address is used by NILM when I open activation window. This is despite the fact that NILM is configured to use a local license server.

In Wireshark I use the ip.dst == 104.16.34.15 filter where I see TCP retransmission. More or less when these attempts end the application starts.

In C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\License Manager\Data\Licensing.log I can find "Failure using web request to check internet connection. Details: WebException: The operation has timed out".

I don't see it in Windows 10 and NILM 21.8.1.

In my opinion, NILM is to blame because it is forcibly trying to communicate with some external server despite the fact that the system is "offline" and is supposed to use locally available licenses.

[bienieck]

In my case, the solution was to install the latest version of the NILM supported on Windows 7 (NILM 4.7). This version does not send the mentioned request to the remote server.