NI TestStand

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

TestStand Deployment on WIN7 32-bit PC for WIN7 64-bit PC

Is there a trick to building a TestStand Deployment installer on a WIN7 32-bit development PC for a 64-bit target PC?

 

Is there an option in the TestStand Deployment Utility to compensate for the difference in the default TestStand directory?

 

The default TestStand directory is located at C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand on Microsoft Windows 32-bit systems and at C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\TestStand on Windows 64-bit systems.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370052K-01/tsfundamentals/infotopics/directories/

 

 

Developer PC:

WIN7 Pro SP1 32-bit

LabVIEW 2012

TestStand 2012 (5.0.0.252)

 

Target PC:

WIN7 Pro SP1 64-bit
LabVIEW 2012 f3 runtime engine
TestStand 2012 f1 base deploy engine

 

 

Thanks for your help!!!

 

Sam Broyles

Staff Test Engineer

INOVA Geophysical

 

0 Kudos
Message 1 of 10
(5,142 Views)

Sam,

 

installers nowadays usually work with "symbolic paths" for selecting the base directory for installation. So does the MSI you create using the TestStand Deployment Utility.

 

Have you played around a bit if you select different "Default Installation Base Directory" before creating the installer?

Please check out if "Program Files" does differ as target for 64bits vs. 32bits....

 

thanks,

Norbert

Norbert
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEO: What exactly is stopping us from doing this?
Expert: Geometry
Marketing Manager: Just ignore it.
0 Kudos
Message 2 of 10
(5,107 Views)

TestStand is a 32-bit application, and the default location for 32-bit applications on a 64-bit machine is the Program Files (x86) folder for organizational purposes. As Norbert mentioned, you can change the Default Base Directory in the Installer Options tab. However, for a 32-bit application, the Programs Files (x86) likely cannot be changed to Program Files. I have a 64-bit machine, so I cannot test the 32-bit machine deployment utility.

 

This  KnowledgeBase article discusses how TestStand, a 32-bit application, interacts with 64-bit code modules. This is not exactly what we're discussing, but may be useful in the future:

Can TestStand Call 64-bit Code Modules?

Taylor B.
National Instruments
0 Kudos
Message 3 of 10
(5,092 Views)

Thanks Norbert & Taylor.

 

I forgot to mention the problem on the 64-bit target system at run time! I can build, deploy, and execute the test sequence without error, but the test report format is completely wrong!! It is as if all the report options have been returned to default.

 

I tried to copy the original ResultProcessing.cfg file from the target station to the development station and rebuild the deployment including the configuration. I also tried to copy the configuration from one target station to another target station after omitting the configuration from the deployment, but it always seems to be ignored. LabVIEW Runtime and TestStand Base Deployment engine are already installed on the target station so I have not been including these with the installer.

 

This configuration file is in the ProgramData directory, but the problem seems to be connected to the Windows 32-bit VS 64-bit installations because I have successfully deployed from the same 32-bit development station to 32-bit target stations just a few months ago.

 

C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\TestStand 2012\Cfg\ModelPlugins\ResultProcessing.cfg

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Sam Broyles
Staff Test Engineer
INOVA Geophysical

0 Kudos
Message 4 of 10
(5,088 Views)

Sam,

 

do you use a custom report plugin?

What are the differences in the report (e.g. file format, style sheet, ...)?

 

Norbert

Norbert
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEO: What exactly is stopping us from doing this?
Expert: Geometry
Marketing Manager: Just ignore it.
0 Kudos
Message 5 of 10
(5,071 Views)

Norbert,

 

I am not using a custom report plug-in.

 

I have been using the standard XML Document report format with the report.xsl style sheet. I am using the parallel model with a specific directory location and a custom file name that includes the sequence name, UUT serial number, test socket, time, and date. Each datalog is saved as a separate file with a unique name. All of these are specified in the Configure / Result Processing / Report Options dialog box.

 

When I run the test sequence on the target PC, the datalog defaults to the horizontal style sheet in the same directory as the test sequence. It has the wrong name and appends additional datalogs into the same file rather then creating a new file for each datalog.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Sam Broyles
Staff Test Engineer
INOVA Geophysical

0 Kudos
Message 6 of 10
(5,064 Views)

Sam,

 

those settings are indeed part of the ResultProcessing.cfg file. And the location seems to be appropriate.

 

Please search for redundant versions of that file.

Please check for "last modified" timestamps vs. the contents.

 

Which UI are you using for this? If it has a menu bar including the "Configure" menu, how are settings in the dialog? What happens to the file if you change those settings?

 

Norbert

Norbert
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEO: What exactly is stopping us from doing this?
Expert: Geometry
Marketing Manager: Just ignore it.
0 Kudos
Message 7 of 10
(5,060 Views)

Norbert,

 

I was unable to find more than one version of the ResultProcessing.cfg file on the target PC; I'm not sure how to open the file and view the contents.

 

target PC:

C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\TestStand 2012\Cfg\ModelPlugins\ResultProcessing.cfg --- file date 10/25/2012

 

My development PC, however, has multiple versions. Since the dates don't match the deployment PC file date, I don't think it's being overwritten during deployment.

 

development PC:

C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\TestStand 2012\Cfg\ModelPlugins\ResultProcessing.cfg --- file date 3/4/2014
C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\TestStand 4.1\Cfg\TestStandModelReportOptions.ini --- file date 12/9/2011
C:\Users\Public\Documents\TSAppData\Cfg\ModelPlugins\ResultProcessing.cfg --- file date 9/30/2013

 

I added the TestStand directory to the distributed files in the deployment utility because it included ResultProcessing.cfg. This was included when I first began this experiment, but I re-included it today and re-deployed. Before and after, the ResultProcessing.cfg file date remained 10/25/2012, but for some unknown reason, the report format and location is now correct!!! I would really like understand what is going wrong before I mark this thread as solved.

 

By the way, on the last deployment I did not include the TestStand application data directory in the deployment utility -- this might be the first time I built an installer with the TestStand directory but without the TestStand application data directory selected in the distributed files of the deployment utility. It doesn't seem like it should matter, but this was the iteration that created the correct report format.

 

Should I uninstall older versions of TestStand & LabVIEW?

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Sam Broyles
Staff Test Engineer
INOVA Geophysical

0 Kudos
Message 8 of 10
(4,945 Views)

Sam,

 

i am not sure if the older version of TS has to do with this situation.

As i understand, it is first of all solved now, which is good.

 

Regarding your question how the situation came up, i cannot give any clues either. Maybe you had a same named file somewhere in the folders on your development machine which contained the original settings. Instead of picking the modified one, the installer configuration somehow picked the wrong (old) one, so it could be a misconfiguration or a caching issue.

If it now works correctly in a reproducable way, i wouldnt bother too much.

 

Norbert

Norbert
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEO: What exactly is stopping us from doing this?
Expert: Geometry
Marketing Manager: Just ignore it.
0 Kudos
Message 9 of 10
(4,934 Views)

Thanks Norbert!!

 

My next update is to revise a test program on a WIN7 32-bit target PC with my WIN7 32-bit development PC. I'll let you know if the problem persists.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Sam Broyles
Staff Test Engineer
INOVA Geophysical

0 Kudos
Message 10 of 10
(4,928 Views)