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Can an image of Windows 2000 using NI-VXI 3.5 with a PXI-MXI controller be fielded for multiple computers using sysprep?

I am trying to field an image of Windows 2000 using NI-VXI 3.5 with a PXI-MXI controller.  Can I set the system up to retain to original settings for VXI?  Some of my computers use a PCI-MXI controller.  Although Windows always finds the MXI controller, the original VXI System 0 is not used.  I have several VME instruments set up and the target is about 85 different computers.  Also the NI-GPIB interface does not show in MAX.  Is this supposed to work?
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Hello,

 

To better answer your question, what steps have you currently tried? What were the results? When you stated that VXI System 0 was not used, what exactly do you observe? Regarding the NI-GPIB interface not showing up in MAX, is this happening on the master computer? Were you able to verify whether the driver was installed correctly in this computer? If the GPIB instrument driver has not yet been installed, I have included a link to to the intrument driver dowload page. Let me know your findings.

 

1. Drivers and Updates: Instrument Connectivity, GPIB, NI-488.2(x): http://search.ni.com/nisearch/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/tech/lang/en/pg/1/sn/catnav:du,n8:3.25.123.785,ss...

 

Best regards,

 

Ali M

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

Message Edited by Ali M on 05-18-2010 05:46 PM
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Thanks for your help,

When the master machine is set up the GPIB is detected normally and works flawlessly.  The MXI controller is detected correctly also.  VXI system 0 is the system we set up.  In that system there are three slot zero controllers daisy chained from the controller in the computer.  One of those controller contains three VME modules which we manually add entries for.  We run sysprep -pnp to prepare the image.

 

When the image is rerstored onto the computer (even the same one), an error box is displayed during the mini setup.  The error box says "gpibpnp.exe has a problem and will be closed by windows."  After the machine restarts, the gpib interface is setup with a driver.  However, MAX does not list the GPIB bus in the list of devices.  It does list the GPIB interface under PXI devices.  The VXI System 0 is still there but MAX says that the MXI controller for it is not present.  There is a new VXI System 1 for the MXI controller that is currently installed (note that this is the same controller that the system had when it was created).  The VME devices are still listed under the original VXI System 0.

 

I would like to field this image without operator intervention if possible.  Is there any way to save and restore the settings easily without a lot of manual steps?

 

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Hello,

 

RE: Is there any way to save and restore the settings easily without a lot of manual steps?

 

One thing you can try is to export/import your MAX configurations i.e. save the MAX configurations of your master computer e.g. to a flash drive and later apply these settings to your deployment computer(s) manually. On the deployment computer(s), you wont need to completely clear the MAX configurations to make new changes; when you load new configurations (from your flash drive) it will overwrite any previous configurations that may have the the same names. You can load these configurations in MAX using the import/export tools described in the links provided below. I hope this helps!

 

1. Export/Import (Save) the System Configuration in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX): http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/0E0D3D7C4AA8903886256B29000C9D5A?OpenDocument

2. Programmatically Clearing and Loading MAX Configurations: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/18F175033B0909248625760B007F857A?OpenDocument

 

Best regards,

 

Ali M

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

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Thanks Ali,

I tried using the method you mentioned, and got mixed results.  The GPIB seems messed up somehow.  It seems that the failure of GPIBPNP.EXE during mini-setup causes something to be recorded incorrectly.  Even though the device manager shows a GPIB device happily working, the GPIB GettingStarted program says there are no GPIB interface installed on the computer.  This can be corrected by starting the device manager and uninstalling the GPIB device then letting it reinstall the device.  My question is two fold.  First is there any way to stop GPIBPNP.EXE from executing during mini setup and then just restart it after setup completes?  Also, since LabView 8 can programatically import the settings, I assume it could also be done with "C".  Is that true?

Thanks,

Dale  

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Ali, 

I get it now.  GPIBPNP.EXE is included in the installation of a GPIB controller device.  If the program dies during the installation of the device then the GPIB device interface is not registered with MAX.  The question is how to fix it.

Dale.

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Hello,

 

MAX configurations can be programatically imported/exported using LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI (includes C functions), or Measurement Studio. If you search for "Export" in the MAX Help for DAQmx, you will find the following information which tells you to refer to the "MAX Configuration Function Reference for LabWindows/CVI." In CVI these functions can be accessed by navigating to Libraries>MAX Configuration Library (right click on the parent and select Library Help to access the MAX Configuration Function Reference Help). Regarding the pibpnp.exe issue, what version of NI-488.2(x) do you have?

 

Best regards,

 

Ali M

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

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Thanks Ali,

I checked out the functions to import MAX configurations.  It seems that they are limited to the settings in the controller.  I still have to work some sort of angle to import my VME devices.  Or if I could preserve VXI System 0 with the MXI controller that would even work better.

 

As for the version of GPIB, MAX shows that I am using NI-488.2 version 2.20.

 

Regards,

Dale

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Hello,

 

Here's an update regarding the gpib error. There has been a Corrective Action Request (CAR) ID:3BI8A578, filed due to a similar issue of error gpibpnp.exe with NI-488.2 v2.2 on Windows 2000 and Sysprep. This issue's workaround involved going back to install NI-488.2 v2.1 or installing the v2.3 release in order to eliminate the problem. Currently, NI-488.2 v2.3 is no longer available for download, however, all operating systems and hardware supported by NI-488.2 v2.3 are also supported by NI-488.2 v2.4 (see link 1). 

 

1. NI-488.2 2.4 - Windows XP/2000: http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/lang/en/id/340

2. GPIB Driver Versions for Microsoft Windows and DOS: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5326

 

Best regards,

 

Ali M

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

Message Edited by Ali M on 05-25-2010 02:07 PM
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Ali,

I want to thank you very much for your continued support in this matter.  The new 488 driver version solved my problem with the gpibpnp.  I had to resort to writing a program to remove the board identification registry keys from the VXI service in order to retain the VXI System 0 intact.  I run this at the end of sysprep.  The program removes board0 and bumps the number of boards down by one.  And for all of those people that can't get the CMDLINES.TXT file to run commands.  I found out that the InstallFilesPath in sysprep.inf needs to be quoted to make it work.

Thanks again,

Dale

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