NI Volume License Manager 3.0 is Available

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NI Volume License Manager (NI VLM) 3.0 is designed to save you time managing your licenses and to improve usability.

New features in NI VLM 3.0 include:

1. New intuitive user interface

2. Customizable search to fit your needs

3. Groups of licenses and users to reduce time spent on volume license installers

4. Volume license installers that remember previous selections so less time is spent when new versions of software release

5. Automatic backup of NI VLM during critical changes with the option for regular scheduled backups

Download NI VLM 3.0 over your previous version of NI VLM. You will need a new NI VLM 3.0 agreement license file and new volume license installers to take advantage of the new features.

New User Interface and Customizable Search

The first thing you will notice about NI VLM 3.0 is the new user interface. It has a completely different look and format than previous versions of NI VLM and is designed to be easier to use and customize for your needs, saving you valuable time. The new user interface is more logically separated and intuitive to use. It also allows for new functionality like improved search, filtering, and sorting. A navigation bar on the left contains links to views and actions you can use to manage your VLA. A selected view displays all the information pertaining to that view on a single screen, including the actions you can take within that view. In most cases, each line of the summary can be expanded to get even more information.

Groups

Previous versions of NI VLM connected users or computers and individual licenses to give permissions to the software. In NI VLM 3.0 permissions may be managed through groups. A group is a collection of licenses and licensees (users or computers). Every licensee has permission for every license in the group. Groups should contain common sets of software. If 5 people are using LabVIEW Full Development System and LabVIEW Real-Time Module, 10 people are using Developer Suite Core, and 15 people are using LabVIEW Professional Development System, LabVIEW Real-Time Module, and LabVIEW FPGA Module, it makes sense to have 3 groups with those software licenses.  If someone does not fit within a group or groups, you still have the ability to assign an explicit license to the user.

Volume License Installers

NI VLM 3.0 is designed to save you time managing your VLA licenses. The biggest time savings come from the reduced time spent creating and installing Volume License Installers when new versions of software in your VLA release. You can also customize the Volume License Installers by selecting the software available for installation and determining which permissions to pass on to your clients.

To save you time creating and installing Volume License Installers, the redesigned Volume License Installer wizard uses groups created in NI VLM, pulls in your serial numbers, and remembers previous selections so you will not have configure them each time. Once you create your groups in NI VLM, the Volume License Installer wizard automatically pulls them in. Furthermore, you don’t need to adjust them for each new version of your VLA software.  The Volume License Installer wizard also automatically pulls the correct serial numbers from your volume license file, so you don’t have to remember your serial numbers for NI VLM. The Volume License Installer wizard is smart enough to know what selections you have made the last time you ran the wizard. You can click Next to quickly progress through the wizard and not have to reconfigure the Volume License Installer each time.

Backup and Restore

To prevent data loss in the event of a problem, best practices recommend that you back up files on your computer on a regular basis. In the same light, you should also back up your NI VLM files on a regular basis. NI VLM 3.0 adds the capability to easily create backups with the new backup and restore feature. This feature will save you time if the following events occur:

• Your server hard drive crashes
• You make changes you want to undo
• You install a license file and later realize it is not what you expected
• You need to change servers

NI VLM automatically creates backups during critical changes, such as before you install a new license file or before you restore a previous backup. You can also schedule regular backups and choose how frequently the backups occur. If you are worried about taking an action in NI VLM, you can also manually create backups before you proceed.