Getting a new PC. How to reload 2009 and old versions?

[asbo]

I just upgraded to W7 and would have loved to use it, but my laptop processor doesn't have the hardware support.

They actually -require- hardware virtualization? Moreover, you're running a laptop that's too old to have it!? Ghastly ...

[Michael Aivaliotis]

As far as the LabVIEW licensing. What issue are you guys trying to solve here? Do you want to run multiple labview versions, each one on a different VM? Or the same LabVIEW version on multiple VMs?

If it's the latter, same LabVIEW version on multiple VMs, the solution is simple as I see it. I use VMWare. I can create one VM and then I can install whatever I need on it including LabVIEW. I then register LabVIEW. From there I can use this "virgin" VM and then I can create branches, snapshots etc. I'm still running it on the same machine but I only really need to register LV once. Then when I need to work on a new project I create a branch from this Virgin VM. It's still essentially the same machine so there's no license issue. It's analogous to backing up your physical machine and restoring from scratch every time.

[shoneill]

As far as the LabVIEW licensing. What issue are you guys trying to solve here? Do you want to run multiple labview versions, each one on a different VM? Or the same LabVIEW version on multiple VMs?

If it's the latter, same LabVIEW version on multiple VMs, the solution is simple as I see it. I use VMWare. I can create one VM and then I can install whatever I need on it including LabVIEW. I then register LabVIEW. From there I can use this "virgin" VM and then I can create branches, snapshots etc. I'm still running it on the same machine but I only really need to register LV once. Then when I need to work on a new project I create a branch from this Virgin VM. It's still essentially the same machine so there's no license issue. It's analogous to backing up your physical machine and restoring from scratch every time.

Michael, I'd love to hear NI's official stance on exactly what you're suggesting. My interpretation of it was that each VM (whether it's emulating the same hardware or not) is a seperate installation in the eyes of NI.

Shane.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Michael, I'd love to hear NI's official stance on exactly what you're suggesting. My interpretation of it was that each VM (whether it's emulating the same hardware or not) is a seperate installation in the eyes of NI.

Shane.

Well, it's actually still the same VM. It's not multiple VMs. This is just how VMWare operates. The branches or snapshots are rooted to the same VM. I'm not suggesting you copy or clone the VM, thus creating multiple VMs.

In any case. Even if it turns out that this is a violation, I still have a fallback since our company has an Alliance member site license so I'm still good. However, in other cases I can't see why this would be a problem.

[shoneill]

Well, it's actually still the same VM. It's not multiple VMs. This is just how VMWare operates. The branches or snapshots are rooted to the same VM. I'm not suggesting you copy or clone the VM, thus creating multiple VMs.

In any case. Even if it turns out that this is a violation, I still have a fallback since our company has an Alliance member site license so I'm still good. However, in other cases I can't see why this would be a problem.

Ah, OK. I thought they would constitute copies. My bad.

Shane.

[Daryl]

I'm getting a new PC at work and in some ways am dreading it. I'm going to have to reload LV and I think it's going to take days. I will probably need to reload at least a couple of old versions 8.6 and 7.1 and am wondering what order to do this. Can I load 2009 and then load old versions as needed or is it better to bite the bullet and start with the old versions and work my way up?

George

Call your local NI Rep and tell him to take care of it for you.

[hooovahh]

I haven't had problems installing older versions of LabVIEW on a machine that has newer ones if I only install LabVIEW and not any legacy toolkits, or old daq stuff.

I recently installed 6.0 and 6.1 on a machine that already had 7.1, 8.0, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6, and 2009. I was worried it would break some thing but it went fine. Now if I would have tried installing other old 6.0 toolkits I'm sure my PC would be hosed.

Luckily installing older versions of LabVIEW don't take as long as they use to. So installing 6.0, then 6.1, then 7.0, then 7.1 probably take just as much time combined as it would to be to install 2009. So hopefully too much time won't be wasted installing all the older ones, just 8.x and 2009.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

I haven't had problems installing older versions of LabVIEW on a machine that has newer ones if I only install LabVIEW and not any legacy toolkits, or old daq stuff.

I recently installed 6.0 and 6.1 on a machine that already had 7.1, 8.0, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6, and 2009. I was worried it would break some thing but it went fine. Now if I would have tried installing other old 6.0 toolkits I'm sure my PC would be hosed.

Luckily installing older versions of LabVIEW don't take as long as they use to. So installing 6.0, then 6.1, then 7.0, then 7.1 probably take just as much time combined as it would to be to install 2009. So hopefully too much time won't be wasted installing all the older ones, just 8.x and 2009.

Up until and including LabVIEW 7.0 there was no real need to install it. I keep a backup copy of the entire LabVIEW folder for those versions and simply copy it to the actual machine when I want to test something. Of course this only works well for the LabVIEW part itself. If you have toolkits installed in those copies they are usually fine too. Installing them afterwards will usually cause all kinds of problems. DAQ and other device IO drivers can sometimes work if already installed but often cause quite a bit of hassles.

[Yair]

Apparently one of my co-workers did a small NI USB DAQ experiment with xVM a while back which didn't succeed. He said it was possible that there were other reasons for it not working, though, so it's possible that it would work today with no problems.

[zythum]

Basically, you're going to need to have a volume license for LabVIEW - I don't really know how limited-use NI licenses work, but maybe you can sort that out. As for the OSes, you'll need at least one for each version of Windows you plan to use. Your IT department probably has a VLK you can use.

VirtualPC is what we use for our VMs - also free, but for Windows only.

Virtual Box is Free, run under Windows, Linux, Mac.

Apparently one of my co-workers did a small NI USB DAQ experiment with xVM a while back which didn't succeed. He said it was possible that there were other reasons for it not working, though, so it's possible that it would work today with no problems.

Year ago, I know USB was not really efficace over VM. But, withing the last years, I use VMWare and share USB and RS232. Work fine.

[DougKU]

I have had success virtualizing XP and other Linux distributions on a Fedora 11 host using KVM. I benefit from a academic site license for NI products so I use LabVIEW and other NI products on all. I use snapshots to return to a clean install of XP and LabVIEW to test an installer. I have had instances where third party software requires a specific version of NI-DAQmx or traditional NI-DAQ and have been able to use the VMs to recreate the problems and sometimes find solutions.

Does anyone know what to run to virtualize OS X with LabVIEW?

[hooovahh]

Does anyone know what to run to virtualize OS X with LabVIEW?

Here's a tutorial explaining how to install OSX in VMWare

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Vmware_how_to

I've tried it, but it was so painfully slow at the time that it was unusable.