TestStand License Server question

[cwrw]

Hi All,

I have a question about TestStand licensing that I just can’t find an answer to. At the moment I’m using TestStand 2016 and obviously have a development license on my Win7 64bit PC. Using the Deployment utility, TestStand sequences are installed on multiple Production PCs, 8 at the moment.  All of the Production PCs have a Base deployment license. We run test sequences using a Simple TestStand UI.exe.

We are about to expand Production testing, which will add another 20 or more PCs. I know that every machine running a TestStand sequence needs a license, but can those licenses be installed on a server? What about the test sequences, can I install them on the server as well? I’ve got a feeling that there may be problems if two people try running the same sequence from the server, Station Globals etc. My IT Department are having concerns about the maintenance of 30 or more test systems and can see benefits in having everything server based.  

Thanks,

Colin.

[~jiggawax~]

We have over 200 test stations that need TestStand and Switch Executive licenses.  We were able to talk NI into giving us a volume license with our deployment licenses.  We made them concurrent so that it's a first come, first serve basis and we can add as many pcs to the server as we need.  It's worked out pretty well.  As far as I know we were one of the first server licenses with deployment licenses on it.  There are a few caveats of course.

When it comes to managing the software on the PCs that is a different issue.  You can certainly share the TestStand public folder.  I don't recommend sharing the config directory though because TestStand is constantly changing some of those files and it could cause unknown behaviors for other PCs.  Plus you lose flexibility if you do this.  You might want to look into better deployment options.  Have you looked into NI Package Manager?  We use it to deploy packages.  This way we can package up the different components of TestStand and only install the compnents we need for that test station.  You can create centralized feeds and point the PCs to the feeds and they will know which packages are needed.

Hope this helps,

[cwrw]

Thanks for the information. I'm in contact with NI to see what they can do for us. I will update when I have some useful info.

Colin