SystemLink Suite docs?

[MichaelBalzer]

Is there any documentation on using SystemLink + DataFinder Server + Analysis Server as part of the larger SystemLink Suite?

Specifically I'm looking for any documents on configuring DataFinder Server to use the SystemLink file store as a data source, though any docs which explain the integration of the different components would be helpful.

[StefanR · Accepted solution]

SystemLink, DataFinder Server and Analysis are combined along the following story:

User uses SytemLink File Transfer File Transfer to publish an entire file from a client to the server for storage, additional processing, or access by other clients.

Once File Transfer has been setup and file moving rules configured, next step is setting up a DataFinder using the transfer target folder as search area and applying an Analysis Task for files arriving in the system.

The according steps are described in the step-by-step instructions available for instance here: http://www.ni.com/tutorial/53661/en/ talking from setting up the preprocessor, connect with DataFinder, execute analysis.

One minor note: When adding a search area to DataFinder (or raw data area to Data Preprocessor), click on the blue folder icon near "Path" and you'll find the "SystemLink File Moving" for direct navigation.

[MichaelBalzer]

Ah, the file moving rules was the missing puzzle piece. I thought DataFinder might've been able to query the file store directly as I did see the SystemLink File Moving option when trying to set it up. Thanks for the help.

[MichaelBalzer]

I've followed the steps for configuring file moving, but don't see any files appearing in the default file moving path C:\Users\Public\Documents\FileMoving. See the Rule below:

I'm sending TDMS files once a second from a CRIO using the File Transfer API (Send File.vi), and they are appearing in the File Viewer as expected. Should I expect to see files appear in the above path on disk as they are received by the SystemLink server?

Aside from the above issue, do the file moving rules apply to new files only, or can they be applied to all files stored by SystemLink?

Edit: I see a heap of files in C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\Skyline\Data\FileIngestion, but I'm guessing these are SystemLink's internal file copies, not the result of the file move rules.

[andreiz]

Can you try replacing <extension> with <Extension> in the relative path and tell us the result? The <> properties are case sensitive. This is because you can use any metadata property of a file between <>, and the File Ingestion service metadata properties are case sensitive. We are going to update the documentation.

You can also enable rule execution info logs using the Skyline Trace Logger to see why the file move fails. In order to do that run the following command:

"C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\Skyline\NationalInstruments.Tlog.exe" enable  FileMoving.RuleExecutionInfo

In response to your second question, the rules are applied only to new files that are getting uploaded to SystemLink.

[MichaelBalzer]

File moving is working now, thanks. Along with the relative path case sensitivity, it turns out the filenames I was creating contained a colon. This is happily saved under Linux RT and displays correctly in the File Viewer, but obviously can not be saved to disk under Windows.

I've attached the trace, the exception of interest is:

2018-08-01--15:58:58.51721 | FileMoving | FileMoving.RuleExecutionInfo | File moving handler failed with exception: NationalInstruments.Skyline.FileMoving.Errors.FileMoveFailedException: Failed to apply rule to file with name Wed 01 Aug 2018 07:58:51 AM UTC.tdms. ---> System.NotSupportedException: The given path's format is not supported.

Should the filename be silently sanitized, or have an option for it? A failure notification would be handy too, for this any other IO errors (disk full, path missing, etc).

One last question - Is there a preferred way for adding new root paths for file moving, in addition to the Default? I see a DefaultRootPath.json file in C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\Skyline\Data\FileMoving which I duplicated to add a new root path. Is this the only way for now?

[andreiz]

I'm glad you solved it.

As about adding root paths, yes, that is the only way of adding root paths for now.

[Cosmin.Neagu]

Hi Michael, thanks for the feedback, we are going to add an option in the UI to chose weather to silently sanitize the file names soon.