SystemLink flavor without Test module ?

[CyGa]

Hi !

In the unit i'm working in, we don't perform any test activities.

However we log data for supervision and machine learning in datalakes.

So we would need a tool to supervise the acquisition systems (CPU, RAM, Temp, ...), update the codes/conf in the deployed machines, and gather/explore/process data (raw acquired data).

So it looks like SystemLink without any test-related features.

Today we use an historian and AVEVA suite to do this. But it lacks the 'device' part (monitoring and code updates).

I can see SystemLink being a good challenger. But part of its price is related to test, which we don't need.

Does NI have a SystemLink flavor (and price aligned) that would fit my requirements ?

[!SuperB!]

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SystemLink without any test-related features.

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I would say from the description of what you want from SystemLink it matches well with what my team uses. We pay for the Asset Module license, but not for Test Monitoring.

[cordm]

NI came out with a subscription-based SystemLink (Base/Medium) license recently, maybe that is something for you: https://forums.ni.com/t5/SystemLink-Forum/New-SystemLink-edition-FAQ/td-p/4443604

We use SystemLink Server Standard (without the Advanced module), which seems to be mostly the same as Base/Medium. One difference is that for SystemLink Server you need an extra license for each node and user, while Base and Medium come bundled with a couple of those already.

As for the difference between SLS Standard and Advanced, we got this table from NI:

Those features are nice but they come at a big premium. I'm mentioning this here because this info is otherwise scattered around the manual and operations handbook.

[CyGa]

Yes the lines are blurried, NI doesn't make it easy to understand the value (and cost) of their product.

I'll take a look at the link.

[ChrisFarmerWIS]

Hi Cyril,

Until a few months ago, you'd buy Systemlink Server (Standard or Advanced or Enterprise), and then add the modules you needed, ie. Asset, Test, Configuration, Data Management.

Now, they've changed it to this (ie Configuration, Asset, Test modules are default for any version of Systemlink now):

[ChrisFarmerWIS]

This recent webinar might explain it a bit more too:

Introducing NI SystemLink™ Software for Everyone

[CyGa]

Hi Chris !

Thanks for sharing theses tables, very informative !

I don't really like paying for a module that I won't use. Moreover, it will be visible and confuse people...

I also note some weird options :

like in Enterprise I can't parse data from multiple files using DP.
And in a fllowing line there is even that alsmot-same feature that is listed but not supported by any version of SL. 🤔

Also in my particular case, regarding the number of user I'd be in the Enterprise edition.
But I don't care about Work Orders and Test Planning and neither about Spec compliance.

Well still hard to understand where NI wants to go with SL.

[JoshuaP]

There are systems and asset management suites for both SystemLink Server and SystemLink Enterprise. You don't have to purchase the data or lab management support if you don't need it. But if you are just getting started and don't have a ton of active users, I would still recommend starting with SystemLink base package.

https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/product/systemlink.html?partNumber=790508-35

But if you need support for more systems than 25 systems and 10 users you can contact your sales person to get a quote. We don't have pricing on Enterprise online because it is more complex to setup and install since it requires a multi-server Linux Kubernetes deployment, which requires some additional services to support and pricing differs depending on your IT requirements (cloud vs on-prem) and expertise.

[JoshuaP]

Also, if you do purchase the base package you can always configure the user permissions to hide any applications or workflows that you don't want anyone to use. 

[CyGa]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the answers !

I don't want to hide apps, I just don't want to pay for them ! ^^

I'll see how far I can go with the material exposed here.

Thanks everyone !