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Tracking Asset Utilization

by on
‎06-04-2020 05:10 PM
- edited on ‎05-17-2021 01:09 PM by: allen_h

This document is part of the SystemLink Portal.

 

Tracking Asset Utilization

 

You can use the SystemLink Asset Module to track the utilization of all your test assets that are connected your SystemLink client systems, such as test equipment and instrumentation.  Knowing how often your existing test assets are currently being used can help you make better decisions on how to optimize the usage of your test assets, improve the planning of your test equipment purchases, and decrease your total cost of test.

 

Note: Tracking asset utilization on NI LinuxRT targets (e.g. CompactRIO) is not yet supported.

 

Default Logic for Tracking Asset Utilization
The default out-of-box behavior is that the SystemLink Client application will automatically start tracking the utilization of the client system and all its connected assets.  You can verify this by right-clicking on the SystemLink Client tray icon and verifying that Asset Utilization > Enable Automatic Tracking > For All Assets is enabled.

allen_h_5-1591310047080.png

 

This means whenever I log into Windows locally or remotely, the SystemLink Client application will track that this client system and all of its connected assets as currently being utilized… with a utilization category of Configuration.

 

If I log off the system, lock the system, close a remote session to the system, or shutdown the system... then the SystemLink Client application will track that the client system and its assets are no longer being utilized.

 

TestStand

Additionally, if you are using TestStand 2019 or later on the SystemLink Client system (and you’ve installed the SystemLink Test Monitor Support for TestStand add-on, which is part of the SystemLink Client installer), then you can configure TestStand to automatically track utilization with a Utilization Category (for client system and all its connected assets) of Test whenever a TestStand sequence is running.

allen_h_1-1591309356368.png

 

Configure TestStand using the following steps.

  1. From the TestStand toolbar, select Configure > Results Processing.
  2. In the Results Processing dialog, click the Insert New button image.png and select NI SystemLink Test Monitor Client (if this item does not already show up in the table in this dialog).
  3. Click the Options button for NI SystemLink Test Monitor Client, as shown below.
    allen_h_1-1591308930800.png
  4. Verify that Enable Asset Utilization Tracking is enabled, which is the default setting.
    allen_h_0-1591898396706.png

 

 

Manually Change the Asset Utilization

If you want to manually change the asset utilization data, you can right-click the SystemLink Client tray icon and manually configure settings in the Asset Utilization section.

 

For example, you could manually change whether you want to track utilization for either 1) just the system controller (e.g. desktop PC, PXI controller), or 2) the system controller and all of its connected assets.

allen_h_5-1591310047080.png 

 

You can also manually change the utilization category.

allen_h_6-1591310104203.png

 

Note: If you want custom logic for asset utilization and you want that logic to be consistent, you should most likely do this programmatically (instead of manually), as described in the next section.

 

 

Use Custom Logic for Asset Utilization (Programmatically)

If you want to use your own custom utilization logic instead, then you should select Disable Automatic Tracking.

 

  1. Disable automatic tracking of assets by right-clicking the SystemLink Client tray icon and selecting Asset Utilization > Disable Automatic Tracking.
    <insert screenshot>
  2. Use the LabVIEW, HTTP, Python, or .NET APIs for Asset Utilization to track your utilization.
    1. For example, if you are using the LabVIEW API, then you can use the Start Utilization function to start tracking utilization.
    2. You can set whether you want to start utilization for all assets (including the system), a single asset, or a specific set of assets.
    3. You can set the Utilization Category (Configuration, Test, Maintenance, or any custom string).
    4. You can set the User.
    5. You can set the Task Name.  For LabVIEW, if you do not specify a task name, this function will automatically set the task name to the top-level VI name.
    6. The above properties can all be used later to filter and group by when you analyze the utilization results later.
    7. When you’re done utilizing the system for the specified Utilization Category, call the End Utilization function.

As reference, here are links to the SystemLink APIs in various languages.  Refer to the "Asset Utilization/Management" functions in these APIs.

 

TestStand

If you are using TestStand 2019 or later and you do not want TestStand to automatically track utilization (with "Test" utilization category), then you need to go do the following:

  1. From the TestStand toolbar, select Configure > Results Processing.
  2. Click the Options button for NI SystemLink Test Monitor Client, as shown below.
    allen_h_1-1591308930800.png
  3. Make sure that Enable Asset Utilization Tracking is disabled.
    allen_h_0-1591308917338.png
  4. TestStand will no longer automatically track utilization for you.  So now you can use the Asset Utilization API in your TestStand steps and code modules to define your own custom utilization logic.

 

Reference

For more details, refer to the Managing Asset Utilization Tracking on a Client topic.

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