Documentation of how VLIs are created from packages

[Mads]

If I search for topics related to the creation of Volume License Installers I only seem to find descriptions of how it was in VLM 3.1 and earlier, before the software sets in 2019 were changed to be based on NI Package Manager packages....Nothing about VLM 3.2. After quite a bit of detective-work when 2019 came out I managed to figure out that I should not select the web installer downloads, but choose the "individual components" link (not the most intuitive naming for a download of a complete set...) - to get to the ISO-download instead, then upgrade to VLM 3.2 which was able to create a VLI based on that. Now, a year later, I had forgotten all that and had to redo the detective work for 2019 SP1...No hits on anything about VLM 3.2 found this time either. 

Could we get the new procedure streamlined a bit, and/or articles like this one updated for VLM 3.2?:

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019UocSAE&l=en-NO

[eanegkan]

Hi Mads,

There are a few different methods that can be used to create a VLI:

• Here's an article that shows the steps needed when using VLM directly.
• Here's an article that describes using NI Package Builder.
• This article explains in the Additional Information that 2019 software installs through NI Package Manager and requires VLM 3.2 or later.

We tend to avoid putting the version of VLM in the title of the articles so that it can be made relevant to multiple versions. 

In the article that you linked, although the section titled "NI Volume License Manager 3.1 and later" does not explicitly mention VLM 3.2, it is safe to assume that the process is the same for any version above 3.1. In the even that a newer release of VLM requires a different process, we will amend the articles to show this.

I agree that it would be much more beneficial if these resources appeared when searching for "VLM 3.2" specifically, so I will modify the articles to ensure that they show up.

Thanks!

Ellin A.

NI Technical Support Engineer.

[Mads]

This emphasises the problem very well:

The first article you link to does not describe how it actually has to be done since 2019, but at the bottom (additional information) it sends the reader (if not already lost...) on a continued hunt for information about that.

The second article does not itself contain anything relevant to VLIs, but it too sends the reader (if he has not already concluded that the article is wrong for him) on a hunt for the relevant information with a link at the bottom. That link ironically points to a VLM document that does not describe how to do it since 2019 either...😫

[eanegkan]

Hi Mads,

For an article that describes exactly how to create the VLI using VLM, we can refer to this article. This links another article that describes how to silently install 2019 software specifically, if needed.

Since there are so many different methods for creating an installer, and so many factors that contribute to the method that we choose (i.e. which software we have, whether we're using VLM or FlexNET, whether we'd like to include multiple packages, whether it needs to be silent etc.) there has to exist a number of different articles.

I understand that this can cause some confusion and isn't always the smoothest process. This is something that we're working on internally and continuing to try and improve. We do appreciate this feedback since it will help us to make the right changes!

Ellin A.

NI Technical Support Engineer.

[Mads]

Yes, the article you link to covers one route to a solution; but it is a route that will seem nonsensical to VLM administrators used to the previous method - because before 2019 the question "How Can I Build a Volume License Installer Using Multiple NI Installers?" did not come up, at least not in the context of creating a VLI of LabVIEW alone.

To non-voyant VLM administrators the inutive solution (which should therefore be possible to find at the top of the articles related to VLIs (the process for the previous versions should be in the additional information section, not the other way around)) is to download the ISO for offline installation, and point VLM to that. Because that is the answer to the question existing users are likely to ask, and the solution closest to what we had to do before 2019.