Seeing a hypervisor system in MAX

[SarahW]

Hi,

I have a hypervisor system set up and I can see the RT partition in MAX on the Windows partition of the system.

I can't see it in MAX on another machine on the same network though, so my question is should I be able to?

Regards,

Sarah 

[rsw]

Hi Sarah,

This is correct behaviour for Hypervisor, when in just RT mode the system will use the real Ethernet controller and be visible on the network, however when using Hypervisor the Real-Time layer uses a Virtual Ethernet to communicate back to the Windows system on the same PC and isn't visible over the network.

Kind Regards,

[SarahW]

Thanks Rob,

I wasn't planning to install LabVIEW onto the system (just the run-time engine and exes I've developed on another machine), is it possible to deploy an rtexe I have developed on another machine onto the RT layer?

Thanks,

Sarah

[rsw · Accepted solution]

You could navigate to the RT system from the Windows side via FTP using explorer and then upload the rtexe into the rt/startup folder which should then start that exe on a reboot of the system.

Kind Regards,

[SarahW]

Excellent, thanks.

One last thing, if I remotely debug the system from my other development machine with LabVIEW on will I be able to see the exes running on both the Windows and the RT layer, or just the Windows ones?

Regards,

Sarah

[rsw]

Hi Sarah,

Just the windows ones from that layer, you'd need LabVIEW on your Hypervisor system to see the rt exe's.

Kind Regards,

[SarahW]

Hi again,

I've been having a try and it appears I can't install all the software I need to onto my RT layer without having LabVIEW on the Windows layer?

I've installed the device drivers and run-time engine on the Windows part and from MAX installed everything onto the RT layer that appears when you 'add/remove software', but the RT system still says 'Connected - Safe Mode (Improper Installation)'. I'm guessing that means it needs LabVIEW RT. Is it possible to install it without putting LabVIEW on the Windows layer?

Thanks,

Sarah

[Caseyw]

Hi Sarah,

I am also glad to help out here. In short, on a Real-Time Hypervisor system Windows XP and LabVIEW Real-Time run independently. While you can choose to develop your code from the Windows side of the hypervisor machine, you can also choose to install no NI software on the Windows side of the hypervisor machine and do all development externally.

There are two important things to keep in mind when developing for a Real-Time Hypervisor system:

• First, you need to ensure that the LabVIEW Real-Time Ethernet interface you would like to program the real-time side of the system from is set as "primary" (from Measurement and Automation Explorer). Typically you would set an external Ethernet adapter assigned to LabVIEW Real-Time to primary if you wanted to develop from a separate Windows machine. For development from the Windows side of a hypervisor system, you would typically set the Virtual Ethernet (software) adapter as primary to avoid needing to use a physical cable for the programming.
  
  
• As far as software installation to the LabVIEW Real-Time side of the hypervisor system, the important thing to keep in mind is that you are transferring software from the development machine. So, if you are developing from a separate computer running Windows, then you need LabVIEW, the LabVIEW Real-Time Module, and all necessary I/O drivers installed on that development machine (not the Windows side of the hypervisor system). If you are developing from the Windows side of the hypervisor system itself, then you would install all of this development software there.

To specifically address your 'Connected - Safe Mode' error message, you will want to ensure that you have all needed software on your development machine, then use Measurement and Automation Explorer to Add/Remove LabVIEW Real-Time support (as well as any other driver or software components that you need). Out of curiosity, where are you seeing the 'Connected - Safe Mode' message? Pinpointing exactly where you are seeing this should help us quickly resolve the issue and move forward.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions, and have a great week!

Best Regards,

Casey Weltzin

Product Manager, LabVIEW Real-Time

National Instruments

[SarahW]

Hi,

I seem to have it sorted now 🙂

I went into the BIOS and got the system to boot into RT only. I then installed all the software I needed from my other development PXI, I then booted back onto hypervisor. After booting back into hypervisor you do need to reinstall 'NI RT Extensions for SMP (MultiCore Support)' as to begin with in MAX you see a 'Connected - Safe Mode (User Directed)' message - it took a lot of experimenting to work out how to get rid of this!

It's now 'Connected - Running' and everything seems to be working fine now, so thanks for all the help.

Regards,

Sarah

[Caseyw]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your post. I would like to include some additional information for any additional Real-Time Hypervisor customers that read this post.

Summary: The method that Sarah mentioned above is one way to install software to the real-time side of a Real-Time Hypervisor system, but not the recommended way.

Installing software on the LabVIEW Real-Time side of a Real-Time Hypervisor system (from a remote development machine)

1) Boot the hypervisor system into Windows only and use the Real-Time Hypervisor Manager to disable the Virtual Ethernet connection (this can be turned back on later, but can not be used during external development). Assign at least one physical network interface (NIC) to LabVIEW Real-Time.

2) Apply changes and boot into the Real-Time Hypervisor.

3) Connect an Ethernet cable between the NIC assigned to LabVIEW Real-Time and the external development machine.

4) Make sure the TCP/IP settings on the external development machine are configured for the same subnet as the LabVIEW Real-Time NIC (by default LabVIEW Real-Time will use DHCP and you should also use DHCP on the development machine to use a link-local IP)

5) Make sure the LabVIEW Real-Time Module is installed on the development machine. Open Measurement and Automation Explorer and you should see the LabVIEW Real-Time target under Remote Systems as usual.

6) Install all LabVIEW Real-Time software on the target from Measurement and Automation Explorer as with any LabVIEW Real-Time system (using Add/Remove Software)

Installing software on the LabVIEW Real-Time side of a Real-Time Hypervisor system (from the Windows side of the same system)

1) Boot the hypervisor system into Windows only and make sure the Virtual Ethernet connection is enabled in the Real-Time Hypervisor Manager utility. 

2) Apply changes and reboot into the Real-Time Hypervisor

3) Make sure that the TCP/IP settings for the Virtual Ethernet adapter in Windows match the same subnet as the Virtual Ethernet adapter settings in LabVIEW Real-Time (the Virtual Ethernet adapter should appear second in the control panel if a physical adapter is also present). In addition, the Virtual Ethernet adapter should also be set as primary for the LabVIEW Real-Time target.

**NOTE** If you are unsure of the LabVIEW Real-Time networking settings, you can boot into Windows and run the Real-Time Hypervisor Manager then enable the "Wait on Virtual Console" option for LabVIEW Real-Time. If you do this, the next time you boot into the Real-Time Hypervisor, LabVIEW Real-Time will not boot until you open up a connection to the COM4 port and press the spacebar. This way you can view the RT console output and networking settings during boot.

4) The LabVIEW Real-Time Module must be installed on the Windows XP side of the hypervisor system. After it has been installed, open Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and the LabVIEW Real-Time side of the hypervisor system should appear under Remote Systems. You can then add/remove software from MAX as usual with a LabVIEW Real-Time target.

**NOTE** If the LabVIEW Real-Time target still does not appear in Measurement and Automation Explorer, then check to ensure that you do not have the "Wait on Virtual Console" option still turned on, as this can cause LabVIEW Real-Time to stop booting while it is waiting on user input. The real-time target can also cease to appear because another NIC is set to primary, which automatically disables the Virtual Ethernet connection on the LabVIEW Real-Time target. To fix this and reset the Virtual Ethernet connection to primary, you can either connect to the real-time side of the hypervisor system externally (see above) and change the networking settings from Measurement and Automation Explorer, or you can boot into Windows only on the hypervisor system and then reformat the LabVIEW Real-Time disk partition using the Computer Management utility in Windows.

Changing between booting into the Real-Time Hypervisor and LabVIEW Real-Time only

You can boot into LabVIEW Real-Time only on a hypervisor system using the BIOS boot settings. Note that after using the real-time system in hypervisor mode, you will need to reinstall the LabVIEW Real-Time Support software option from Measurement and Automation Explorer to proceed with application deployment. In addition, when you switch from using a hypervisor system in LabVIEW Real-Time only mode to hypervisor mode, you will also need to reinstall the LabVIEW Real-Time Support software option to continue with application deployment. This is what Sarah did in this post.

Best Regards,

Casey Weltzin

Product Manager, LabVIEW Real-Time

National Instruments