Updates and Changes for SystemLink Server Extended Support Versions

Browse updates and changes made in SystemLink Server versions on extended support.

Note If you cannot find changes for your version, it might be a more recent version, documented as a new feature. Or, your version might not have included user-facing updates. You can find more information about non-visible changes, such as bug fixes, compatibility updates, and stability adjustments or maintenance adjustments, in the product Release Notes, available on ni.com.

SystemLink 2022 Q1 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2022 Q1.

  • Connect to a PostgeSQL database—Configure SystemLink Test Monitor to access a PostgreSQL database to enhance scalability and fault tolerance.
  • Execute an Analysis Task from Test Insights Results—Execute an Analysis Task or add TDMS files from Test Insights Results to the Data Cart for use in the Data Analysis module. Analysis Tasks are developed as Jupyter Notebooks or DIAdem scripts and allow analysis routines to execute unsupervised.
  • Retrigger the execution of analysis tasks—Re-execute a failed task under the original conditions, using the same data after resolving the cause of the failure.
  • LabVIEW API returns an error for multiple alarm acknowledgments—When you acknowledge an alarm more than once, you now get an error (-251041).

SystemLink 2021 R3 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2021 R3.

  • Adding users—Add a user directly to a workspace by username or email.
  • Restricted analysis privileges—Grant read privileges of all workspaces while limiting uploading and updating content to one workspace.
  • Workspace owner role—Add users to a workspace without being a server administrator.
  • Asset attachments—Add attachments to assets, such as a calibration certificate or manual.
  • Tag data—Configure the asset grid to show tag data as a column.
  • Filter systems—In the query builder on the systems grid, you can filter by systems with or without a specific software package installed on the system.
  • System files—Use the Files tab in the system details view to see documents uploaded by the system.
  • Calibration updates—Quickly view assets past due or approaching calibration dates using pre-configured filters from the assets grid.
  • Asset actions—Run self-test, self-calibration, and reset on supported assets.
  • Systems grid configurations—Save and share your custom system view.
  • Jupyter Notebooks and Analysis Automation procedures—Use Jupyter to create procedures, test analysis procedures, and see results.
  • Preview files—Preview measurement, image, and PDF files that you uploaded to the file service in Data Navigation.
  • Workspace support (LabVIEW and G Web Development)—With the Use Workspace VI in LabVIEW or G Web Development, specify a workspace for APIs to use. The following APIs now support workspaces:
    • Alarms
    • Test Monitor
  • Non-compliant files—After DataFinder indexes and checks files for compliance, Data Navigation highlights all files that do not comply with the data integrity rules.

SystemLink 2021 R2 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2021 R2.

  • Asset attachments—Add attachments to assets, such as a calibration certificate or manual.
  • Support for health-tracking sensors—Collect data about the health of assets and publish it to SystemLink tags.
  • System filtering—Filter systems by various attributes, such as serial number, model, custom properties, keywords, and workspaces.
  • System reports—See data such as testing throughput, pass rate, and utilization for each system in the grid. To do this, add system grid columns and specify a notebook to run.
  • Excluding custom properties—Exclude custom properties from the index to save disk space and show only the most relevant information in the properties display.
  • Jupyter Notebooks and Analysis Automation procedures—Use Jupyter to edit notebooks contained in an analysis procedure and see your changes in Analysis Automation.
  • Complex channels—Use complex channels in Analysis Automation.
    Note This is a preview feature.
  • Build Asset Tag Path VI (LabVIEW)—Create a tag path to publish tags relating to your assets.
  • List All Assets VI (LabVIEW)—Get a list of all assets available in your workspace.
  • Workspace support (LabVIEW and G Web Development)—With the Use Workspace VI in LabVIEW or G Web Development, specify a workspace for APIs to use. The following APIs now support workspaces:
    • Tag
    • Message
    • File
  • AMQP support—SystemLink no longer supports AMQP configurations. AMQP versions of existing nodes are deprecated. NI recommends using HTTP configurations instead.
  • G Web Development Support—G Web Development now supports any SystemLink APIs that LabVIEW NXG Web Module previously supported.
  • G API workspace support—Some parts of the G API are now workspace aware. Specifying a workspace in the Use Workspace VI affects all VIs that reference that configuration. Refer to the new features list for details.
  • Forced deletion in the Delete File VI—The Delete File VI in LabVIEW now supports deleting corrupted files.
  • Pagination in the Query Files VI—The Query Files VI in LabVIEW now supports pagination with optional skip and take parameters.
  • LabVIEW support—SystemLink APIs no longer support LabVIEW 2017.

SystemLink 2021 R1 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2021 R1.

  • Timestamp support for alarms—Trigger alarms based on timestamp tag data.
  • Properties and tag values for systems—Configure the systems grid to show tag values and properties for each system.
  • Custom properties for systems and assets—Configure the systems and assets grid to show custom properties.
  • System and asset grouping—Group systems and assets by any attribute, such as operating system, the workspace the system belongs to, or custom properties you define.
  • Support for advanced Mongo configuration—Connect to a remote MongoDB server instance whose configuration requires parameters. SystemLink now supports MongoDB Atlas. Refer to the SystemLink Operations Handbook for more information on advanced Mongo configuration.
  • Asset health monitoring—View health tags and active alarms for any asset.
  • Improved time filtering for test results—More easily filter test results by week, month, or year to date.
  • Additional TestStand data logging—Capture additional UUT data, including an "Include in Report" flag for variables and support for clusters and arrays.
  • Workspace-specific data indexing and integrity rules—Apply different indexing and integrity rules depending on the kind of data you upload to SystemLink.
  • Amazon S3 storage—File Service now uses S3 as its storage backend.
  • Analysis automation and execution privileges—Define which users can approve and reject analysis automation procedures. Assign the "Approve and reject procedures" privilege in Access Control.
  • User account settings—View information for your SystemLink account, including your assigned workspaces and roles.
  • Improved navigation—SystemLink Web Application now uses universal left navigation.
  • System groups under system settings—View and edit groups a system belongs to under the Settings tab in the system details view.
  • Analysis Automation instance—Analysis Automation is now single instance.
  • Default workspace rules—If you're upgrading from SystemLink 2020 R1 or earlier, SystemLink recreates any deleted preconfigured rules in the default workspace.
  • Extended analysis automation and execution privileges—"Create and update procedures" is now a separate privilege you can assign in Access Control. This privilege is not automatically assigned to any user.

SystemLink 2020 R4 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2020 R4.

  • Single sign-on support—Configure SystemLink to authenticate using OpenID Connect so users can access SystemLink with their existing credentials, identity, and access levels in your organization.
  • SystemLink Operations Handbook—Further customize your SystemLink setup with more advanced open-source scripting solutions for situations like migrating or restoring data.
  • Installation progress—Systems Manager lists software installation progress for NI Linux RT systems.
  • Manual asset addition—Add assets from the SystemLink web application to manage both NI and third-party assets.
  • Custom calibration intervals—Define calibration intervals to match varying calibration schedules across your assets.
  • Query condition storage—Store DataFinder queries directly on the server.
  • Data integrity rules—Define data integrity rules to ensure that all data entering the SystemLink file service meets metadata requirements for your data analysis purposes.
  • WebVI hosting—Host a WebVI in SystemLink to securely share it with users on the server.
  • Installation simulation—Systems Manager simulates software installation jobs to show what will be changed before proceeding
  • Microsoft Edge support—SystemLink Web Application no longer supports Edge Legacy (versions 44 and earlier). To use Edge with SystemLink, use a Chromium-based version of Edge.
  • States detail view—Systems Manager shows the package display name and display version instead of the raw package name and version.
  • Utilization reports timeframe—Asset utilization reports can span 24 hours in addition to 8 hours.

SystemLink 2020 R3 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2020 R3.

  • Custom and predefined service roles—Use roles to specify the security context an analysis automation procedure uses to execute a task.
  • System images within states—Include OS information in a system state to install the same system image across multiple NI Linux RT targets.
  • Calibration information—Manually add calibration information to any asset.
  • Utilization information—View utilization for an asset directly from the asset detail view.
  • Asset detail view customization—Specify which properties appear in the asset detail view.
  • Support for v2 notebooks—Use v2 notebook examples and view v2 notebook reports in Test Monitor.
  • Python API—Access a first-class Tag API for Python.
  • Preview Feature: Amazon S3 support for File Ingestion Service—Move incoming files directly to an S3 storage instead of a network share.
  • General consistency and usability improvements
  • User and workspace awareness in SystemLink TDM—Specify user and workspace contexts for analysis automation tasks.

SystemLink 2020 R2 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2020 R2.

  • Security web interface—Manage workspaces and define roles and privileges within SystemLink Web Application.
  • Workspaces—Organize data, systems, and applications so users only see what's relevant to them.
  • Roles and privileges—Customize how different users interact with each part of SystemLink by assigning granular privileges for different roles.
  • Feed disable option—Enable or disable feeds for your systems.
  • CSV previewer—Seamlessly preview CSV file attachments in the web application.
  • Store and forward—Stability and usability improvements when storing and forwarding data.
  • System alias support—Assign aliases to your assets.
  • Improved Python support for DataPlugins
  • General consistency and usability improvements
  • Workspace support—Resources in your system belong to the workspace you specify.
  • Roles and privileges—Server administrators can use the Security application to specify different user types and which actions they can perform in each SystemLink application.
    • Users previously mapped to the admins role in NI Web Server will map to the Server Administrator role upon upgrade. This role has access to all resources in all workspaces.
    • Users previously mapped to the users role in NI Web Server will not have access to any SystemLink applications immediately after upgrade. A Server Administrator must create a role mapping for these users in one or more workspaces.
  • Data—Data is automatically uploaded to the workspace of the system that produces it.
  • Assets—When systems move to new workspaces, assets associated with them automatically follow.
  • DataFinder Federations—SystemLink does not support Federations with DataFinder instances on different machines. All DataFinder instances in a Federation must use the same SystemLink server.
  • Free-form dashboards are deprecated—You can still edit and create free-form dashboards, but NI recommends using tile dashboards for new visualizations you create.
  • Archiving workspaces—When the evaluation or subscription period of your Enterprise License expires, SystemLink automatically disables all workspaces that you have not archived, except for the default workspace.
  • DataFinder privileges—When updating from an earlier version of SystemLink, existing privileges do not migrate. Use the Security application to assign DataFinder privileges.

SystemLink 2020 R1 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 2020 R1.

  • Improved installation progress information for Windows systems
  • Support for cDAQ Linux RT targets
  • HTTP API updates—Create and update assets from beacons over HTTP.
  • Tile navigation improvements—Navigate tiles by plot or by slice instead of the whole tile.
  • Progress tile—Visualize progress as a percentage with a circle or a line. Use the progress tile to track installations, test sequences, or other processes you want to track.
  • Use SystemLink APIs in LabVIEW NXG to share data between your client systems and SystemLink Server. The following functions are new to the LabVIEW NXG G API in SystemLink 2020 R1.
    • Build Alarm ID
    • Build Path
    • Get Minion ID
    • Get System Name
    • Get TDM File Metadata
  • RT support—SystemLink now supports all RT packages.
  • RT installation—For Linux RT clients, users now install Linux RT System Image instead of SystemLink Client.
  • Test Monitor reports—This version improves the workflow for navigating back to test results.
  • HTTP node configuration—For tag, message, and file functions in LabVIEW and LabVIEW NXG, the HTTP configuration input is now recommended instead of required.
  • OS support—SystemLink supports Windows Server 2019.
  • TDM DataFinder Module licensing—Users only need one user license for all federation members.

SystemLink 19.6 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 19.6.

  • Customized reports—Group the results for asset management reports by asset attribute or property.
  • Asset utilization management on clients—Automatically start, disable, or end logging asset utilization information on a client system.
  • Improved third-party support—Log asset utilization for third-party assets.
  • Asset Management .NET API—Manage and communicate asset information relating to your systems and tests.
  • New dashboard tiles—Select table or markdown tiles to visualize data on dashboards.
  • Updated graph tile—Query tags to bind to graph tiles.
  • System filtering—Enable the system filter to quickly switch between systems you want to visualize.
  • Asset and systems support—Bind asset, system, and job queries as data sources to tiles.
  • Updated notebook support—Expanded binding support for notebooks and the ability to return multiple values for a single notebook.
  • Use SystemLink APIs in LabVIEW or LabVIEW NXG to share data between your client systems and SystemLink Server. The following data services are new to the G API for SystemLink 19.6.
    Product API
    LabVIEW NXG
    • File Transfer
    • Tag Historian
    • Open Configuration (Auto)
  • Automatic asset utilization logging—Log utilization information about test system assets on the client when TestStand runs tests.
  • Metrics table in the parametric data view—Add metrics, such as mean, min, and max, to the graph as plots.
  • Expanded parametric data view—Customize the x-axis and data grouping of parametric data.
  • Sweeps—Improved support for viewing parametric data sweeps.
  • Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) report—Generate reports and add them to dashboards to visualize the productivity of your test and measurement systems.
  • Systems Management dashboard—See high-level system insights at a glance.
  • Updated system details view—Manage system information and settings to keep your systems healthy and running.
  • Update RT distributions—Update RT targets to newer versions of LabVIEW without formatting them in NI Measurement & Automation Explorer.
  • Progress updates on clients—Visualize progress information on a client when software installations and state applications occur.
  • Pending jobs notifications on clients—Receive notifications on clients to when a job is running so you know when to lock or unlock the system.
  • New sidebar—Navigate better through apps.
  • New dashboards—Get key statistics about instances.
  • New DataFinder instance "FileIndex"—Search data in the SystemLink file ingestion service.
  • Custom properties—Display and highlight non-optimized custom properties in the Properties Display.
  • Results list—Show default content in search results.
  • Metadata—Add and edit metadata of SystemLink file service files.
  • File Service—Upload files to SystemLink File Service.
  • Analysis automation procedures—Create analysis automation procedures using the new HTTP API.
  • Tag Historian API—SystemLink Server contains a different Tag Historian. Refer to the following list to learn more about the changes.
    • The 19.5 version of the LabVIEW SystemLink Toolkit cannot interact with the 19.6 Tag Historian API.
    • New versions of Read History and Multi-Read History replaced the deprecated versions of these functions on the palette.
    • The skip input of Configure Window (Undecimated) is no longer supported.
    • The take input of Configure Window (Undecimated) moved to a new position on the connector pane.
    • Configure Window defaults to read decimated tag values.
    • Decimated reads now return a different amount of data, which reach up to 4x the decimation factor.
  • Writing tag value limit—Writing tag values is rate-limited to 1,000 writes per second by default.
  • Open Configuration node—The desktop version of Open Configuration in LabVIEW NXG defaults to the Auto function configuration when you add it to the diagram.

SystemLink 19.5 Extended Support Changes

Learn about new features, behavior changes, and other updates in SystemLink 19.5.

  • Asset calibration and utilization analysis—Execute and generate Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb) to visualize asset data.
  • Asset Manager sidebar navigation—Easily navigate to different areas in Asset Manager using the sidebar.
  • Updated tile dashboard interface—Quickly create a dashboard with the easy-to-use interface.
  • New dashboard tiles—Display asset, test, and system status data on dashboards.
  • Graph tile—Display tag and historical tag data on a graph tile.
  • Automatically display properties on tiles—Add metadata to a data source, such as a tag or notebook, so the properties automatically populate on a tile when you bind the data source to one.
  • Use SystemLink APIs in LabVIEW or LabVIEW NXG to share data between your client systems and SystemLink Server. The following data services are new to the G API for SystemLink 19.5.
    Product API
    LabVIEW
    • Alarms
    • Asset Utilization
    LabVIEW NXG
    • Alarms
    • Asset Utilization
  • Leverage SystemLink services using .NET APIs. Access .NET API documentation in the public SystemLink GitHub repository or on NuGet.org.
  • Products view—Analyze product information about your tests to determine the quality metrics of the devices under test (DUT).
  • Parametric data view—Query a subset of test results to visualize parametric data trends.
  • Export test data—Export test results and test steps as CSV files.
  • Export generated test reports—Export test reports you generate in the Reports view as HTML or PDF files with your team.
  • System scalability—Increase the number of managed systems connected to your SystemLink Server.
  • System alias—Assign names to your managed systems to make it easier for your team to identify them.
  • Install SystemLink TDM to interact with a variety of web applications, such as Data Preparation, Data Indexing, Analysis Automation, and Data Navigation, to prepare and manage your data for analysis.
  • Analysis Automation tasks—Interactively run tasks to analyze data with Analysis Automation procedures.
  • Share data items between Data Navigation and Data Analysis—Choose the input data for your task from the Data Cart or from the data sources of a DataFinder instance.
  • Specify which file types a DataFinder or Data Preprocessor instance can index or process with DataPlugins.
  • Query channel groups and channels—Browse and search for data on channel groups and channel levels.
  • Export files—Convert files for download with DataPlugins.
  • Data visualization—Display and inspect data in a browser window.
  • Save queries—Store search results in Data Cart for further processing.
  • Configure schedules for analysis—Perform Scheduled Tasks on data stored in the data cart.
  • Task execution status information—Visualize more contextual information about a task execution provided by the context object.
  • New tag creation method—Use the CreateOrUpdateTag method to create a tag in Tags.
  • Output format standardization—Create a standardized output format with DataPlugins.
  • Complex test result queries—Test Monitor supports advanced querying to analyze a subset of test results further.
  • Tile dashboard interface—Dashboard Builder enables creating dashboards more efficiently with the new data binding and query building interface for tiles.
  • Open Configuration node—Open Configuration defaults to an HTTP configuration when you add it to the diagram in LabVIEW and LabVIEW NXG.
  • SystemLink API packaging—Install the SystemLink LabVIEW Toolkit with NI Package Manager to interact with SystemLink APIs in LabVIEW and LabVIEW NXG.
  • Jupyter Notebook server—The Jupyter Notebook server limits the number of concurrent servers running to five by default. Therefore, if you want to increase the number of servers running at one time, ask an administrator to increase the number.
  • Jupyter Notebook kernels—Kernels automatically shut down after they run on idle for an hour.
  • Test step details—To view trend data for test steps, use the parameteric data viewer. The trends view is no longer nested under test step details.