Using a Network Drive to Deploy Test Systems

You can store user interfaces, sequence files, code modules, and other TestStand components on a network drive and configure test station computers to use that network drive. You can use the deployment utility to create a deployable image that you store on the network drive. Using a network drive to update a test system updates all test station computers that use the network drive.

Consider the following issues before you decide to use a network drive to deploy or update a test system:

• Network access—Developers and test station computers require access to the network drive. If you cannot grant access to the network drive, you can use mirroring techniques to replicate and synchronize the network drive for the required access.
• Network availability—Design a fault-tolerant update process that effectively manages network outages or other situations in which a network drive is unavailable. Network outages can stop production unless the test system can execute successfully without access to the network drive. For example, you can use a temporary directory on the test station computer to store the files you want to update and then transfer those updates to the test system directory at an appropriate time.
• Location of files—If the configuration of all test station computers remain identical, you can deploy and update files from the same network directory. However, test station computers might need variations based on hardware requirements, product revisions, and configuration requirements. Some test station computers might require different sequences, code modules, and driver versions to support different hardware and UUT requirements. You can use directories on the network drive to deploy or update specific versions of the test system based on hardware or UUT requirements. Test station computers also might require different configuration settings for local debugging tasks or for unique reporting requirements. You can use a network drive to distribute code modules, user interfaces, and TestStand components and use locally unique configuration files on each test station computer.
  Note If you use local configuration files but modify configuration files such as GeneralEngine.cfg, Adapters.cfg, and SearchDirectories.cfg that affect all test station computers, you must edit the local copy of the configuration file on each test station computer. You can design the update process to determine which files on the test station computer to update from the network drive or use update settings files on the test station computers for greater flexibility.
• Timing of changes—Ensure that the update process prevents race conditions that might occur if you do not control when test station computers access files on the network drive.
• Security—Ensure that the network location is secure and that changes cannot be inadvertently made to the files in the test system. Because all test stations share the files, modifying the files in one location could lead to race conditions and invalidate testing.
• Number of inbound connections—Consult the Microsoft Software License Terms to determine the maximum number of computers that can connect to a network drive at the same time.

Advantages

Using a network drive offers the following advantages:

• For small updates, you can copy to the network drive only the files that require changes.
• Updating the contents of a network drive updates all the test station computers that use the network drive, which scales well if you use a large number of test station computers. Consult the Microsoft Software License Terms to determine the maximum number of computers that can connect to a network drive at the same time.
• You can create a deployment without having specific knowledge of Microsoft Windows Installer technology.

Disadvantages

Using a network drive presents the following disadvantages:

• Designing an update process that manages network outages and avoids race conditions requires additional development time.
• The test station computer site requires a network infrastructure of required hardware and IT resources for maintenance.
• Copying files to a test station computer is not sufficient for the test system to function correctly because you must also run installers on the test station computer to correctly install the TestStand Runtime, NI components, and required third-party components.
• You must be familiar with Microsoft Windows security issues associated with accessing and executing files from shared drive locations.
• Network drives do not keep a history of file changes. When you use the deployment utility to create a deployable image, you can save the generated deployment log to record the list of files included on the network drive.

Using a Network Drive to Deploy Patches

You can use the deployment utility to create a patch deployable image that contains all files modified since the previous full or patch deployment and replace the files on the network drive with the files in the patch deployable image folder.