NI LabVIEW, TestStand and SystemLink licensing covers the product-specific rules that sit on top of NI’s general licence types: the LabVIEW editions and licence terms, development, debug and deployment licensing for LabVIEW and TestStand, continuous integration and container use, LabVIEW Community Edition, Measurement Studio, and the user and node counting used for SystemLink. The product-specific provisions are in Addendum F of the NI Software License Agreement; the web pages cited describe how NI sells the licences.[1]
LabVIEW
Editions and terms
NI states that LabVIEW is available in three editions, and as part of the NI LabVIEW+ Suite, which includes more software for test sequencing, data logging and data analysis.[2] The edition page lists Base, Full and Professional, each purchasable on subscription or perpetual terms, and describes Full as adding more functions and signal processing, and Professional as adding the Nigel AI assistant, the Application Builder for deployable applications, software engineering tools and additional toolkits.[2] The Nigel AI assistant is available with an active subscription licence or NI software service agreement.[2] The LabVIEW+ Suite includes LabVIEW Professional Edition, DIAdem Professional, FlexLogger Professional and InstrumentStudio Professional, among other software.[3] Volume licences are offered for five or more seats.[2]
NI says there are no functional or feature-level differences between subscription and perpetual LabVIEW licences. A perpetual licence keeps the purchased version working, with a software service agreement included in the first year and renewable annually; a subscription licence must be renewed to keep using the software.[2] LabVIEW is available on Windows and Linux, and a LabVIEW licence allows downloading and using it on any supported operating system, subject to the licence limits.[1]
Development, deployment and debug
A LabVIEW development licence is used for creating applications and is available in subscription or perpetual terms. A deployment licence is needed for each target computer on which a LabVIEW-built application runs, and all deployment licences are perpetual.[2] The LabVIEW Runtime Engine is used to run executables on deployed systems without the development system.[2] NI’s debug deployment licence for LabVIEW (part number 781866-35) activates the LabVIEW Development System, the Real-Time and FPGA modules and the toolkits that have a deployment licence, apart from those with separate deployment licences; debug deployment licences are sold as perpetual licences that include a software service agreement for the first year.[4][2] The agreement’s debug terms limit use to debugging on one additional target production computer, forbid developing new programs, and require a new upgraded debug licence for an upgraded software version.[1] See Deployment license and Debug license.
The agreement provides that the Authorized Application a licensee builds can be distributed without further fees unless it uses software on NI’s Deployment Licenses listing, in which case each target computer needs a valid licence or deployment licence or NI’s written authorization.[1]
Continuous integration and containers
For an individual LabVIEW licence, the agreement allows installing LabVIEW on one additional workplace computer to run automated testing, validation, review and build processes for code developed with LabVIEW. The additional computer may not be used for development except debugging the automation, and if it is a network device each user needs their own LabVIEW licence.[1] NI’s CI/CD document says that buying LabVIEW includes the licence to use it for both development and automated CI/CD workflows.[5]
A development licence also allows LabVIEW in Docker containers, virtual machines or similar environments solely for continuous integration, continuous deployment, automated testing, validation, review, builds, static code analysis, unit testing, executable generation and report generation. The licensee may create unlimited container instances and run them concurrently, may host and distribute them only inside its own organization, and may let multiple internal users access them for those purposes without individual licences per user; development, including creating or editing LabVIEW code, is not allowed in a container instance, and distribution to third parties needs NI’s written consent.[1]
For a Volume License Agreement that includes LabVIEW, NI instructs customers to add part number 786474-35, the “LabVIEW Continuous Integration System for VLAs”. The part number is free to add and gives a licence of LabVIEW for the CI/CD build machine; VLAs count development licences in use, so adding it avoids using development seats for those workflows.[5]
Community Edition
LabVIEW Community Edition and G Web Development Software Community Edition may be used only for personal, non-commercial, non-industrial purposes and not for teaching or research at degree-granting educational institutions.[6] Students may use it on computers they own, but not at a place of business or to create test systems, executables, toolkits or other items intended to make money.[6] The licence is a one-year renewable licence starting at activation with an NI user account; it cannot be converted to a computer-based licence and is not transferable, and the software may become inactive if NI cannot validate it periodically.[6][1] At the end of a subscription licence the Community Edition may only be used to view VI files and other content.[1] See LabVIEW Community Edition.
TestStand
NI’s TestStand page offers a Development System licence in subscription or perpetual terms, the LabVIEW+ Suite (which includes TestStand), and perpetual licences for the Base Deployment Engine and the Debug Deployment Environment.[7] A development licence is required to build test sequences, and a debug deployment or deployment licence is required for each system where a test sequence is deployed.[7] There are no feature differences between subscription and perpetual licences, and all deployment licences are perpetual.[7]
The debug deployment licence allows debugging of steps and sequences, but changes that add or improve functionality are development and need a development licence.[7] Debug licence part numbers are 779851-35 for TestStand and 779991-35 for the TestStand Semiconductor Module, and the TestStand Base Deployment Engine is 777774-35.[4]
Addendum F contains three TestStand-specific rules. A computer-based TestStand Development System or Custom Sequence Editor licence may not be accessed remotely, and with a named-user licence only the then-current Named User may do so. A TestStand Development System licence allows one additional workplace computer for continuous integration activities on the same terms as LabVIEW. The debug licence for TestStand requires the TestStand runtime engine and sequence editor plus a copy of LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI and Measurement Studio with the applicable toolkits.[1]
Measurement Studio, LabWindows/CVI and other products
Applications created with Measurement Studio that use its controls in a design-time context are not Authorized Applications. A Measurement Studio compile-only licence requires a full licence, may be used only for the compile and build function, has no home exception and is not transferable.[1] The debug deployment licences for LabWindows/CVI (781148-35) and Measurement Studio (781151-35) activate the development systems and toolkits.[4] For MeasurementLink, a customer who only has access as part of another NI offering may not use the gRPC driver API or use MeasurementLink components outside the purchased offering unless the Quote or NI approves it.[1]
SystemLink
For SystemLink the agreement defines a User as any individual who accesses the software through the web UI with logon credentials or through an API key, and each unique logon and each unique API key is a separate User for counting, regardless of frequency or duration of use. Active Users are counted over a rolling thirty-day window by distinct credential or key, without attribution to named individuals, and a User identity active in the window may not be reassigned until it has had no activity for a full thirty-day period.[1] See SystemLink User.
The software may be installed and used on one physical or virtual computing device, or its own cloud hosting environment, to manage or monitor no more than the licensed number of Nodes. A Node is any physical or virtual hardware system managed or monitored, including virtual machines, simulated devices and containerized systems; each virtual system is a separate Node and one virtual system may not publish data for more than one hardware system.[1] Permitted overage of active Users or Nodes is no more than ten percent of the licensed count in any thirty-day period unless the Quote says otherwise, and usage above that is automatically blocked.[1] The NI-designated licensing web application is the authoritative record of active Users and Nodes, and an NI-approved Volume License Manager or NI’s cloud-based licence management tools must control access.[1] See SystemLink Node.
Compliance checkpoints
- Separate development, debug and deployment seats in the inventory, and count deployment licences per target computer.[8]
- Check whether build servers and containers rely on the CI/CD allowances or on a VLA part number.[1][5]
- Confirm that remote desktop use of TestStand development systems respects the named-user and computer-based rules.[1]
- Use the SystemLink licensing application, not a spreadsheet of names, to see active Users and Nodes.[1]
Out of scope
Prices, edition feature tables and Enterprise Agreement software suites are not recorded here. The LabVIEW NXG Community Edition and other products covered by Addendum F are not discussed.