NI Real-Time Hypervisor Quick Start Guide

QUICK START GUIDE
NI Real-Time Hypervisor
Version 2.0
The NI Real-Time Hypervisor provides a platform you can use to develop
and run LabVIEW and LabVIEW Real-Time applications simultaneously
on a single controller.
(Windows) Refer to the NI Real-Time Hypervisor for Windows section
below for a summary of your system configuration.
(Linux) Refer to the Installing the Hypervisor for Linux section below for
installation instructions.
NI Real-Time Hypervisor for Windows
Your NI Real-Time Hypervisor ships pre-configured with everything you
need to develop and run LabVIEW and LabVIEW Real-Time applications
simultaneously on a single controller. NI Factory Installation Services
(FIS) has equipped your system with hardware that meets the requirements
of the NI Real-Time Hypervisor. In addition, FIS has partitioned this
hardware between Windows and the LabVIEW Real-Time OS (NI ETS)
according to the preferences you specified during the ordering process and
the resource partitioning requirements of the NI Real-Time Hypervisor.
However, you can assign the resources in your system to different OSes.
Refer to the Getting Started with Your NI Real-Time Hypervisor section for
instructions to complete this task.
Installing the NI Real-Time Hypervisor for Linux
You need the following items to install the NI Real-Time Hypervisor for
Linux:
•
Note
Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation CD
The NI Real-Time Hypervisor supports only Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
•
USB CD-ROM drive
•
USB memory drive
Complete the following steps to install the NI Real-Time Hypervisor for
Linux.
1.
2.
Install LabVIEW RT and VISA Server on the system.
a.
Power on or restart the system.
b.
Press the <Delete> key to access the BIOS setup utility on your
system.
c.
Change the boot option so the system boots into LabVIEW RT.
d.
Save the changes and restart the system.
e.
Launch Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) on a
development computer.
f.
Expand the Remote Systems tree and locate the system you plan
to install the NI Real-Time Hypervisor on.
g.
Expand the tree next to the NI Real-Time Hypervisor system.
h.
Click the Software tree item and install LabVIEW RT and VISA
Server.
Obtain identification information for your controller and chassis.
a.
Expand the Devices and Interfaces tree.
b.
Right-click your controller and select its controller family in the
Identify As menu.
c.
Expand the tree next to your controller.
d.
Right-click your PXI chassis and select its model in the
Identify As menu.
e.
Connect to the system with an FTP client.
f.
Navigate to the ni-rt/system directory.
g.
Copy the pxisys.ini and pxiesys.ini files to a USB drive. These
files identify your controller and chassis. Later, you will copy
these files to the NI Real-Time Hypervisor system.
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
2
ni.com
3.
4.
Note
Start the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation process.
a.
Connect a USB CD-ROM drive to the system you plan to install
the NI Real-Time Hypervisor on.
b.
Place the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation CD in the drive.
c.
Restart the system.
d.
Press the <Delete> key to access the BIOS setup utility on your
system.
e.
Change the boot option so the system boots into
Windows/Other OS.
f.
Change the boot priority so the system boots from the CD-ROM
drive.
g.
Save the changes and restart the system.
h.
Begin the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation process.
When you reach the Partitioning Type menu, create two Linux
partitions. Leave enough free space for two more partitions, a partition
at least 1 GB in size for the LabVIEW Real-Time OS (NI ETS) and a
1 GB partition for boot information, that you will create later.
The free space must not be in a Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
a.
Select Create Custom Layout from the hard drive menu.
b.
Select New from the partition menu to create two new partitions.
For example, you could create an ext3 partition mounted at / and
a swap partition.
5.
After you complete the installation and the system restarts, log in with
root privileges.
6.
Connect the USB drive that contains the pxisys.ini and pxiesys.ini
files to the system to identify your controller and chassis.
7.
Copy the pxisys.ini and pxiesys.ini files to the etc directory.
© National Instruments Corporation
3
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
8.
9.
Use the fdisk utility that comes with Red Hat Enterprise Linux to
partition the hard drive.
a.
In the command prompt, type fdisk followed by the name of
your hard drive and press the <Enter> key. For example, if your
hard drive is named /dev/sda, type fdisk /dev/sda.
b.
Press the <N> key and then the <Enter> key to create a new
partition.
c.
Press the <P> key and then the <Enter> key to designate the
partition as a primary partition.
d.
Specify the number of an unused partition and press the <Enter>
key to begin creating the NI ETS partition. For example, if you
only created two partitions during the Linux installation process,
press the <3> key.
e.
Start the partition at the default cylinder.
f.
Enter a size for the partition. For example, to designate 30 GB for
NI ETS, type +30G.
g.
Repeat steps b–g to create a 1 GB partition for boot information.
Change the file systems of the partitions.
a.
Press the <T> key and then the <Enter> key.
b.
Enter the partition number of the NI ETS partition and press the
<Enter> key. For example, if you designated partition 3 as the NI
ETS partition, press the <3> key.
c.
Press the <C> key and then the <Enter> key to format the NI ETS
partition with the W95 FAT32 (LBA) file system.
d.
Enter the partition number of the boot partition and then press the
<Enter> key.
e.
Type 21 and then press the <Enter> key to identify the partition as
the boot partition.
Note fdisk returns an error that says 21 is an unknown partition type. This error is
expected and does not indicate a problem.
f.
Press the <W> key and then the <Enter> key to save these
changes.
Linux displays an error that says it failed to re-read the partition table but will use
the new table when you reboot the system. This error is expected and does not indicate a
problem.
Note
10. Restart the system.
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
4
ni.com
11. Use the mkdosfs utility that comes with Red Hat Enterprise Linux to
name the NI ETS partition LABVIEW_RT.
a.
Right-click the desktop and select Open Terminal from the
shortcut menu.
b.
Type mkdosfs -n LABVIEW_RT followed by the name of the
hard drive and the partition number of the NI ETS partition and
then press the <Enter> key. For example, if the NI ETS partition
is the third partition of a hard drive named /dev/sda, type mkdosfs
-n LABVIEW_RT /dev/sda3.
12. Place the NI Real-Time Hypervisor installation CD in the USB
CD-ROM drive and run the NI Real-Time Hypervisor installer.
13. Right-click the desktop and select Open Terminal. Then, launch the
NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager by navigating to usr/local/
natinst/hypervisor/ConfigurationUtility and running the
NIHypervisorManager application. A dialog box appears and
prompts you to run the setup.
14. Click the Run Setup button. The NI Real-Time Hypervisor manager
runs the setup and prompts you to restart the system.
15. Restart the system and select Linux from the boot menu.
16. Log in with root privileges.
17. Compile the virtualization drivers into the Linux kernel. Refer to
Virtualization_Drivers.pdf, located in the usr/local/
natinst/hypervisor directory, for instructions to perform this
task. The linux-drv-src.tgz file, which contains the virtualization
drivers, is located in the usr/local/natinst/hypervisor/
system/drivers directory.
18. Navigate to the boot/grub directory and open the menu.lst file.
19. Change the initrd entry to the initial RAM disk (INITRD) you created
in step 18. For example, if you created an INITRD named
initrd-2.6.18-53.el5-VLX.img, enter initrd /boot/
initrd-2.6.18-53.el5-VLX.img for the initrd entry.
20. Save your changes to menu.lst and close the file.
21. Navigate to the usr/local/natinst/nihypshm directory and run
KernelDrv_Install.sh.
22. Refer to the Getting Started with Your NI Real-Time Hypervisor
section below for instructions to partition your devices according to
your application needs and begin developing applications.
© National Instruments Corporation
5
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
Getting Started with Your NI Real-Time Hypervisor
Complete the following steps to become familiar with your system’s
configuration utility, known as the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager, and
begin developing applications.
1. Power on or restart your system.
2. Depending on your system, select Windows or Linux from the boot
menu to boot into your general-purpose OS.
3. Use the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager to view the devices
assigned to each OS.
a. (Windows) Select Start»National Instruments»NI Real-Time
Hypervisor»NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager to launch the
NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager.
(Linux) Right-click the desktop and select Open Terminal. Launch
the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager by navigating to usr/
local/natinst/hypervisor/ConfigurationUtility and
running the NIHypervisorManager application.
b. Review the OS partition settings.
• The Basic tab displays each device and the OS to which each
device is assigned.
• The Advanced tab displays each device, the OS to which
each device is assigned, and the PCI Interrupt Request Line
(PIRQ) that each device uses.
4. (Optional) Change the OS partition settings.
a. Click the Basic tab to display the list of devices and the OS to
which each one is assigned.
b. Use the pull-down menus next to each device to change the OS to
which each device is assigned.
c. Right-click the Memory row and select Set Memory Allocation
to partition the system memory between the OSes according to
your application needs.
d. Use the pull-down menus next to each CPU core to assign CPU
cores to OSes according to your application needs.
e. Click the Apply button to apply the partitioning configuration. The
NI Real-Time Hypervisor Manager generates a set of instructions.
f. Follow the instructions generated by the NI Real-Time Hypervisor
Manager to ensure that each hardware device is connected to the
correct card slot.
5. Power on or restart your system.
6. Select NI Real-Time Hypervisor from the boot menu to boot into
hypervisor mode.
7. Develop and run applications just as you would with a normal host and
Real-Time system.
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
6
ni.com
Communicating Between Operating Systems
The NI Real-Time Hypervisor includes a virtual RT console, a virtual
Ethernet connection, and a shared memory feature that you can use to
communicate between the general-purpose OS and the LabVIEW
Real-Time OS (NI ETS).
Using the Virtual RT Console
Use the virtual RT console to view configuration and troubleshooting
information for the NI Real-Time Hypervisor. For example, you can use
the virtual RT console to determine the RT target IP address. Refer to the
Connecting to the Virtual RT Console topic on the Contents tab in the
NI Real-Time Hypervisor Help for more information.
Using the Virtual Ethernet Connection
Use the virtual Ethernet connection to communicate between your
general-purpose OS and NI ETS with remote communication methods.
Refer to the Transferring Data Between Operating Systems topic on the
Contents tab in the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Help for more information.
Using Shared Memory
You can share up to 95 MB of system memory between the OSes on your
NI Real-Time Hypervisor system with shared memory. Use shared
memory to transfer data between OSes if remote communication methods
are inefficient. Refer to the Transferring Data Between Operating
Systems topic on the Contents tab in the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Help
for more information.
Restoring Your System
(Windows) Refer to the Restoring Your NI Real-Time Hypervisor
System topic on the Contents tab in the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Help for
instructions to restore your system.
(Linux) Refer to the Installing the Hypervisor for Linux section above to
reinstall the NI Real-Time Hypervisor on your system.
© National Instruments Corporation
7
NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0 Quick Start Guide
Where to Go from Here
Refer to the NI Real-Time Hypervisor Help for complete documentation of
the NI Real-Time Hypervisor, including an introduction to virtualization
and techniques for communicating between your general-purpose OS and
the RT target.
Refer to ni.com/info and enter the Info Code NIRTH2KI to access
known issues for the NI Real-Time Hypervisor 2.0.
Refer to ni.com/info and enter the Info Code HV_Devices for
information about unsupported hardware devices and drivers.
LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, the National Instruments corporate logo, and the Eagle
logo are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Trademark Information at
ni.com/trademarks for other National Instruments trademarks. Other product and company
names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. For patents
covering National Instruments products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents
in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the National Instruments Patent Notice
at ni.com/patents.
© 2009–2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.
375174B-01
Jun10