Supervisor Software Manager

The default view of the Software container under the ProvisioningNwExt is the Supervisor Software Manager (Figure 20).

Figure 20. Supervisor Software Manager is default view of Software container

This view provides the following:

Visibility into the software registry on the Supervisor.
Ability to add software files in the software registry on the Supervisor.
Ability to compare software versions against stations under the Supervisor’s NiagaraNetwork.

Parts of this view include the Software tree pane, Details pane, and bottom-located buttons.

Software tree

The left pane of the Supervisor Software Manager shows all child module and distribution file nodes, where each root node represents a software file’s name, and its children represent the versions of the software file in the registry. You can drop a module or distribution file from Workbench’s Nav tree into this software tree.

If it is an acceptable file (that is readable and correctly formatted), its version will be checked against the software database of the Supervisor. If not a duplicate, it is transferred to the Supervisor and becomes registered in its software database.

Details pane

This right pane of the Supervisor Software Manager shows details about any version node selected in the Software tree, including file name, size, description, version, and all dependencies.

Buttons

Buttons near the bottom of the Supervisor Software Manager are described as follows:

Sync Workbench— (always enabled) Available to update the Supervisor’s software database to include all installable files in your Workbench’s software database (under its !sw directory). See the next section Sync Workbench.
Add File — (always enabled) For the standard File Chooser dialog, in which you can navigate to the location of the software file for a module or distribution file.
Check Stations — enabled when you have a software node selected in the Software tree.

Sync Workbench

When you click this in the Supervisor Software Manager, the comparison between the different software databases is made.

If the Supervisor already has all the software installable files that your Workbench environment has, a popup dialog informs you that the “provisioning software is up to date” (Figure 21).

Figure 21. Up to Date dialog from Sync Workbench
If your Workbench environment has installable files that the Supervisor does not, an Add Software popup dialog lists these files, and asks if you wish to transfer them to the Supervisor, as shown in Figure 22. You can select Yes (to transfer) or No to cancel, as desired.

Figure 22. Add Software dialog from Sync Workbench

Check Stations

When you click this in the Supervisor Software Manager, the selected version (or latest version, if a root node is selected) is compared against the “platform snapshot” in each of the NiagaraStation’s Software station extensions.

A dialog is then displayed for that module, as shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23. Example dialog for installable from Check Stations function

This dialog shows a table with rows for each NiagaraStation, displaying the version of the software in its platform snapshot (viewable in its Software extension).

The last column in the table shows the status of the platform snapshot for each station, which can have one of the following values:

Up to Date — station version is equal to or greater than the software file in the Supervisor.
Out of Date — Supervisor software file version is greater than the version installed on the station’s host.
Not Installed — this software file is not installed on the station’s host.
No Snapshot — No platform snapshot has been taken for this station, so there is no basis for comparison. Click to select, then click Update Snapshot.
Bad Remote File — Station’s host has a version that is corrupt or otherwise unusable.

Buttons in this dialog provide added functionality.

Buttons

As shown in Figure 23, buttons in the dialog produced by Check Stations are as follows:

Select Out of Date — Selects each of the rows (stations) with an “Out of Date” status.
Update Snapshot — For the selected station(s), queries that host’s platform daemon and builds a “snapshot” of installed software. Use this for any station showing a status of “No Snapshot”.
Create Job — Closes this dialog, and changes the view to the Niagara Network Job Builder.
Cancel — Closes this dialog, and takes no other action.