NI-VISA Deployment Licensing

Issue Details

• I have an application in Visual Studio using NI-VISA. My application has NationalInstrument.VisaNS.dll, NationalInstruments.Common.dll, NationalInstruments.MStudioCLM.dll, and NationalInstruments.NiLmClientDLL.dll. Do I need a license for NI-VISA to distribute these DLLs in my application?
• I got my package in the mail for my NI-VISA Deployment Licenses but what do I do with them? Is there a serial number or activation code?

Solution

There is no activation or serial number needed with the NI-VISA Deployment Licenses.  The papers you received are documents showing you purchased the right to distribute our software with your developed system for monetary gain. 

Unlike other deployment licenses, such as TestStand, LabVIEW Real-Time, or NI Switch Executive, NI-VISA deployment licenses do not require any type of activation to use. There are particular instances where deployment licenses are needed for legal reasons which are explained in the linked resources below.

In short, the NI-VISA Deployment License must be purchased whenever the use of purchased NI hardware or software is vacant from the system. In effect, the license must be purchased when you are using NI-VISA with third-party software and/or hardware and not with LabVIEW and/or other NI software and NI hardware.