How Can I Export a Usage Log in NI VLM 3.1 to Generate Custom Reports?

I would like to export the usage data from NI VLM 3.1 in order to create my own custom reports because the default reporting tools don't have the capabilities that I am looking for. 

If your reporting process requires using the information in the usage log and you are using VLM 3.1, you can generate the log using the CreateLegacyUsageLogPath command prompt parameter. 

1. Open a Command Prompt window. You can search for cmd in your windows start menu.
2. Change the path to the NI Volume License Manager executable by typing: cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\Volume License Manager​"
3. Use the CreateLegacyUsageLogPath command to create your report:

nivlm.exe /CreateLegacyUsageLogPath <path> /startDate YYYY-MM-DD /endDate YYYY-MM-DD
 

Arguments

Argument	Details
path	Output file path of the legacy usage log.
startDate (optional)	If specified, the log will not contain data before the provided date. If omitted, the log will include the oldest available data.
endDate (optional)	If specified, the log will not contain data after the provided date. If omitted, the log will include the most recent available data.

Example use in one command line that will output the log between August 20th and September 1st to a file in the C drive:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\Volume License Manager​\nivlm.exe" /CreateLegacyUsageLogPath "c:/log.txt" /startDate 2018-08-20 /endDate 2018-09-01

Note.- NI Volume License Manager application needs to be closed in order to generate the Usage Log File. However, NI Volume License Server is still running in the background.

Additional Information

In VLM 3.1, administrators can run reports within the tool to view (among other things) the information included in the usage log.  In prior versions of VLM, this reporting was not available so exporting the usage log (nivlm.log) was the default way of creating reports.