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Duplicated Minion ID in SystemLink Client After Cloning OS Image

Updated Nov 22, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • SystemLink
  • SystemLink Client

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

  • The SystemLink Client Minion ID from a machine got duplicated when I cloned its OS image and used it on other client machines.
  • Multiple clients sharing the same Minion ID are detected by the server as being the same client.
  • After updating the Minion ID manually by changing the Computer Name, it stopped communicating with the server and I got a Partially Connected status in SystemLink Client:

MinionID.png

Solution

SystemLink identifies the clients based on the Minion ID which is expected to be unique, if there are multiple machines with the same Minion ID the server can treat them all as being a single client. The Minion ID is specific for every computer based on the product name, serial number and MAC address.

In order for SystemLink Client to update its Minion ID is it advised to:
 
1. Navigate to this path C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\salt-minion in the client machine.
2. Right-click the salt-minion-cleanup.bat file and select Run as administrator.
 
Salt-minion-cleanup.png

You can also open a Command Prompt window with administrator privileges, and enter: 
"C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\salt-minion\salt-minion-cleanup.bat"
3. Reattempt the connection to the SytemLink server from the SystemLink Client.
 

Additional Information

Changing the computer name without updating the Minion ID can cause an instability in the underlying Salt Service, which is used for communication between the server and the client. The Minion ID persists at this path C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\salt\conf\minion_id, so even if the serial number or the MAC address is changed, the Minion ID will stay the same if that file is not removed.

You can also directly remove the minion_id file, as the Salt Service can generate it again, however, with dual NIC systems (like most PXI controllers), the order in which the OS enumerates the network cards may change based on driver startup. If you regularly remove the minion_id file, this could result in a single system showing up twice, as the MAC address could potentially change between reboots.

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