What Is COMSOL Server™?

COMSOL Server™ is a powerful tool that enables you to share simulations.

It all starts with COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software. As a simulation expert, you can create the simulations you need with COMSOL Multiphysics and transform these into apps with the Application Builder. You can include only information relevant to the user and exclude anything unnecessary. This way, the users of your streamlined application will have an easier interface in which to work.

Before others can take advantage of your application, they will need access to it. This is where COMSOL Server™ comes into play.

The person responsible for distributing the applications will buy a capacity of licenses for each app user. Depending on your situation, these could be customers, engineers, factory workers, or anyone who is not a COMSOL Multiphysics user but could make use of the simulations. For example, if you have four engineers who need to use your app, you would buy four COMSOL Server™ licenses. Now each engineer is able to run your app — and as many as three other apps at the same time.

Why Should I Use COMSOL Server™?

The opportunities are limitless with COMSOL Server™. What you make is up to you. No matter what you create, COMSOL Server™ simplifies the distribution process of your simulation apps.

Before COMSOL Server™, only those knowledgeable in COMSOL Multiphysics could run simulations using our software. The task of reworking the simulation when new data was discovered and sharing the new results fell on the simulation engineer. Now you can create an app that allows people without simulation knowledge to do the work themselves.

Let’s say you are a simulation expert and work at a company that builds cars. Using your expertise in COMSOL Multiphysics, you create apps based on the models you use most. One day, your company decides to create an innovative electric car. The engineers want to look into different metals and alloys for the frame, but they may not have the simulation expertise to work in COMSOL Multiphysics. Instead, they can simply open up COMSOL Server™ and filter apps to search for what they need. In this case, they would look for an app in the materials category. After choosing the application they want, they can simulate how different materials affect the car frame. If they use this application often, they can favorite the app for even easier access.

With COMSOL Server™, you can share an app that empowers the people using it to get the results themselves. This saves time and allows knowledge and expertise to spread more easily between different team members, departments, and companies.

Brief Introduction to Using COMSOL Server™

COMSOL Server™ is very versatile. It can be used to access simulation apps on your computer as well as on other devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This lets you take your app with you wherever you go. There are two main ways to run applications with COMSOL Server™:

1. In a web browser
2. In COMSOL Client

Let’s review both options next.

Running COMSOL Server™ in a Web Browser

Running COMSOL Server™ in a web browser has many advantages. You can access it on most of the major web browsers, including Google Chrome™ browser, Firefox® browser, Safari® browser, and Internet Explorer® browser. This means that you can take your app anywhere and use it on different kinds of devices without having to download anything.

There are a few downsides, though. When running COMSOL Server™ on a browser, you won’t have access to some features such as LiveLink™ products for CAD software. Additionally, smartphones and tablets may have further limitations. These are all things to consider when choosing the best method for you.

To run an application in a web browser, you click on a link that someone gave you or directly enter the web address of a COMSOL Server™ web interface into the address bar of your browser. The address will typically be the computer name and port number of the web interface. For instance, if the port number was 2036, you would enter your information as follows:

From this screen, you need to log in to access your Application Library page. Upon doing so, you will see a list of the available apps in your library. Simply choose the application you want to run and click on the Launch button to open it in a new tab, as seen below.

Running COMSOL Server™ in COMSOL Client

An alternative to using a web browser is COMSOL Client for Windows® operating system. This product can be downloaded by itself or installed together with COMSOL Server™. COMSOL Client runs in Windows® and gives you superior graphics performance and the ability to use LiveLink™ products. Do note that this method can only be used with Windows®.

To run an application using this method, open COMSOL Server™ and enter your user information.

This will take you to the same Application Library page, as we saw when following the web browser option. The only difference is that this method will make any app that you run look like a Windows program. Now you have full access to your Application Library and simply have to select an app to use.

Next Steps

Once logged into COMSOL Server™, you can filter your apps to find whatever you’re looking for. If one app is particularly important for your work, favorite it. As an administrator, you can monitor your license and control who can access your apps.

There’s a lot you can do with COMSOL Server™. Check out the product page and watch this archived webinar to learn more.

License Manager Has Everything Under Control

From an administrative point of view, the Floating Network License (FNL) can be configured to control and restrict who uses the license, to know what it is used for, how long it is used for, or which licenses need to be upgraded. Similarly, it allows you to control who can borrow licenses, how many, and for how long.

The License Manager can also generate a report within the log file to disclose license request activity. This report will be useful for seeing who is most active and what modules are popular. With this information, you can identify critical modules required for high-priority projects and then utilize the License Manager to control these. This includes reserving a number of licenses to be used exclusively by the more important projects, but still allowing other projects to continue making progress. Restricting or reserving the use of specific modules or functionalities couldn’t be easier, and is done in the “Options” file.

Good for IT: Fast and Simple Deployment, Wherever and Whenever

One use for an FNL is running COMSOL Multiphysics on one network. Therefore, one of the benefits of using this license type is that you can easily install the software on as many machines on the network as you need. Even if you’re the only one using it, you will still be able to install it on your workstation or laptop, a cluster, and as many other machines you might access.

Alternatively, if a number of people on your team will need to access COMSOL Multiphysics, you may want to automate the installation. You, as the administrator, can provide an installation script that automatically installs COMSOL Multiphysics on their systems without the need for any user input. As long as the user can reach the license server, it is really easy to point to it and start modeling without the hassle of contacting IT to get an installation.

Fit Your Workflow and Bring COMSOL Multiphysics with You Everywhere

A COMSOL Multiphysics FNL allows several users to work with separate computational resources at different points during the day. For instance, you might want to create a model on your workstation in the morning, compute it on a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster in the afternoon, and check the results on your laptop in the evening.

Through contacting the License Manager, you can create your model on your workstation in the morning, run it on the cluster through the afternoon, and check your results from home in the evening.

But what if you don’t have access to VPN at home, you need to travel, or use COMSOL Multiphysics somewhere else without internet access? There is a solution to this as well. You can borrow a license from the server and specify how long you want to borrow it, and it will be returned when you don’t need it anymore. The only thing you need to do is start your regular COMSOL Multiphysics session (on your laptop, for instance), set up how long the license is going to be borrowed for, and you are ready to disconnect and start simulating on the airplane.

Move Yourself Without Moving Your Simulation Jobs

Another benefit with an FNL is the ability to run COMSOL software remotely via a remote desktop application. Whether you’re connecting from your office or home, you can use remote desktop to set up your model and then reconnect later to verify the results. You’re not exhausting your laptop or workstation with working computations, and enables you to multitask.

Floating Network License Helps You Scale Based on Your Needs

The FNL allows for utilizing clusters to distribute tasks between the different computation units, thus increasing productivity and allowing for more resource demanding computations. It is very popular to use FNLs for HPC and embarrassingly parallel applications, as it makes use of the COMSOL software’s advanced parallel processing capabilities. You can utilize these capabilities by adding up your workstations, setting up a scheduler, and scheduling your jobs to be run after work hours.

It is worth noting that any FNL will allow for an unlimited number of nodes in your cluster to be utilized for your simulations. Regardless of whether we’re talking about the size of your models, the number of your co-workers or projects, or nodes in a cluster, our Floating Network License is truly scalable.

Additional Resources

• Tutorial videos for managing your current license files:
  • How to Update Your COMSOL Software License File for FNL and CKL Types
  • How to Update Your COMSOL Software License File for CPU and NSL Types