License and Install MATLAB Parallel Server in Cluster

This topic explains how to set up MATLAB^® Parallel Server™ licensing for your cluster and install MATLAB Parallel Server and other MathWorks^® products for use on your cluster nodes.

Before beginning the installation, verify that your cluster nodes are running a supported operating system and meet the minimum hardware, software, and network requirements described in MATLAB Parallel Server System Requirements and Requirements and Ports for MATLAB Parallel Server.

Set Up Licensing

Before you install MATLAB Parallel Server on your cluster nodes, decide how to manage licensing for cluster users. You can use a self-hosted network license manager or the cloud-based MathWorks online licensing for MATLAB Parallel Server. To learn more about licensing options, see Scale MATLAB and Simulink on Clusters and in the Cloud.

Set Up Network License Manager

Follow these instructions to manage MATLAB Parallel Server licensing for cluster users with a self-hosted network license manager.

There are three components of running MATLAB Parallel Server with a network license manager:

1. The cluster scheduler software, which runs on the head node and manages jobs on your cluster. The scheduler can be MATLAB Job Scheduler or a third-party scheduler like Slurm.

2. A self-hosted network license manager, which serves the MATLAB Parallel Server license used by each worker. You can run the license manager on the cluster head node or on a machine in a location accessible by the cluster nodes.

3. Cluster nodes, which run MATLAB Parallel Server. For more information, see Install Software on Cluster Nodes.

Network license manager on head node	Network license manager at a location accessible to cluster nodes
In this configuration, the head node acts as both the scheduler host and the license server. All compute nodes obtain their MATLAB Parallel Server licenses directly from the license manager running on the head node.	In this configuration, the license manager is installed at a separate location. The license server must be reachable by all compute nodes to allow workers to check out MATLAB Parallel Server licenses.

If you do not have an existing network license manager, install the network license manager on your head node or on a computer accessible by your cluster nodes.

1. Install the MathWorks network license manager using the MathWorks product installer by following the instructions in Install License Manager on License Server.

2. Start the network license manager on the license server by following the instructions in Start and Stop Network License Manager.

3. To install MATLAB Parallel Server on the cluster nodes, obtain a copy of the configured network license file license.dat in the etc folder in the location where you installed the network license manager.

   The license.dat network license file is available only after the installation of the network license manager and is required to point the cluster node's MATLAB Parallel Server installation to the license manager. For more information, see License Processing.

Alternatively, you can continue to use your existing license manager and update the license file on the network license manager to also host the MATLAB Parallel Server license. For details, see Update or Modify Network License Files.

Set Up Online Licensing

Follow these instructions if you want to use MathWorks online licensing to manage licensing for your cluster users. To learn more about online license options, see Online Licensing for MATLAB Parallel Server. If you want to manage licensing using a self-hosted network license manager instead, see Set Up Network License Manager.

There are three components of running MATLAB Parallel Server with online licensing:

1. The cluster scheduler software, which runs on the head node and manages jobs on your cluster. This can be MATLAB Job Scheduler or a third-party scheduler like Slurm.

2. The MathWorks hosted online licensing manager, which serves the MATLAB Parallel Server license used by each worker.

3. MATLAB Parallel Server, which runs on the cluster nodes. For more information, see Install Software on Cluster Nodes.

In a cluster configuration with online licensing, each node in the cluster must be able to access the MathWorks licensing server to check out and return licenses.

The MATLAB Parallel Server license is configured to use a network licensing manager by default. If you want to use online licensing, you must ensure that the license is configured for online licensing, and then add end users to the license.

Check License Type.  Check whether your MATLAB Parallel Server license is already configured for online licensing. If it is not, update the configuration to use online licensing. You must be a license administrator to make changes to a MATLAB Parallel Server license.

 Steps to Verify or Change License Configuration

1. In your browser, go to License Center and log in with your MathWorks Administrator Account.

2. Select the MATLAB Parallel Server license that you plan to use.

3. On the Install and Activate tab, look for License Manager: followed by the license manager type currently assigned to this license.

   • If the license manager is already configured for online licensing, then you do not need to do anything. Continue to add end users to the license.

   • To change the license manager to Online Licensing, click the pencil icon and follow the instructions that appear. When you have finished, continue to add end users to the license.

Add End Users to License.  With online licensing, every cluster user must be added as a licensed end user. Cluster users access the cluster when they sign in to the MATLAB client. To add licensed end users, you must be a license administrator. A license administrator can add licensed end users by following these steps.

 Steps to Add End Users to License

1. If you are not already logged in as an administrator, go to License Center and log in with your MathWorks Administrator Account.

2. Select your MATLAB Parallel Server license, and then click Manage Users.

   • To manually add users to the list, click Add User.

     1. Provide the user’s email address, first and last names, and country. Click Add User.

        If the email address you provide does not correspond to an existing MathWorks Account, a new account is created for that user, and the user receives an email that prompts them to create a password for their new MathWorks Account.

     2. Add additional end users as necessary.

   • To invite users to add themselves:

     1. Click Invite End Users to Add Themselves.

     2. Enter the email addresses in the template.

Install Software on Cluster Nodes

To run MATLAB Parallel Server workers on your cluster, install MATLAB Parallel Server and all products and toolboxes on each cluster node.

• To save space, install only the products and toolboxes included in your license. To view your licensed products, go to License Center, select your MATLAB license, and click Manage Products.

• You can install the software in a network share location. However, for best performance, install the software locally on each node in the same location.

• If a MATLAB installation already exists on the cluster node, you can install MATLAB Parallel Server into the same installation folder. This allows you to use a single MATLAB installation without creating a duplicate.

Choose one of these methods to install software for the cluster nodes. To install the software on a machine without a user interface and save the time that it takes to configure the installer for each compute node, perform programmatic installation.

Method	Recommended Approach
Install MATLAB Parallel Server using an interactive installer.	You can perform standard installation using the MathWorks product installer, which requires an internet connection. For detailed guidance, see Download and Install MATLAB. If your cluster manages licenses with a network license manager: You must place a copy of the configured network license file, license.dat, on the cluster nodes or a network share before you begin installation. During the installation, when prompted to select a license, specify the MATLAB Parallel Server license linked to your account. The installer recognizes it as a network license and prompts you for the license.dat file. Enter the path to the license.dat file and click Next to continue installing.
Install MATLAB Parallel Server programmatically on a machine without a user interface, or Automate the installation of MATLAB Parallel Server.	Perform programmatic installation with the MATLAB Package Manager (mpm). You can run mpm from a script to automate installation on multiple cluster nodes. You can also use mpm to programmatically download the required MathWorks products on a computer with an internet connection, then copy the products to a computer without internet connection for installation. To get mpm for Linux® or Windows®, see Get MATLAB Package Manager.   Simplify and automate the installations of MATLAB Parallel Server and other MathWorks products on multiple cluster nodes by specifying installation options in an input file. For more details, see Install Products and Support Packages Using Input File. If your cluster manages licenses with a network license manager, after you complete installation on the compute nodes, you must place the license.dat file in the licenses folder of the MATLAB Parallel Server installation location on each cluster node.
Automate the programmatic installation of MATLAB Parallel Server without using the MATLAB Package Manager.	Download software installation files, then perform silent installation using the MathWorks product installer and a File Installation Key. For information on how to get a File Installation Key, see Install Products on Offline Computer. To learn how to automate installation using the MathWorks product installer, see Install Products Noninteractively. If your cluster manages licenses with the network license manager: You must place a copy of the configured network license file, license.dat, on the cluster nodes or a network share before you begin installation. When you modify your copy of the installer properties file installer_input.txt, you must also uncomment the licensePath parameter and specify the full path to the configured license.dat file.

Verify Licensing with Network License Manager

If your cluster manages licenses with the network license manager, you can verify your MATLAB Parallel Server installation and licensing after installing it on the cluster nodes. To run the test, run the following command from the operating system command line on a cluster node. <matlabroot> is the MATLAB installation folder. <filename> is the location to write the log file to, for example, a temporary location. You must have write permissions in this location.

<matlabroot>/toolbox/parallel/bin/checkLicensing -logfile <filename>

If the test is successful, you see a message like the following.

The MATLAB Parallel Server worker licensing check has succeeded.
Check <filename>.log for details.

If the test is not successful and you require additional support, contact the MathWorks install support team.

Install MATLAB to Submit Jobs

To run MATLAB jobs on your cluster, you must submit jobs from a MATLAB client with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ installed. You must use a MATLAB client that is the same release as the MATLAB Parallel Server release installed on the cluster.

Install the MathWorks products for which you are licensed, including Parallel Computing Toolbox, on the computer from which you want to submit jobs to the cluster. For help with this step, see Installing Products.

Workers can use all the functionality you are licensed for in the MATLAB client, while checking out only MATLAB Parallel Server licenses on the cluster.

Complete Cluster and Client Configuration

When the cluster and client installations are complete, you can proceed to the next steps for the job scheduler of your choice. Use this table to choose a suitable guide to complete your configuration.

Scenario	Next Step
You do not have an existing scheduler in your cluster.	Use MATLAB Job Scheduler to manage jobs in your cluster. MATLAB Job Scheduler is provided with MATLAB Parallel Server and is intended primarily for clusters that run only MATLAB jobs. To set up a MATLAB Job Scheduler cluster with a basic configuration, see Perform Simple MATLAB Job Scheduler Configuration.
You have an existing scheduler in your cluster. MATLAB supports these schedulers: Slurm LSF® PBS Pro®, OpenPBS and Torque Grid Engine HTCondor Microsoft® HPC Pack Hadoop® Spark™	Configure for Slurm, Torque, LSF, PBS, Grid Engine, HTCondor, or AWS Batch Configure for Microsoft HPC Pack Configure for Hadoop Clusters Configure for Spark Clusters
Use the generic scheduler interface if you are using a scheduler that is not supported by MATLAB.	Configure Using the Generic Scheduler Interface