Can you use a designated computer license with a remote login
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Someone at my company is circulating information that Matlab designated computer licenses can only be used on the physical computer where the license is installed (i.e. no rlogins or rshells). This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Remote logging in to a machine and running Matlab is just a convenience. It still occupies the license so no one else can use it. It still uses that computers CPU and resources. Can someone at Mathworks clarify?
Thanks
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Answers (4)
Walter Roberson
on 21 Jan 2020
Edited: Walter Roberson
on 21 Jan 2020
They are correct about the historical license terms. If I recall correctly, one of the recent releases finally updated that provision. It was no earlier than r2018b however and I would need to recheck the exact version.
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Brian Holden
on 21 Jan 2020
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Walter Roberson
on 21 Jan 2020
People who have those needs should not be using a Dedicated Computer license, which was designed for the kind of situation where people physically sit down at a lab machine. The uses you describe are individual user access, which is a different license type.
Brian Holden
on 21 Jan 2020
Edited: Brian Holden
on 21 Jan 2020
3 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 21 Jan 2020
"It seems like this is a case where the lawyers have flat-out screwed up because they don't understand computers."
No, in my opinion, the lawyers got it right originally, because they understand well that people will try to abuse the lowest cost license type.
Your scenario that 6 different people with remote access will never try to access the system at the same time is not realistic. Except in cases where there are physical access tokens involved (such as having to sit in a particular chair), the reality is that groups that large never coordinate that closely. The reality is that you see access friction all the time when you have more workers than you have licenses.
I have been there, been the systems administrator responsible for tracking down who was using one of the floating licenses to try to convince them to quit MATLAB to free up a license. It was always resented, and it was always considered to be my fault for there not being enough licenses for people to never have to think about license sharing. (Trying to convince people to contribute towards an additional license was typically fruitless, so it mostly became considered that it was my fault that Mathworks expected to be paid at all.)
Walter Roberson
on 21 Jan 2020
In any case, you should be talking to your sales representative about details of license terms and which versions those terms apply to. I do not work for Mathworks (and have never worked for Mathworks), and I have been known to have public disagreements with Mathworks, my pointing out clauses that are more restrictive than Mathworks employees have been conveying.
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