COMSOL Multiphysics

Installation Guide

COMSOL Multiphysics Installation Guide

19982015 COMSOL
Protected by U.S. Patents listed on www.comsol.com/patents, and U.S. Patents 7,519,518; 7,596,474; 7,623,991;
8,457,932; and 8,954,302. Patents pending.
This Documentation and the Programs described herein are furnished under the COMSOL Software License
Agreement (www.comsol.com/comsol-license-agreement) and may be used or copied only under the terms of the
license agreement.
COMSOL, COMSOL Multiphysics, Capture the Concept, COMSOL Desktop, LiveLink, and COMSOL Server are
either registered trademarks or trademarks of COMSOL AB. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners, and COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or
supported by those trademark owners. For a list of such trademark owners, see www.comsol.com/trademarks.
Version: COMSOL 5.1

Contact Information
Visit the Contact COMSOL page at www.comsol.com/contact to submit general inquiries,
contact Technical Support, or search for an address and phone number. You can also visit the
Worldwide Sales Offices page at www.comsol.com/contact/offices for address and contact
information.
If you need to contact Support, an online request form is located at the COMSOL Access page at
www.comsol.com/support/case.
Other useful links include:
Support Center: www.comsol.com/support
Product Download: www.comsol.com/product-download
Product Updates: www.comsol.com/support/updates
Discussion Forum: www.comsol.com/community
Events: www.comsol.com/events
COMSOL Video Gallery: www.comsol.com/video
Support Knowledge Base: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase
Part number: CM010002

Contents
Before you Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Installation Media Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Previous Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Software License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
License Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
License Management Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
COMSOL Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Installing on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Installation Over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Installation from Downloaded DVD Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Installation from a DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Installation from a USB Flash Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Running the COMSOL Installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Removing (Uninstalling) the COMSOL Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Installing Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Automated Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Product Updates and Library Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
LiveLink fo r Exc el Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
LiveLink fo r S O L I DWO R K S : Add-In for SOLIDWORKS . . . 41
LiveLink fo r I nven t o r : Add-in for Autodesk Inventor . . . . . . . 41
LiveLink fo r A u t o C A D Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

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LiveLink fo r P T C P r o /E N G IN E E R : Changing the Installation

Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
LiveLink fo r P T C C r eo Pa r a m et r i c : Changing the
Installation Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
LiveLink fo r R e v i t : Add-in for Revit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
LiveLink fo r S o l i d E d g e : Add-in for Solid Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Cluster Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

License Manager Installation on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

What is the FlexNet License Manager? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
System Requirements for the FlexNet License Manager . . . . . . 47
FlexNet License Manager Software Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
FlexNet License Manager Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Installing the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Starting the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Verifying that the License Manager is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Starting COMSOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Changing the License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Troubleshooting License Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Running COMSOL on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

The COMSOL Folder on The Windows Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . 57
Running COMSOL on Windows 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Starting COMSOL for a Classkit License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Creating Desktop Shortcuts Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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Running COMSOL in Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Running COMSOL on Multicore Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Running COMSOL on Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Running COMSOL on the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Running COMSOL with MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Installing on OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Installation Over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Installation from Downloaded DVD Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Starting the Installer from DVD or DVD Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Installation from USB Flash Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Running The COMSOL Installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Automated Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Removing (Uninstalling) the COMSOL Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Product Updates and Application Library Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Changing the Path to the MATLAB Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

License Manager Installation on OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

FlexNet License Manager Software Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
FlexNet License Manager Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Installing the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Starting the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Verifying that the License Manager is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Starting COMSOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Changing the License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

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Troubleshooting License Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Running COMSOL on OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The COMSOL Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Running COMSOL from a Terminal Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Running a Classkit License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Running COMSOL in Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Running COMSOL on Multicore Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Running COMSOL on Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Running COMSOL on the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Installing on Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Installation Over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Installation from Downloaded DVD Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Starting the Installer from Downloaded DVD Image . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Installation from DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Installation from USB Flash Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Running The COMSOL Installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Web Browser for Viewing the Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Automated Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Removing (Uninstalling) the COMSOL Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Product Updates and Application Library Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Changing the Path to the MATLAB Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Cluster Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

License Manager Installation on Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

6|

FlexNet License Manager Software Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

FlexNet License Manager Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
The License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Installing the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Starting the License Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Verifying that the License Manager is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Starting COMSOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Changing the License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Troubleshooting License Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Running COMSOL on Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Running COMSOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Running COMSOL on Multicore Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Running COMSOL in Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Running a Classkit License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Running COMSOL on Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Running COMSOL on the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Running COMSOL with MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Troubleshooting License Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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8|

Before you Begin

Welcome to the COMSOL Multiphysics Installation Guide, which provides
instructions on how to install COMSOL Multiphysics and its add-on products.
In addition to this manual, several on-line resources are available which are
relevant for installation:
System Requirements: www.comsol.com/system-requirements
Support Knowledge Base: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase
Support Center: www.comsol.com/support
COMSOL Software License Agreement:
www.comsol.com/comsol-license-agreement
Product Download: www.comsol.com/product-download
Product Updates: www.comsol.com/support/updates
COMSOL Video Gallery: www.comsol.com/video

I n s ta l l at i o n M e d i a O p ti o n s
There are four installation media options for COMSOL 5.1:
Installation over the Internet:
- This option requires Internet access from the computer where COMSOL is
to be installed.
Installation from a downloaded DVD image:
- This option requires Internet access from any computer for downloading the
DVD image file with an .iso file extension.
Installation from a DVD given to you by a COMSOL representative:
- This option requires access to a DVD reader on the computer where
COMSOL is to be installed.
Installation from a USB Flash Drive given to you by a COMSOL
representative:
- This option requires a USB port on the computer where COMSOL is to be
installed.
Installation using any of these four options is explained later in this document.

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S y s t e m R e q u i rem e n t s
COMSOL is a cross-platform software that runs on the Windows, Mac, and
Linux operating systems. A variety of hardware platforms are supported,
including graphics cards. Before installing, make sure your computer meets the
current system requirements listed at: www.comsol.com/system-requirements.
There is also a current list of compatible software versions for:
External function C compiler
COMSOL API when used with Java
LiveLink for MATLAB
LiveLink for Excel
CAD Import Module
Design Module
LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS
LiveLink for Inventor
LiveLink for AutoCAD
LiveLink for Revit
LiveLink for PTC CreoParametric
LiveLink for PTCPro/ENGINEER
LiveLink for Solid Edge
File Import for CATIA V5

P rev i o u s I n s t a l l a t i o n s
Previous installations of COMSOL on your computer are not affected by your
new COMSOL 5.1 installation except that double-clicking a Model MPH-file
opens in the latest installation (unless otherwise specified during installation). You
can continue to use other versions or uninstall them independently of the latest
installation.
In this guide, the term COMSOL 5.1 refers not only to
COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 but also to any of the add-on
products.

10 |

S o f t w a re L i c e n s e A g re e m e n t
For the complete software license agreement with details on the license
conditions, please refer to the COMSOL Software License Agreement. The PDF
can be downloaded from this link: www.comsol.com/comsol-license-agreement.
The license agreement is also available in your installation folder.
On Windows, it is located at:
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\doc
\pdf\comsol\COMSOL_SoftwareLicenseAgreement.pdf

and can also be accessed from the Windows Start menu, under
COMSOL 5.1>Documentation.
On Mac, it is located at:
/Applications/COMSOL51/Multiphysics/doc/pdf/comsol/
COMSOL_SoftwareLicenseAgreement.pdf

On Linux, it is located in the installation directory, for example:

/usr/local/comsol51/multiphysics/doc/pdf/comsol/
COMSOL_SoftwareLicenseAgreement.pdf

L i c e n s e Typ e s
There is a variety of license options, and the steps involved when installing can
differ depending on which license type you have acquired. No license type restricts
usage to just one operating system but you are able to choose to install on either
Windows, Mac, or Linux. A COMSOL model file saved on one platform can be
opened on another. Certain license types come with restrictions; make sure you
know which license type you have before proceeding with the installation.
All COMSOL licenses allow for multicore/multiprocessor
shared-memory computing. How many cores or processors you
can utilize is only limited by your hardware configuration and
operating system. In the COMSOL Desktop you control the
number of processors from the Options menu, under
Preferences>Multicore and Cluster Computing.

| 11

For a full description and definition of the different license types,

see the COMSOL Software License Agreement. All of the license
types may not be available in your region.

COMSOL M ULTIPHYSICS
The following is an overview of the license types for COMSOL Multiphysics:
Named Single User License (NSL)

The COMSOL Multiphysics software may be installed and operated on up to four

(4) individual computers, provided it is only accessible to, and operated by, a
single licensed user designated by us as the Named User for that license and
provided that the Named User may concurrently use the software on only two (2)
of those computers at any given time. The NSL version of the software may not
be accessed or used over a network or remotely.
CPU-Locked Single User License (CPU)

You can install the COMSOL Multiphysics software on one designated computer
and different users can take turns using the software on that computer, one session
at a time. The CPU version of the software may not be accessed or used over a
network or remotely.
Floating Network License (FNL)

Licensed per concurrent user, you can install the software on as many machines on
your network as you want for use within your country or territory. COMSOL
Multiphysics software can run on local computers with the network being used
only for license authentication, or alternatively you can run the software on a
remote computer over your network. Cluster and cloud computing is supported
on Windows and Linux platforms.

12 |

Class Kit License (CKL)

As many as 30 students and teachers can simultaneously use the software for a class
over a school network. Students may use the software for homework use, and
teachers may use the software for lesson preparation.

COMSOL S ERVER
The following is an overview of the license types for COMSOL Server:
COMSOL Server License (CSL)

Licensed on a concurrent user basis. Each concurrent user may run up to four
concurrent sessions. The CSL version of the software enables you to run
applications built with the Application Builder. The CSL allows you to host and
run those applications within your organization and also to those outside your
organization who time share your concurrent user slots, worldwide. Applications
can be accessed through a major web browser on a variety of operating systems or
a COMSOL client for the Windows operating system. See System Requirements
for detailed requirements.
Academic Server License (ASL)

Licensed on a 300 concurrent user basis. Each concurrent user may run up to four
concurrent sessions. The ASL version of the software enables you to run
applications built with the Application Builder. The ASL allows you to host and

| 13

run those applications for students, faculty, and staff of your academic institution
or of any other academic institution, worldwide.

L i c e n s e M a n agem e n t To o l s
The FlexNet License Manager Software

Depending on your region and operating system, any of the above license types
may require that the FlexNet license manager software is installed and started
before running COMSOL. The FlexNet license manager comes bundled with any
COMSOL installation. You can view the contents of the license file (license.dat)
that you received from your COMSOL representative by opening it with a text
editor or word processing software. If the file contains a line starting with the word
SERVER, then the FlexNet license manager is required. For a Floating Network
License, the purpose of the FlexNet license manager software is to count the
number of concurrent users and to give an error message if the number of users
exceeds the licensed number of concurrent users. Depending on your region and
operating system, the FlexNet license manager software might also be needed for
a Single User License. In that case, the purpose of the license manager software is
to lock the COMSOL session to a COMSOL authorized computer. See License
Manager Installation on Windows for more information. The COMSOL software
products and the license manager can be installed in any order, except if you are
installing based on a port number and host name. In that case, the license manager
software needs to be installed and started before installing COMSOL.

14 |

Dongle Hardware Lock

Depending on your region and operating system, any of the above license types
might require a dongle (hardware lock). If you have received a dongle to use with
COMSOL, please refer to instructions given to you by your COMSOL
representative.

CO M S O L A c c e s s
COMSOL Access is a service provided by COMSOL that gives you access to
additional content on www.comsol.com and allows you to:
Download products
Update products (restricted to customers with an active subscription)
Edit contact and license information
Access the Knowledge Base (unabridged access to all parts is restricted to
customers with an active subscription)
Contact technical support
Manage event registrations
Manage abstract submissions to the COMSOL Conference
Access to the COMSOL Exchange on-line model sharing
Participate in the Community Discussion Forum
Registering with COMSOL Access is required for product download and
installation.

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Installing on Windows

I n s ta l l a t i o n O ve r t h e I n t e r n e t

INSTALLATION OF A TRIAL LICENSE OVER THE INTERNET

A trial license can be given to you with the intention to test the software without
any payment obligation for noncommercial and nonproduction use. This option
is not available in all regions.
Installation of a Single User Trial License on Windows requires a license passcode.
A passcode has a form similar to:
9FFF3FFFF7F5-TYUS-140917-17074436-384661755

This is usually sent to you by a COMSOL representative by email. Once you locate
your passcode, follow these steps to prepare for download and installation:
1 Click the link for downloading the software as given in the software download

email from your COMSOL representative. This link is identical or similar to:
http://www.comsol.com/product-download.
2 If you havent already created a COMSOL Access account, you are prompted

to create it. When you have created the account, you can enter your trial
passcode to associate it with your account information.
If you already created a COMSOL Access account, you can associate the license
file with your account on the COMSOL Access page under Manage Licenses at
www.comsol.com/access/licenses.
3 Follow the web-based instructions to download the software.
4 Continue with the instructions in the section Downloading the COMSOL

Installer.
INSTALLATION OF A PAID - FOR LICENSE OVER THE I NTERNET

Installation of any paid-for license on Windows requires a license file that is sent
to you by your COMSOL representative by email. To be able to generate the
license file, information about your hardware is needed in the form of a hostid
(host ID). The hostid is used to lock the license to your hardware and needs to be
sent by you to a COMSOL representative prior to the license file being generated.

16 |

Obtaining the Hostid

Follow these steps to obtain a hostid:

1 First open the command window by pressing the keyboard Window button+R.

If you dont have a Window button, click the Start button, enter cmd in the
search box, and press OK or Return.
2 Enter ipconfig /all at the command prompt and press Return. The displayed

information looks similar to this:

3 The hostid you are looking for is here called Physical Address, also known as

Ethernet address or MAC address.

To place the number on the Windows clipboard, right-click the text in the
command window and select Mark in the menu, mark with the mouse, and press
Return. Alternatively, you can type the command:
getmac /FO LIST /V | clip

which also places the information on the Windows clipboard.

4 Now press Ctrl+V to paste the hostid to the text body of an email to be sent to

a COMSOL representative.
Obtaining the Host Name

If you have been informed by your COMSOL representative that you need to run
the FlexNet license manager for your installation, then you also need the Host
Name. The Host Name is encircled in the screen shot above. If your network
administrator prefers to use a fixed IP address for this particular computer, this IP
Address can be optionally used in place of the Host Name. For more information
on license manager installation see License Manager Installation on Windows.
Hostid for PCs with Wireless Adapters

If you plan to install on a computer with a wireless network adapter, you need the
physical address of both the wireless and the Ethernet adapter. If the COMSOL
representative asks you for the hard disk serial number instead of the hostid, type
vol at the Windows command line prompt. The output looks like
Volume Serial Number is 2C9F-5930

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Obtaining the License File from a COMSOL Representative

Send the hostid information, as well as Host Name, if applicable, in an email to

your COMSOL representative, who responds with an email including an attached
license file (license.dat). Save this file to any location on your computer. You
need to refer to it during installation. The license file is a text file and below is an
example of the contents of a license.dat file for a Single User License on
Windows. This example license file shows that the licensed products are
COMSOL Multiphysics, Particle Tracing Module, Subsurface Flow Module, and
LiveLink for Excel.
#-----------------------------------------------------------------# COMSOL 5.1 NSL License No: 1234567 Windows/Mac
# Visit www.comsol.com/install for latest installation instructions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------FEATURE SERIAL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
VENDOR_STRING=C,18000100200 HOSTID=ANY sort=100 SN=1234567 \
TS_OK SIGN=8045890A6FE4
FEATURE COMSOL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted HOSTID="70f2b12f4dfd \
0116b8cc761a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n i86_mac x64_mac" \
SN=2076312 SIGN=E607EB680852
FEATURE PARTICLETRACING LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=3835733C6290
FEATURE SUBSURFACEFLOW LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=3A9BA162C9E4
FEATURE LLEXCEL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc \
0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n i86_mac x64_mac" \
SN=2076312 SIGN=EE9C11E44356
FEATURE COMSOLGUI LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=0D0A83382550

A Single User License file can normally not be edited or changed in any way by
the user but has to be identical to the one sent to you by a COMSOL
representative. If you were sent a license file that requires a license manager, then
minor edits are required. For information on the type of license file required for
installations using a license manager, see The License File.
Registering with COMSOL Access

Once you have saved your license file, follow these steps to register or login to
COMSOL Access to start the installation:
1 Click the link for downloading the software as given in the software download

email from your COMSOL representative. This link is identical or similar to:
www.comsol.com/product-download.

18 |

2 If you havent already created a COMSOL Access account, you are prompted

to create it. When you have created the account, point to your license file
(license.dat) to associate it with your account information.
If you already created a COMSOL Access account, then you can associate the
license file with your account on the COMSOL Access page under Manage
Licenses at www.comsol.com/access/licenses.
3 Continue with the instructions in the next section.

D OWNLOADING

THE

COMSOL I NSTALLER

1 Go to the web page www.comsol.com/product-download.

2 You are now given the option of installing COMSOL using the Online Installer.

(For the DVD option see Installation from Downloaded DVD Image.)
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), please review this knowledge base
entry: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you
still have problems, contact your local COMSOL representative or
technical support from the Support Center page
www.comsol.com/support.
Clicking an install button starts the download of the COMSOL Installer. For
Windows, the file to download is called COMSOL51_win.exe.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FOR INSTALLATION OVER THE I NTERNET

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Start the COMSOL Installer by running the downloaded file
COMSOL51_win.exe. The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window should now appear.
Next, continue with the instructions in the section Running the COMSOL
Installer.

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m D ow n l o a d e d DV D I m age
Installation from a DVD where the DVD image is downloaded from COMSOL
for off-line installation requires you to first create a COMSOL Access account as
described in the section Installation Over the Internet.

| 19

1 Once you are logged in to COMSOL Access, you are now given the option of

installing COMSOL using the Online Installer or to download the DVD Image for
Offline Installation. This section covers the DVD Image option.
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), review this knowledge base entry:
www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you still
have problems, contact your local COMSOL representative or
technical support from the Support Center page at
www.comsol.com/support.
2 In the section for the DVD Image option, click DVD Download. Clicking the

install button starts the download of the COMSOL DVD Image. The file to
download is called COMSOL51_dvd.iso.
3 When you have downloaded the DVD image, burn the DVD image to a disc to

be able to install. In Windows 7 and Windows 8 you can burn by right-clicking

on the DVD image and selecting Open with and then Windows Disc Image Burner.
For earlier Windows versions you need a dedicated DVD burning software to
use this option. In Windows 8 you have the additional option of directly
mounting the DVD image by right-clicking on the DVD image and selecting
Mount and then continuing directly with the installation. For earlier Windows
versions, you can use a dedicated DVD image mounting software to circumvent
burning to DVD.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A

DVD

OR MOUNTED

DVD

IMAGE

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Once you have inserted the COMSOL DVD into the DVD
drive (or mounted the image), the COMSOL Installer window should appear
automatically; if not, run the file setup.exe on the installation DVD. The
COMSOL 5.1 Installer window should now appear. Now continue with the
instructions in the section Running the COMSOL Installer.

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m a DV D
This section applies if you have received a DVD from a COMSOL representative.

20 |

STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A

DVD

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Insert the COMSOL DVD into the DVD drive on your
computer. The COMSOL Installer window should appear automatically; if not,
run the file setup.exe on the installation DVD. The COMSOL 5.1 Installer
window should now appear. Now continue with the instructions in the section
Running the COMSOL Installer.

I n s ta l l at i o n f ro m a U S B F l a sh D r i ve
This section applies if you have received a USB Flash Drive from a COMSOL
representative.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A USB FLASH DRIVE

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Insert the USB Flash Drive into a USB port on your
computer. The COMSOL Installer window should appear automatically; if not,
run the file setup.exe on the USB Flash Drive. The COMSOL 5.1 Installer
window should now appear. Now continue with the instructions in the section
Running the COMSOL Installer below.

Running the COMSOL Installer

The steps for running the COMSOL Installer are independent of the installation
media option you used. If you have followed the above instructions, the

| 21

COMSOL Installer should now appear. The procedure is the same for OS X with
the following exceptions:
COMSOL does not work if the path to the COMSOL folder, or
the name of the COMSOL folder itself, contains spaces.
You cannot browse to the MATLAB installation directory directly.
You need to enter it manually. MATLAB is installed in the
/Applications directory, for example, as
/Applications/MATLAB_R2015a.app.

22 |

1 Select your language for the installation and click Next. The language selected

is also your default language in COMSOL.

| 23

2 In the COMSOL Installer, select one of the following options:

- Click New COMSOL 5.1 Installation and proceed to Step 3 (License Page) to
make a new installation.
- Click Add/Remove Features and Repair and proceed to Step 5 (Platform Page)
to change or repair an existing installation. For example, use Add/Remove
Features and Repair when adding or removing documentation files for
products installed or when adding or removing a product that your license
includes.
- Click Change License and proceed to Step 3 (License Page) to update the
license of an existing installation. Use this option when COMSOL is installed
and you get a new license file. The installer then removes features/products
not licensed any more and lets you go through the Add/Remove Features
procedure to add or remove features for the new license. If your trial license

24 |

has expired you can use the Change License option to re-enable a paid-for
license.
- Click Uninstall COMSOL 5.1 to remove an existing installation. For instructions
on this option, proceed to Removing (Uninstalling) the COMSOL
Installation.
You can change the path to the existing installation by pressing the
F1 key.
LICENSE PAGE
3 After selecting one of the four options, the following is displayed:

After reading the license agreement, click the I accept the terms of the license
agreement button and specify the license. Use one of the following license
formats, depending on which license you have:
- Passcode: Use this option for a Single-User Trial License. Enter your
passcode, which is a series of characters and numbers that has a form similar

| 25

to FFFFFFFFFFFF-TYUS-123456-1234567-123456789. Note that the

passcode is case sensitive.
- License file: Use this option for any type of regular paid-for license installation.
Enter the path to an existing license file or click Browse to select the file
license.dat. This license file is sent to you by a COMSOL representative,
typically by email.
- Port number and Host Name: Use this option if your license administrator has
given you a port number and Host Name for a license manager for COMSOL
that is running somewhere on your organizations network. Enter the Host
Name of the computer or server running the license manager and its license
manager port number.
- Three-server redundancy: Use this option if your license administrator has
given you three port numbers and Host Names for the three-server
redundancy license manager option. Enter the Host Names and license server
port numbers of the three-server redundant configuration.
Change License
If Change License was selected in Step 2, a menu in the upper-left area of the

Installer lets you choose to use an existing paid license, trial license, or you can
choose to specify a new license.

26 |

Click Next and proceed to Step 5 if you want to change to a license with different
products. Otherwise, proceed to Step 10.
4 Click Next.

PLATFORMS PAGE
5 On the Platforms page, you can typically accept the default settings. COMSOL

autodetects the type of operating system, which, for installation on Windows,

can be Windows 32-bit or Windows 64-bit. On the 64-bit version of Windows
you can choose to install both versions.

You can also choose the installation type here: COMSOL Multiphysics (the default)
or COMSOL Server. For information about installing a COMSOL Server license,
see the COMSOL Server Manual.
6 Click Next.

| 27

P RODUCTS P AGE
7 Select the COMSOL products to install, which applications and documentation

to install, and specify the path to the COMSOL installation folder.

In the list of products under Select products to install, all products that your
license includes are selected. In addition, the License Manager check box is
selected. Depending on your region and operating system, the license type may
require that the FlexNet license manager software is installed and started before
running COMSOL (see License Management Tools).
From the options under Application libraries, choose one of the following
installation options for application libraries:
- Install application libraries for licensed products (the default) to install the
application libraries for the licensed products.
- Install application libraries for all products to install the application libraries for
all COMSOL products. You have then the possibility to browse and open
applications from all products application libraries.
- Do not include application libraries to not install any application libraries. You
can choose to download selected applications after the installation using the
Application Library Update.
From the options under Documentation, choose one of the following installation
options for the product documentation:
- Install documentation for licensed products (the default) to install the
documentation for the licensed products.
- Install documentation for all products to install the documentation for all
COMSOL products. You have then the possibility to view and search all

28 |

COMSOL documentation, including documentation for products not

included in your license.
- No documentation to not install any documentation. You can still view
documentation and access context help using online documentation provided
by COMSOL, but no documentation files are installed on your computer.
Under Destination folder, a default installation destination is suggested; for
Windows, typically C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics.

| 29

Click Browse or type another destination directory if needed.

If Change License was selected earlier and you are changing the
license of an already existing installation, you need to pay attention
to which check boxes are selected. If you are adding products not
previously part of your installation, but added with the new license
file, then you need to verify the selection of the check boxes for
the corresponding installation components. (If you do not, the
license information is still correct but the software components
needed to run the products will be missing.)
Add/Remove Features and Repair
If Add/Remove Features and Repair or Change License was selected in Step 2, the
Products page includes a Repair all selected features check box. If you select this

check box, the selected set of products determines which software components,
documentation, and models are to be added or removed. Products that are
selected are added if not previously installed, and products that are not selected

30 |

are removed if previously installed. The selected set only affects those products
that you have licensed.
8 Click Next.

O PTIONS

PAGE

9 On this page, you can set the following installation options:

- Create COMSOL shortcuts on Windows Desktop

- Create COMSOL folder in the Windows Start Menu
- Associate the .mph file type with this COMSOL installation
If this check box is selected, you can open COMSOL models by
double-clicking them.
- Install Microsoft DirectX runtime binaries
Clear the Install DirectX runtime binaries check box if you previously
experienced problems using DirectX on your computer. DirectX can be used
by COMSOL for accelerated graphics rendering. If you clear this check box,
then you still have two graphics options: OpenGL or software rendering.
Once installation is complete, you can change the graphics rendering method

| 31

from the Preferences dialog box on the Options menu in the COMSOL
Desktop.
For a Floating Network License, you can access COMSOL with a
Windows Remote Desktop connection. This way of accessing
COMSOL is only supported with the software rendering graphics
option.
- Install LiveLink for Excel for all users. If you select this check box, the
installation of LiveLink for Excel is global to the machine and is available
no matter which user is logged on. Otherwise, the installation is only available
to the current user (this is the only supported option for Excel 2007).
- Set permanent security policy for applications. If you select this option, the
next page in the installer provides security options that you can set
permanently; see Security page. If you set a permanent security policy, the
security settings in the Preferences dialog box is not available when you run
COMSOL.
The following two options are available under Update:
- Check for updates after installation. This option is selected by default. The
installer then checks and applies all updates that are available for the version
that you install.
- Enable automatic updates after installation. Select this check box if you want
COMSOL to automatically check for and apply available software updates.
- If you install over the Internet using a proxy server, you can specify the host
name, port number, and, optionally, a username and password if required. If
you do not enter a port number, COMSOL uses port 443, which is the
default port setting for the HTTPS protocol. These settings do not appear if
you do not perform an installation via the Internet.
- For the LiveLink products for MATLAB, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, and
PTC Creo Parametric, specify the path to their respective installation
folders.
10 Click Next.

32 |

S ECURITY

PAGE

11 The Security page is only available if you have selected the Set permanent security

policy for applications check box.

COMSOL includes security settings for controlling access to, for example,
system properties, file systems, and runtime security settings from methods and
external libraries, primarily for use in applications created using the Application
Builder. The following security settings are available on the Security page in the
installer:
- Select the Allow batch jobs check box to allow batch jobs. This restriction affects
the Batch, Batch Sweep, Cluster Computing, and Cluster Sweep nodes in the
COMSOL Desktop model tree.
- Select Allow external processes and libraries to allow applications to start external
processes on the computer. This includes using the built-in executeOS()

| 33

method. This setting also allows external C libraries to be called from

methods in an application.
- Select Allow running application methods to allow running applications that
include methods. If you clear this check box, it is not possible to run methods
in applications.
- Select Allow running applications to allow running applications in general. If you
clear this check box, it is not possible to run any applications.
By default, all check boxes above except the Allow external processes and libraries
check box are selected.
- The Enforce security restrictions check box is selected by default. If selected, this
check box enforces the following restrictions on methods and Java libraries
under Methods and Java libraries:
- Select the Allow access to system properties check box to read and write values to
system properties such as System.getProperty("cs.np") which can be used
to determine the number of cores that COMSOL Multiphysics currently
uses.
- Select the Allow changes to the runtime system check box to allow methods and
Java libraries to change the runtime systemfor instance, by modifying class
loaders.
- From the File system access list, select Temporary and application files (the default)
to restrict methods and Java libraries to only have access to such files, or select
All files to allow methods and Java libraries to access all files that you have
permissions to access on the file system.
- Select the Allow access to network sockets check box to allow methods and Java
libraries to open sockets for network access.
- Select the Allow control of the network authentication method check box to allow
methods and Java libraries to control the network authentication method
used.
- Select the Allow access to classes through reflection check box to allow access to all
members in a class through reflection.
- Select the Allow access to runtime security settings check box to allow methods
and Java libraries to access security settings.
All check boxes above are cleared by default, enforcing those security
restrictions.
12 Click Next.

34 |

I NSTALL

PAGE

13 When you click Install the utility now installs or updates COMSOL. The

installation process might take several minutes. A full installation including all
products typically takes more than 15 minutes to complete. If you are installing
over the Internet, the installation time depends on your Internet connection
speed. The Finish page in Step 13 appears automatically when the installation
process is finished.

| 35

F INISH

PAGE

14 This window appears when the installation is finished.

If warning or errors were detected, click View Log to open a window that shows
the installation log. Do not hesitate to contact technical support if you
encountered any errors and remember to send the installation log file along
with your technical support inquiry.
15 Click Finish to quit the installer.

For information on how to run COMSOL after installation, see Running

COMSOL on Windows. If you are installing on a Mac, see Running COMSOL
on OS X. If you are installing on Linux, see Running COMSOL on Linux.

R e m ov i n g ( U n i n s t a l l i n g ) t h e C O M S O L I n s t a l l a t i o n
To remove a COMSOL installation from your system, you can uninstall using the
COMSOL Installers uninstallation option. The uninstaller deletes all old version

36 |

COMSOL files and directories on the system that were installed by the COMSOL
installer. Additional files and folders created after installation are not removed.
If COMSOL is run with MATLAB, close MATLAB before starting the
uninstaller. If MATLAB is active, the utility cannot remove certain files.
You can start the COMSOL Uninstaller in a few different ways:
From the Windows Start Menu, open the Control Panel and select Uninstall a
program. Find COMSOL 5.1 in the list and select Uninstall.
From the Windows Start Menu under COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1, select
Uninstall.
Insert the COMSOL DVD and start the COMSOL Uninstaller. Click
Uninstall COMSOL 5.1
to start removing the installation. Click Finish to quit
the installer when the uninstallation is complete.
In Windows 8, go to the All apps page and click the COMSOL Launchers
folder. In that folder you find the option to uninstall.

| 37

I n s t a l l i n g S o f t w a re U p d a t e s
COMSOL provides software updates that improve the software and correct issues.
To check if an update is available, choose Check For Product Updates from the Help
menu. If an update is available, an Update dialog box appears. Click Download to
download the update directly, or click Browse Update to open the COMSOL
website where you can read about and download the update. To check for updates
automatically each time you start COMSOL, select the Check for updates at launch
check box under Product updates on the Updates page in the Preferences dialog
box. When the update installation starts (close any running instance of COMSOL)
you see the following installation window:

You can use a direct download (the default) or download via a proxy server. If you
download via a proxy server, specify the host name and port number for the proxy
and, if required, a username and password. Other alternative are to launch an
update from the COMSOL folder in the Start menu or to launch setup.exe from
the COMSOL installation directory.
As an alternative, you can update COMSOL without starting the update from
inside COMSOL Multiphysics. To do this, from the Windows Start Menu under
COMSOL 5.1, select Update. This launches the update program. On Windows 8,
go to the All apps page and click the COMSOL Launchers folder. In that folder
you find the update program.

38 |

A u t o m a t e d I n s ta l l a t i o n
You can install COMSOL using an automated installation process with minimal
user interaction. This method requires installation from a DVD or DVD image.
An answer file then responds to questions while the installer is running. The
answer file is a text file with a specific format that contains predefined settings that
the COMSOL installer uses. Start the installation by running
<path

to DVD>\setup.exe -s <answer file path>

where <answer file path> is the path to your answer file. A template answer
file, setupconfig.ini, with detailed usage information is available on the DVD.

A UTOMATED R EMOVAL (U NINSTALLATION )

OF

COMSOL

You can uninstall COMSOL using an answer file:

<path

to COMSOL>\uninstall.exe -s <answer file path>

where <answer file path> is the path to your answer file. If you attempt to
enter the command using Windows Command Prompt (cmd) make sure you
execute the command outside the <path to COMSOL> directory or any
subdirectory.

P ro d u c t U p d a t e s a n d L i b r a r y U p d a t e s
COMSOL periodically releases product updates with improvements and
corrections to reported problems. By default, COMSOL checks for updates at
startup. You can turn this feature on and off from the COMSOL Desktop
Preferences window. Here you can also configure settings for the Application
Library Update.
The Application Libraries for the COMSOL products are updated on a regular
basis by COMSOL. To open the Application Library Update window from the
File>Help menu (Windows users) or from the Help menu (Mac and Linux users),
select Update COMSOL Application Library.

| 39

This connects you to the COMSOL Application Library Update website where
you can access the latest updates. This includes files that have been added or
improved since the latest product release.

Using the Updates section in the Preferences dialog box you can configure proxy
server settings as well as application and documentation directories for the
Application Library Update. See the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual
for more information, including command-line options for the Application
Libraries.
In a similar way, you can also update the COMSOL Part Libraries. To open the
Part Library Update window from the File>Help menu (Windows users) or from
the Help menu (Mac and Linux users), select Update COMSOL Part Library.

L i veL i n k f o r E x c e l I n s t a l l a t i o n s
If you have licensed LiveLink for Excel, several tools are accessible from a
COMSOL tab in the Excel ribbon for working with a COMSOL model from an
Excel worksheet. You can, for example, extract model definitions and results. You
can also change model definitions in the worksheet, then update and re-compute
the model.

40 |

Whenever you open a COMSOL model from Excel, a COMSOL Multiphysics

Server is started where the model is loaded. The data transfer between Excel and
the COMSOL Multiphysics Server application is performed using a TCP/IP
communication protocol, which accepts only local connections.

L i veL i n k f o r S O L I DWO R K S : A dd -I n fo r SO L IDWOR K S

If you have licensed LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS, the COMSOL Installer
registers an add-in called the LiveLink for COMSOL (5.1). This add-in should
appear in the SOLIDWORKS user interface, listed in the Add-Ins dialog box,
accessible from the Tools menu.
The add-in provides tools for preparing your SOLIDWORKS design for
simulation with COMSOL. For example, you can create selections on the
geometry and set up dimensional parameters. Those selections and parameters,
together with the geometry, are synchronized with the COMSOL model.
The add-in enables two modes of setting up simulations based on the
SOLIDWORKS design:
In one mode you can run SOLIDWORKS and the COMSOL Desktop
side-by-side and synchronize the geometry between the two.
In another mode you can work with COMSOL simulations inside
SOLIDWORKS. This latter mode is called the One-Window interface. Only
one version of the One-Window interface can be active at a time. If you have
several COMSOL versions installed, make sure that the latest version of
LiveLink for COMSOL is selected from the COMSOL>One-Window Version
menu inside SOLIDWORKS. If required, restart SOLIDWORKS after
changing the One-Window interface version.
If COMSOL cannot connect to SOLIDWORKS, you can re-install COMSOL, or
follow the instructions from the following link:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1122.

L i veL i n k f o r I nve n t o r : A dd - i n fo r A u t o d e s k I nve n t o r

If you have licensed LiveLink for Inventor, the installer registers an add-in for
Autodesk Inventor called the LiveLink for COMSOL (5.1). This add-in should

| 41

appear in the Add-In Manager dialog box that is accessible from the Options tab
of the Tools panel in the Autodesk Inventor user interface.
The add-in provides tools for preparing your Inventor design for simulation with
COMSOL. For example, you can set up dimensional parameters that, together
with the geometry, are synchronized with the COMSOL model.
The add-in enables two modes of setting up simulations based on the Inventor
design:
In one mode you can run Inventor and the COMSOL Desktop side-by-side
and synchronize the geometry between the two.
In another mode you can work with COMSOL simulations inside Inventor.
This latter mode is called the One-Window interface.
If COMSOL cannot connect to Inventor, you can re-install COMSOL, or follow
the instructions from the following link:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1163.

L i veL i n k f o r A u t o C AD I n s t a l l a t i o n s
If you have licensed LiveLink for AutoCAD, the installer registers an add-in
with AutoCAD. This add-in is loaded on start-up of AutoCAD and provides
functionality for synchronizing the geometry between AutoCAD and COMSOL.
When the add-in is loaded a COMSOL Multiphysics tab appears in AutoCAD.
If for some reason the COMSOL Multiphysics tab does not appear try to reinstall
LiveLink for AutoCAD.

L i veL i n k f o r P T C P ro / E N G I N E E R : C h a n g i n g t h e
I n s ta l l a t i o n Pa t h
If you have licensed LiveLink for PTC Pro/ENGINEER, you need to provide
the installation path for PTC Pro/ENGINEER or PTC Creo Elements/Pro
during the install process. The installer registers an add-in with PTC
Pro/ENGINEER called LiveLink for COMSOL (5.1). The add-in should be
listed in the Auxiliary Applications dialog box that is accessible from the Tools
menu in the PTC Pro/ENGINEER user interface. The add-in provides

42 |

functionality for selecting dimensional parameters that can be synchronized with

COMSOL.
After the installation you can configure the interface to work with a different PTC
Pro/ENGINEER installation. Go to the Preferences window, which you can
access from the Options menu inside the COMSOL Desktop. There find the
LiveLink products section and edit the PTC Pro/ENGINEER installation folder.
It should point to the root directory of the PTC Pro/ENGINEER installation,
typically
C:\Program Files\proeWildfire 5.0

or, for an installation of PTC Creo Elements/Pro,

C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo Elements\Pro5.0

If you have installed both LiveLink for PTC Pro/ENGINEER and LiveLink for
PTC Creo Parametric, you can use only one of those during a COMSOL
Multiphysics modeling session. The default is to connect to PTC Creo Parametric.
To connect to PTC Pro/ENGINEER select LiveLink for PTC Pro/ENGINEER
from the Use list.
Restart COMSOL for the changes to take effect.
Note that changing the PTC Pro/ENGINEER installation folder in the
Preferences window does not re-register the add-in with that PTC
Pro/ENGINEER installation. To do this you can reinstall COMSOL, or follow
the instructions from the following links Parameter Selection is not available in
the PTC Pro/ENGINEER user interface:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1159
If COMSOL cannot connect to PTC Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0, follow the
instructions from the following link:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1162

L i veL i n k f o r P T C C reo Pa r a m e tr i c : C h a n g i n g t h e
I n s ta l l a t i o n Pa t h
If you have licensed LiveLink for PTC Creo Parametric, you need to provide
the path to the common files folder in the PTC Creo Parametric installation
during the installation process. After the installation you can configure the
interface to work with a different PTC Creo Parametric installation. To do so, go
to the Preferences window, which you can access from the Options menu inside
the COMSOL Desktop. There find the LiveLink products section and edit the

| 43

PTC Creo Parametric common files folder. It should point to the common files
directory of the PTC Creo Parametric installation, typically
C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 2.0\Common Files\M040

Restart COMSOL for the changes to take effect.

Note that changing the PTC Creo Parametric common files folder in the
Preferences window does not re-register the add-in with that PTC Creo
Parametric installation. To do this you can re-install COMSOL, or follow the
instructions from the following link:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1158.

L i veL i n k f o r R ev i t : A dd - i n fo r R ev i t
If you have licensed LiveLink for Revit, the installer registers an add-in for Revit
Architecture. When the add-in is loaded a tab called COMSOL Multiphysics
appears in Revit Architecture. The COMSOL Multiphysics tab will not appear if
the add-in cannot be loaded by Revit Architecture. This can happen if, for
example, the COMSOL installation is moved to a different location. To restore
the add-in you can reinstall LiveLink for Revit.

L i veL i n k f o r S o l i d E d ge : A dd - i n fo r So l id E d ge
If you have licensed LiveLink for Solid Edge, the installer creates an add-in to
Solid Edge called LiveLink for COMSOL (5.1). This add-in should appear in the
Add-In Manager dialog box that is accessible in the Solid Edge user interface if
you click the Applications button, then select Add-Ins from the menu.
When the add-in is active a COMSOL Multiphysics tab appears in Solid Edge. Use
the Parameter Selection tool from the tab to select dimensional parameters that,
together with the geometry, are synchronized between Solid Edge and
COMSOL.
If COMSOL cannot connect to Solid Edge, you can re-install COMSOL, or
follow the instructions from the following link Error: Failed to connect to Solid
Edge:
http://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1160

44 |

Cluster Installation
COMSOL supports two mutual modes of parallel operation: shared-memory
parallel operations and distributed-memory parallel operations, including cluster
support. This section is dedicated to distributed-memory parallel installation.
COMSOL can distribute computations on compute clusters using the MPI
model. One large problem can be distributed across many compute nodes. Also,
parametric sweeps can be distributed with individual parameter cases distributed
to each cluster node.
LICENSE MANAGER

COMSOL requires a Floating Network License for running on clusters. Please

check the license file for the CLUSTERNODE feature, which needs to be present
to enable the cluster computing functionality. The license manager needs to be
accessible from all nodes in the cluster. Therefore it is often a good idea to have it
run on the head node.
INSTALLATION FOLDER

The COMSOL installation folder should be shared between all compute nodes
and the head node.
FEATURES

During installation, make sure the Cluster Components feature is selected.

ACCESS TO CLUSTER ( WINDOWS SERVER ONLY )

If you work on a desktop PC, install COMSOL on that PC. Before you start, you
need to install Windows HPC Pack on the PC. This software is free and enables
you to access the cluster from your PC.
For more information on installing and running COMSOL on clusters, see
Running COMSOL on Clusters and the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference
Manual.

| 45

License Manager Installation on Windows

Depending on your region and operating system, you might be required to install
and run the FlexNet license manager software in order to run COMSOL.

W h a t i s t h e Fl exN e t License Manage r?

COMSOL uses the FlexNet license manager version 11 from Flexera Software,
Inc. for license management. (FlexNet was formerly called FLEXlm.)
The license manager comes bundled with any COMSOL installation. The
COMSOL software products and the license manager can be installed in any
order, unless you are installing based on a port number and Host Name. In that
case, the license manager software needs to be installed and started before
installing COMSOL.
Installation of any paid-for license on Windows requires a license file
(license.dat), which is sent to you by a COMSOL representative by email. You
can view the contents of the license file by opening it with a text editor or word
processing software. If the file contains a line starting with the word SERVER,
then the FlexNet license manager is required. For a Floating Network License, the
purpose of the license manager software is to count the number of concurrent
users and to give an error message if the number exceeds the licensed number of
concurrent users. Depending on your region and operating system, the license
manager software might also be needed for Single User Licenses. In that case, the
purpose of the license manager software is to lock a COMSOL session to a
computer that is authorized by COMSOL.
The FlexNet license manager supports a heterogeneous network of Windows,
Linux, and OS X computers. Both the license manager and the COMSOL
software can run on either Windows, Linux, or Mac platforms. In this context, the
computer where the license manager is installed is called the license server and any
computer that has the COMSOL products installed is called a client. Any type of
computer can function as a license server, such as a laptop, desktop, workstation
or a centrally located server. COMSOL can be installed anywhere, typically on a
local PC or on a file server where users access the program over a network. A single
computer can function as both license server and client, holding both the license
manager and COMSOL.
Even though the license manager and COMSOL can be installed in any order, a
full test of the installation cannot be done until both are installed.

46 |

S y s t e m R e q u i rem e n t s fo r t h e F l exN e t L i c e n s e M a n ager

Before starting the installation process, check that your system meets all necessary
requirements as listed at: www.comsol.com/system-requirements. For
COMSOL, all requirements need to be met. If you are running the license
manager on a license server where you did not intend to run COMSOL, the
system requirements are less stringent. The license server only needs to meet the
listed hardware and operating system requirements. For the license manager,
memory and graphics requirements do not need to be met. The license manager
is a much less CPU- and memory-demanding application than COMSOL.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n age r S o f t w a re C o m p o n e n t s
The license manager consists of four software components:
License manager daemon (lmgrd.exe)
Vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL.exe)
FlexNet utility program (lmutil.exe)
FlexNet Control Panel (lmtools.exe)
The two daemons (lmgrd.exe and LMCOMSOL.exe) run on the license server. When
a user starts COMSOL on a client computer, communication is established
through the network from the client to the license server and the license manager
daemon (lmgrd.exe). That daemon in turn makes a request to the vendor daemon
(LMCOMSOL.exe), which releases licenses according to information in the
license.dat file. The FlexNet utility program and FlexNet Control Panel are used
for handling license server management tasks.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n age r D o c u m e n t a t i o n
For detailed information on the FlexNet license manager software, choose
File>Help>Documentation (Windows) or select Help>Documentation (Mac and
Linux). Then scroll to the bottom of the page to locate a PDF copy of the FlexNet
License Administration Guide for FlexNet Publisher. You can also find the
FlexNet documentation on your hard drive. The default folder location is

| 47

C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\doc\pdf\COMSOL_Multiphysics\
flexnet

T h e Li c e n s e F i l e
The license file has the same structure on all platforms: Windows, OS X, and
Linux. In this section, the most important parts of the license file are explained.
Below is an example of the contents of a license.dat file:
#-----------------------------------------------------------------# COMSOL 5.1 FNL License No: 1234567
# Visit www.comsol.com/install for latest installation instructions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------SERVER apollo.thecompany.com 0050569e1b87 1718
USE_SERVER
VENDOR LMCOMSOL port=1719
FEATURE SERIAL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
VENDOR_STRING=C,5701108 HOSTID=ANY BORROW=720 SN=1234567 TS_OK \
SIGN=0C3A8BF6722E
INCREMENT COMSOL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 4 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UHD \
ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT COMSOLGUI LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 4 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UHD \
ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT HEATTRANSFER LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 2 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UHD ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 \
SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT CLIENTSERVER LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 4 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UHD ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 \
SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT CLUSTERNODE LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 4 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=U \
ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT COMSOLBATCH LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 2 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UHD ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 \
SIGN=123456789ABC
INCREMENT HEATTRANSFERBATCH LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent 2 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UHD ISSUED=6-JUN-2012 BORROW=720 SN=1234567 \
SIGN=123456789ABC

THE COMMENT LINES

Comment lines can be included in the license file by starting them with the hash
symbol #. These lines have no effect on the license server or client.

48 |

THE SERVER LINE

In the license.dat file, the contents of the line starting with SERVER should
contain:
The Host Name of the license server. In the example above, the Host Name
is apollo.thecompany.com. This name can be edited by the user.
The hostid of the license server. In the example above, the hostid is
0050569e1b87. This number cannot be edited by the user.
A port number. In the example above, the port number is 1718.This
number can be edited by the user.
Confirm that the license server Host Name is the actual name of your license server
(the computer that you intend to run the FlexNet license manager software on);
otherwise, change it by editing the file. The default port number (1718) can be
changed in the unlikely event that another program is already using that port
number (you then get an error message indicating this when starting the license
manager). If the default port number 1718 is being used, change it to any other
number between 1025 and 64,000.
THE USE _ SERVER LINE

The USE_SERVER line, with no arguments, does not impact the license manager
but has implications for the client. When a COMSOL client sees the
USE_SERVER line, it ignores everything in the license file except the preceding
SERVER lines and transfers checkout validation to the vendor daemon. This
means that if you are running COMSOL on one computer, and the license
manager on a different computer, then your license file can only contain two lines:
the SERVER line and the USE_SERVER line.
THE VENDOR LINE

The VENDOR line defines the name of the LMCOMSOL vendor daemon. This
name cannot be changed. The vendor daemon is a process that has to be running
together with the license manager and is automatically started when the license
manager is started. The LMCOMSOL vendor daemon requires its own port
number. In the example above, the default port number 1719 is shown.
If the license manager is running on a computer with an active firewall and the
COMSOL client is outside of that firewall, at least two port numbers must be
opened up in the license servers firewall to allow client computers to connect to
the license manager and the vendor daemon.
Using the example license file above, configure the firewall to allow access to the
port numbers 1718 and 1719. If you have chosen other port numbers and
modified the license.dat file accordingly, configure the firewall to allow access

| 49

to your chosen port numbers. If you are unsure about which port numbers are free
or how to enable firewall port access, contact your system administrator.
You cannot modify anything in the license.dat file except the license server name
and (if necessary) port numbers, or the license might not work.
THE SERIAL LINE

The SERIAL line contains information on the license type, license number, and
the products included in the license.
THE INCREMENT AND FEATURE LINES

The INCREMENT or FEATURE lines contain a product name, version,

expiration date, and the number of available licenses. The example file above
shows that the user has a perpetual (permanent) COMSOL 5.1 Floating Network
License allowing four concurrent users of COMSOL Multiphysics and two
concurrent users of the Heat Transfer Module. The number after SIGN= at the
end of each INCREMENT line contains a license key. Long lines can be broken
by a continuation character (\).
The Feature Names

The following table contains the FEATURE names for all products in the
COMSOL 5.1 product suite:
PRODUCT/FEATURE

FEATURE NAME

COMSOL Multiphysics

COMSOL

COMSOL Server

COMSOLSERVER

COMSOL User

COMSOLUSER

COMSOL Multiphysics GUI

COMSOLGUI

COMSOL Multiphysics Floating Network License

CLIENTSERVER, CLUSTERNODE

AC/DC Module

ACDC

Acoustics Module

ACOUSTICS

Batteries & Fuel Cells Module

BATTERIESANDFUELCELLS

CAD Import Module

CADIMPORT, CADREADER

CFD Module

CFD

Chemical Reaction Engineering Module

CHEM

Corrosion Module

CORROSION

Design Module

DESIGN

ECAD Import Module

ECADIMPORT

50 |

PRODUCT/FEATURE

FEATURE NAME

Electrochemistry Module

ELECTROCHEMISTRY

Electrodeposition Module

ELECTRODEPOSITION

Fatigue Module

FATIGUE

File Import for CATIA V5

CATIA5

Geomechanics Module

GEOMECHANICS

Heat Transfer Module

HEATTRANSFER

LiveLink for AutoCAD

LLAUTOCAD

LiveLink for PTC Creo Parametric

LLCREOPARAMETRIC

LiveLink for Excel

LLEXCEL

LiveLink for Inventor

LLINVENTOR

LiveLink for MATLAB

LLMATLAB

LiveLink for Revit

LLREVIT

LiveLink for PTC Pro/ENGINEER

LLPROENGINEER

LiveLink for Solid Edge

LLSOLIDEDGE

LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS

LLSOLIDWORKS

MEMS Module

MEMS

Microfluidics Module

MICROFLUIDICS

Mixer Module

MIXER

Molecular Flow Module

MOLECULARFLOW

Multibody Dynamics Module

MULTIBODYDYNAMICS

Nonlinear Structural Materials Module

NONLINEARSTRUCTMATERIALS

Optimization Module

OPTIMIZATION

Particle Tracing Module

PARTICLETRACING

Pipe Flow Module

PIPEFLOW

Plasma Module

PLASMA

Ray Optics Module

RAYOPTICS

RF Module

RF

Semiconductor Module

SEMICONDUCTOR

Structural Mechanics Module

STRUCTURALMECHANICS

Subsurface Flow Module

SUBSURFACEFLOW

Wave Optics Module

WAVEOPTICS

| 51

In addition, the following postfix additions are available:

BATCH is a postfix for all COMSOL Multiphysics features to support batch
processes running on separate computers, normally used only for floating
network licenses.
CSL is a postfix corresponding to COMSOL Server license for different
COMSOL products.
BACSL is a postfix corresponding to BATCH for COMSOL Multiphysics
but issued for COMSOL Server licenses.

I n s t a l l i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n age r
The FlexNet license manager is automatically installed when installing COMSOL
unless otherwise specified on the Features page of the COMSOL Installer; see
Products Page. The check box for the license manager components can be found
last in the list of software components, as seen in the picture below:

52 |

If you do not intend to run the license manager software on the computer for
which you are installing COMSOL, you can clear this check box during
installation. The license manager components require a moderate amount of hard
disk space (about 26MB).
If you want to install COMSOL on the same computer as the license manager, first
perform a complete COMSOL installation including the license manager software
components. When finished, skip the remainder of this section and continue with
Starting the License Manager.
To install only the license manager, follow the installation instructions for
COMSOL earlier in this document and on the Features page and clear all check
boxes except the one for the license manager
AUTOMATED LICENSE MANAGER INSTALLATION

Alternatively, the license manager can be installed using an automated installation

process with minimal user interaction; see Automated Installation. Set licmanager
= 1 in the answer file to install the license manager.

S t a r t i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n age r
The license manager can be started manually, or it can be configured to run
automatically as a service each time the license server is restarted.
STARTING THE MANAGER AUTOMATICALLY AS A SERVICE

To set up the license manager as a service from the FlexNet Control Panel
(LMTOOLS):
1 Locate the COMSOL51\license\win32 (Windows 32-bit) or

(Windows 64-bit) folder and run lmtools.exe.

Alternatively, run LMTOOLS from the Windows Start menu, available under
COMSOL 5.1>License Tools>LMTOOLS.

COMSOL51\license\win64

2 On the Service/License File page choose Configuration using Services.

| 53

3 Click the Configure Services tab.

4 Make an entry in the Service Name field, for example, COMSOL License

Manager.
5 Specify the full paths to lmgrd.exe and license.dat by browsing to their

locations on your hard drive. The default location for lmgrd.exe is C:\Program
Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\license\win64\lmgrd.exe, and for the license file, it is
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\license\license.dat. For the debug log
file, you can use any name of your choice, for example, comsol51.log. For
convenience you can place this next to your license file at: C:\Program
Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\license\comsol51.log.

Make sure your Windows user account has read/write permission

for the folder of the debug log file, otherwise the debug log file is
not created.
6 Select the Use Services check box (this might not be possible on all platforms,

but it is recommended when available) and then the Start Server at Power Up
check box.
7 Click Save Service. The license manager now starts at automatically when you

reboot the license server computer. If you want to start the license manager
right away without restarting the license server computer, click Start Server on
the Start/Stop/Reread page of the FlexNet Control Panel.

54 |

S TARTING

THE LICENSE MANAGER MANUALLY

To start the license manager manually, browse to the license\win32 (Windows

32-bit) or license\win64 (Windows 64-bit) folder. Now, in a Windows command
window enter
lmgrd -c ..\license.dat -l ..\comsol51.log

The license manager is now ready to distribute licenses over the network. It writes
debug information to the log file COMSOL51\license\comsol51.log.

Ve rifying that the License Man age r is Runn in g

Once you start the license manager, it is good practice to verify that the license
manager service is running. Start the Windows Task Manager and go to the
Services page. Check that the COMSOL License Manager service is running.

Starting COMSOL
After the installation is complete and the license manager daemons are running on
the license server, you can start using COMSOL. For more information on how
to run COMSOL, see Running COMSOL on Windows.

Changing the License

If you have received a new license filefor example, when adding COMSOL
products to an existing licensereplace the current license file with the new one.
Double-check the contents of this file to make sure it lists the products that the
license includes. See also The Feature Names.
When the license file has changed, you must restart the license
manager; otherwise, it continues to use the old license file still in
memory.

| 55

RESTARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER

To restart the license manager, follow these steps:

1 In the Windows Start menu, choose COMSOL5.1>License Tools>LMTOOLS.
2 In the FlexNet Control Panel, click, in this order, Stop Server and Start Server.

OBTAINING A HOSTID

If you need to verify the hostid of the license server, you can follow the steps for
Obtaining the Hostid. Alternatively, if COMSOL is already installed on the license
server, you can determine the hostid by running the lmhostid command
COMSOL51/license/win32/lmutil lmhostid

or
COMSOL51/license/win64/lmutil lmhostid

for Windows 32-bit and Windows 64-bit, respectively.

The hostid is typically the Ethernet address (also called a MAC address) of the
network card of your computer. An Ethernet address has six bytes, each with two
hexadecimal digits. Thus, the full hostid has twelve hexadecimal digits.
Alternatively, the hostid can be the volume serial number of your C hard drive.
The volume serial number has 4 bytes, each with two hexadecimal digits. In this
case, the full hostid has eight hexadecimal digits.

Tro u bl e s h o o t i n g L i c e n s e E rro r s
If you have questions or problems with your installation, see Troubleshooting
License Errors.

56 |

Running COMSOL on Windows

After the installation is finished there is a COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 shortcut
icon on the Windows desktop:

as well as a COMSOL 5.1 folder on the Windows Start menu. To start COMSOL,
double-click the desktop icon or select COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 from the
Windows Start menu. For Windows 8 instructions, see Running COMSOL on
Windows 8.

C ROSS -P LATFORM U SER I NTERFACE

The default user interface for COMSOL is a Windows application. There is also a
cross-platform user interface that you can start by going to the bin\win32 (32
bit) or bin\win64 (64 bit) folder in the COMSOL installation directory and
double-clicking comsolxpl.exe. The cross-platform user interface is identical to
the interface on Linux and the Mac.

T h e C O M S O L Fol d e r o n T h e W i n d ow s S t a r t M e nu
Depending on which COMSOL products and software components you have
licensed and installed, the COMSOL 5.1 folder on the Start menu contains a
selection of the items in the following list:
COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1: Starts the COMSOL Desktop.
Model Animations: Launches a web browser with a selection of model
animations at: www.comsol.com/showroom/animations
Uninstall: Starts the COMSOL Uninstaller. For more information, see
Removing (Uninstalling) the COMSOL Installation.
Update: Starts the COMSOL Installer in update mode.
32-bit: Contains COMSOL 32-bit executables

| 57

 Client Server
- COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 Client: Starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Client
that can be connected to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
- COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 Server: Starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Server
that a COMSOL Multiphysics Client can connect to.
For more information on running COMSOL in client-server mode, see
Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode.
COMSOL with MATLAB: This is available if you have licensed the LiveLink
for MATLAB. It starts MATLAB and sets up all necessary paths. It also starts
a COMSOL Multiphysics Server connected to MATLAB. See also Running
COMSOL with MATLAB.
Documentation: Opens a folder that contains COMSOL documentation
shortcuts.
License Tools: Starts the FlexNet license manager control panel
(LMTOOLS). For more information, see License Manager Installation on
Windows.

R u n n i n g C O M S O L o n W i n d ow s 8
On Windows 8, COMSOL can be started from three different locations:
There is a COMSOL Multiphysics tile on the Windows Start Screen:

58 |

 There are two icons on the Window Desktop for COMSOL Multiphysics
and COMSOL Help Desk:

The Windows All apps page has three tiles for COMSOL Help Desk,
COMSOL Launchers, and COMSOL Multiphysics:

S ta r t i n g C O M S OL fo r a C l a s ski t L i c e n se
If you have a Classkit License, you start it by double-clicking its dedicated
Windows desktop icon:

For Windows 8, corresponding tiles and desktop icons are added.

| 59

C re a t i n g D e s k t o p S h o r t c u t s M a nu a l ly
Sometimes it is necessary to create the COMSOL shortcuts manually, for example,
when COMSOL is installed on a shared network drive.
1 Locate the COMSOL executable. Its default location is
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win64\comsol.exe

or
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win32\comsol.exe

for Windows 64-bit and Windows 32-bit, respectively

2 Right-click comsol.exe and select Create shortcut, which creates a shortcut

with a default name comsol.exe - Shortcut. If this shortcut is not created on the
Desktop, then move it there by drag-and-drop.

C REATING A D ESKTOP S HORTCUT M ANUALLY

U SER I NTERFACE

FOR THE

C ROSS -P LATFORM

The cross-platform user interface for COMSOL that is available on Mac and Linux
has a slightly different look-and-feel than the user interface for Windows. You can
get access to the cross-platform user interface from
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win64\comsolxpl.exe

assuming that you are running the 64-bit version and that the default installation
location has not changed by you during installation.
To create a shortcut to the cross-platform user interface, right-click
comsolxpl.exe and select Create shortcut, which creates a shortcut with a default
name comsolxpl.exe - Shortcut. If this shortcut is not created on the Desktop, then
move it there by drag-and-drop.

C REATING D ESKTOP S HORTCUTS M ANUALLY

FOR A

C LASSKIT L ICENSE

If you manually create a desktop shortcut for a Classkit License, then, in addition
to the steps above, the shortcuts Target needs to be modified with additional
options. Right-click the COMSOL shortcut icon and select Properties. Change the
text string in the Target field to
"C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win64\comsol.exe"
-Dcs.ckl
"C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win64\
comsolclasskit.ini"

(The complete text string must be written on a single row.)

or

60 |

"C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win32\comsol.exe"
-Dcs.ckl
"C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\bin\win32\
comsolclasskit.ini"

for Windows 64-bit and Windows 32-bit, respectively.

Here, C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics represents the
default COMSOL installation directory and this can be changed in the Target field
text string if your installation is placed in a different folder.

R u n n i n g C O M S O L i n C l i e n t- S e r ver M o d e
When you start COMSOL by, for example, double-clicking the Windows desktop
icon, COMSOL is run as a single application that includes both the COMSOL
Multiphysics Client and COMSOL Multiphysics Server, as explained later in this
section. However, the COMSOL Client/Server architecture lets you access the
COMSOL Multiphysics Serverthe COMSOL computational engineas a
separate process. For example, the COMSOL Desktop can act as a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client when connected to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
The license server is not the same as a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server. The license manager can run on a computer different from
both the ones used by COMSOL Desktop and COMSOL
Multiphysics Server.
You need a Floating Network License to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server
and the COMSOL Multiphysics Client on separate computers. However, any
COMSOL license is sufficient for running the Client and the Server on the same
computer.
The Client and Server need not run on the same platform. For example, you can
run the COMSOL Desktop on Windows connecting to a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server on a Linux or Mac computer. This enables offloading heavy-duty
computations from your personal laptop or desktop to run just the COMSOL
Desktop graphical user interface. A typical use would be to run the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server on a computer with large amounts of memory (RAM) and
processing power and to use your personal computer for pre- and postprocessing
with the COMSOL Desktop.

| 61

STARTING A

COMSOL M ULTIPHYSICS

SERVER

The COMSOL Multiphysics server is a single user server allowing multiple

sessions by the same user, one session at a time. To start the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server, click COMSOL Multiphysics Server in the Client Server
folder underneath your COMSOL folder on the Windows Start menu. (On
Windows 8 you find this on the All apps page under COMSOL Launchers.) When
you start the COMSOL Multiphysics Server from the Windows Start menu, a
command window appears asking you for a username and password. You can use
any username and password of your choice, it is only used for connecting a
COMSOL Multiphysics Client with a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
When the COMSOL Multiphysics Server starts, it listens for a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client connection on the port listed in the command window. In the
example above it is port 2036.
CONNECTING A

COMSOL

CLIENT TO A

COMSOL M ULTIPHYSICS

SERVER

You can start a COMSOL Multiphysics Client session by clicking COMSOL

Multiphysics Client in the Client Server folder underneath your COMSOL folder
on the Windows Start menu. (On Windows 8 you find this on the All apps page
under COMSOL Launchers.) You can also connect to a COMSOL Multiphysics
server from the COMSOL Desktop by selecting Connect to Server from the File
menu. When you start the Client, a Connect to Server window appears prompting
you for a computer name (Server) where the COMSOL Multiphysics Server is
running, Port number, Username, and Password.

Once you have filled out this information and clicked OK, the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server command window indicates that a COMSOL Multiphysics
Client has connected. For more information on running COMSOL in
Client/Server mode, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.

62 |

Running COMSOL in Batch Mode

You can submit COMSOL batch jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run a COMSOL batch job, you need to make the Batch feature
visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select Advanced
Study Options. In the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and select Batch to
create batch jobs. From the Windows command window, you can start batch jobs
using the comsolbatch command. This is an example of how such a command
could look like:
comsolbatch -inputfile in.mph -outputfile out.mph

To run a specific study add the command line option -study <tag>, where <tag>
is the tag of the study to run, for instance, std1. To see the tag, click the toolbar
button Model Tree Node Text in the Model Builder and select Tag.
The COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual has a dedicated section on
running COMSOL from the Windows command window, including a list of
COMSOL commands and associated syntax.

R u n n i n g C O M S O L o n M u l t i c o re C o m p u t e r s
COMSOL supports two modes of parallel operation: shared-memory parallel
operations and distributed-memory parallel operations, including cluster support.
This section covers shared-memory processing, or multithreading, which is
important for the performance of COMSOL computations. Some terms that are
frequently used when describing multithreading are:
Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a
computational node with multiple processors.
Speedup is how many times faster a job runs on N cores compared to 1 core,
on a specific compute node. The speedup depends on the simulation type,
the hardware used, and hardware drivers used.
In Windows, the default number of processor cores used by COMSOL is the total
number of available physical cores. For example, if you have a 2 x dual core
machine, 4 cores are used in parallel by a COMSOL process.
Here is how to find out how many processor cores your Windows machine has
(applicable for computers that do not have Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
and AMD computers that are not based on Bulldozer):

| 63

1 In the Windows file browser, right-click Computer or My Computer, select

Properties.
2 Click Advanced system settings. Go to the Advanced tab.
3 Click the Environment Variables button and look in the System variables list.

Look for NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS and check its value. This is actually

the number of cores. If you have two processors with 2 cores each, this number
is 4. Alternatively, start a Windows command window and type
echo %NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%

If you want COMSOL to leave out one or more processor cores you can set the
number of cores used for a computational job in the Preferences dialog box under
Memory and processors (by first selecting the Number of processors check box
and then entering the number of processor cores to use).
You can also change the default behavior of COMSOL by setting the environment
variable COMSOL_NUM_THREADS to the desired number of cores. See the COMSOL
Multiphysics Reference Manual for more information.

Running COMSOL on Clusters

You can launch COMSOL cluster jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run COMSOL on a cluster, you need to make the cluster
features visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select
Advanced Study Options. Then in the Model Builder, right-click a Study node
and select Cluster Computing or Cluster Sweep to create cluster jobs. Cluster
computing requires a Floating Network License.
The following terms occur frequently when describing the hardware for cluster
computing and shared-memory parallel computing:
Compute node: The compute nodes are where the distributed computing
occurs. Each distributed COMSOL process resides in a compute node and
communicates with other compute nodes using MPI (message-passing
interface).
Host: The host is a physical machine (hardware) with a network adapter and
unique network address. The host is part of the cluster. It is sometimes
referred to as a physical node.
Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a
computational node with multiple processors.

64 |

The number of used hosts and the number of computational nodes are usually the
same. For some special problem types, like very small problems with many
parameters, it might be beneficial to use more than one computational node on
one host.
A tutorial for cluster testing is included in the Application Libraries window under
COMSOL Multiphysics>Tutorials>micromixer_cluster.
QUICK TROUBLESHOOTING

Your first step is to make sure you have the latest release installed. Check that
you have COMSOL 5.1 or later. Also make sure to install the latest product
updates.
For Windows HPC Server, log in to each node with remote desktop and
start the COMSOL Desktop GUI. No error messages should be displayed.
If you get the error message Process status indicates that process is
running, then cancel any running jobs in the Windows HPCS Job manager
or other scheduler that you use. In the COMSOL Desktop, locate the
External Process page at the bottom right. Click the Clear Status button.
For more information about how to run COMSOL in parallel on Windows
clusters, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual. For installation on
Clusters, see Cluster Installation.

Running COMSOL on th e Cloud

COMSOL supports cloud computing using Windows through Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). See Running COMSOL on the Amazon
Cloud. This PDF can be accessed online: www.comsol.com/ec2_manual.

| 65

R u n n i n g C O M S O L w i t h M AT L A B
Running COMSOL with MATLAB requires a LiveLink for MATLAB license.
To run COMSOL with MATLAB, double-click the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1
with MATLAB icon on the desktop.

Alternatively, start COMSOL with MATLAB from the Start menu by pointing to
Programs, then to COMSOL 5.1, and then select COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1
with MATLAB. For Windows 8, corresponding tiles and desktop icons are added,
and you can click COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 with MATLAB on the start screen
to launch COMSOL.
Running COMSOL with MATLAB starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Server and a
MATLAB Desktop. The COMSOL Desktop is not involved. You can change the
path to the MATLAB installation in the Preferences window accessed from the
Options menu of the COMSOL Desktop. For more information, see the
LiveLink for MATLAB documentation.
STARTING

COMSOL

WITH

MATLAB

USING THE GRAPHICS SERVER

To display the plot in a COMSOL graphics window you need to run COMSOL
with MATLAB using the graphics server. To do so, append the flag -graphics
to the COMSOL with MATLAB target path.

66 |

Installing on OS X

I n s ta l l a t i o n O ve r t h e I n t e r n e t

INSTALLATION OF A TRIAL LICENSE OVER THE I NTERNET

A trial license can be given to you with the intention to test the software without
any payment obligation for noncommercial and nonproduction use. This option
is not available in all regions.
Installation of a Single User Trial License on Mac requires a license passcode. A
passcode has a form similar to:
FFFFFFFF-TYUS-123456-1234567-123456789

This is usually sent to you by your COMSOL representative by email. Once you
locate your passcode, follow these steps to prepare for download and installation:
1 Click the link for downloading the software as given in the software download

email from your COMSOL representative. This link is identical or similar to:
http://www.comsol.com/product-download.
2 If you havent already created a COMSOL Access account, you are prompted

to create it. When you have created the account, you can enter your trial
passcode to associate it with your account information.
If you already created a COMSOL Access account, you can associate the license
file with your account on the COMSOL Access page under Manage Licenses at
www.comsol.com/access/licenses.
3 Follow the web-based instructions to download the software.
4 Continue with the instructions in the section Downloading the COMSOL

Installer.
INSTALLATION OF A PAID - FOR LICENSE OVER THE I NTERNET

Installation of any paid-for license on Mac requires a license file that is sent to you
by your COMSOL representative by email. To be able to generate the license file,
information about your hardware is needed in the form of a hostid (host ID). The
hostid is used to lock the license to your hardware and needs to be sent by you to
a COMSOL representative prior to the license file being generated.

| 67

Obtaining the Hostid

Follow these steps to obtain a hostid:

1 Launch the application Network Utility found in the Applications/Utilities folder

or the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications folder (on OS X Mavericks and

OS X Yosemite).
2 Click the Info tab to the left.
3 Select Network Interface (en0). This corresponds to your Ethernet card.
4 The hostid is the Hardware Addressas shown in the figure below, but with

the colons (:) removed. If you plan to install on a computer with a wireless
network card, report the hardware address for both Network Interface (en0)
and Network Interface (en1).

Obtaining the Host Name

If you have been informed by your COMSOL representative that you need to run
the FlexNet license manager for your installation, then you also need the Host
Name. To get the Host Name, launch the Terminal application; then enter
hostname at the terminal prompt.
If your network administrator prefers to use a fixed IP address for this particular
computer, this IP Address could be optionally used in place of the Host Name.
For more information on license manager installation, see License Manager
Installation on OS X.
Obtaining the License File from a COMSOL Representative

Send the hostid information, as well as Host Name, if applicable, in an email to

your COMSOL representative, who responds with an email including an attached
license file (license.dat). Save this file to any location on your computer. You
need to refer to it during installation. The license file is a text file. Below is an
example of the contents of a license.dat file for a Single User License on Mac.

68 |

This example license file shows that the licensed products are
COMSOL Multiphysics, Particle Tracing Module, Subsurface Flow Module, and
LiveLink for Excel.
#-----------------------------------------------------------------# COMSOL 5.1 NSL License No: 1234567 Windows/Mac
# Visit www.comsol.com/install for latest installation instructions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------FEATURE SERIAL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
VENDOR_STRING=C,18000100200 HOSTID=ANY sort=100 SN=1234567 \
TS_OK SIGN=8045890A6FE4
FEATURE COMSOL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted HOSTID="70f2b13f4dfd \
0116b8cc761a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n i86_mac x64_mac" \
SN=2076312 SIGN=E607EB680852
FEATURE PARTICLETRACING LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=3835733C6290
FEATURE SUBSURFACEFLOW LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=3A9BA162C9E4
FEATURE LLEXCEL LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc \
0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n i86_mac x64_mac" \
SN=2076312 SIGN=EE9C11E44356
FEATURE COMSOLGUI LMCOMSOL 5.1 permanent uncounted \
HOSTID="70f1a12f4dfc 0026b9cc760a" PLATFORMS="i86_n x64_n \
i86_mac x64_mac" SN=2076312 SIGN=0D0A83382550

A Single User License file can normally not be edited or changed in any way by
the user but has to be identical to the one sent to you by a COMSOL
representative. However, if you were sent a license file that requires a license
manager, then minor edits are required. For information on the type of license file
required for installations using a license manager, see The License File.
Registering with COMSOL Access

Once you have saved your license file, follow these steps to register or login to
COMSOL Access and to start the installation:
1 Click the link for downloading the software as given in the software download

email from your COMSOL representative. This link is identical or similar to:
www.comsol.com/product-download.
2 If you havent already created a COMSOL Access account, you are prompted

to create it. While creating the account, point to your license file
(license.dat) to associate it with your account information.
If you already created a COMSOL Access account, then you can associate the
license file on the COMSOL Access page with your account under Manage
Licenses at www.comsol.com/access/licenses/.
3 Continue with the instructions in the next section.

| 69

D OWNLOADING

THE

COMSOL I NSTALLER

1 Go to the web page www.comsol.com/product-download.

2 You are now given the option of installing COMSOL using the Online Installer.

(For the DVD option see Installation from Downloaded DVD Image.)
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), please review this knowledge base
entry: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you
still have problems, please contact your local COMSOL
representative or technical support from the Support Center page
at www.comsol.com/support.
3 Clicking the install button starts the download of the COMSOL Installer. For

Mac, the file to download is called COMSOL51_mac.dmg.

STARTING THE INSTALLER FOR INSTALLATION OVER THE I NTERNET

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Start the COMSOL Installer by first mounting the
downloaded file by double-clicking it. Then run the COMSOL Installer
application COMSOL Installer. The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window should now
appear. Now continue with the instructions in the section Running The
COMSOL Installer.

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m D ow n l o a d e d DV D I m age
Installation from a DVD where the DVD image is downloaded from COMSOL
for off-line installation requires you to first create a COMSOL Access account as
described in the section Installation Over the Internet.

70 |

1 Once you are logged in to COMSOL Access, you are now given the option of

installing COMSOL using the Online Installer or to download the DVD Image for
Offline Installation. This section covers the DVD Image option.
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), please review this knowledge base
entry: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you
still have problems, please contact your local COMSOL
representative or technical support from the Support Center page
at www.comsol.com/support.
2 In the section for the DVD Image option, click DVD Download. Clicking the

button starts the download of the COMSOL DVD Image. The file to
download is called COMSOL51_dvd.iso.
3 When you have downloaded the DVD image, you can install directly from the

downloaded DVD image by double-clicking it to mount it. Alternatively, burn

the DVD image to a disc to install. If you want to burn the DVD image to a
disc:
a Launch the Disk Utility application from Applications/Utilities.
b Click the Burn toolbar button. Select the DVD image in the file dialog box

and open it.

c Insert an empty DVD in the DVD drive and click Burn in the dialog box in

Disk Utility.

S ta r t i n g th e In s t al l er f ro m DV D o r DV D Im age
This section applies if you have received a DVD from a COMSOL representative
or if you have burned a DVD image downloaded from COMSOL for off-line
installation.
The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. To start the installer:
1 Insert the COMSOL DVD into the DVD drive (or mount the image).
2 Launch the COMSOL Installer application from the Finder.
3 The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window appears. Now continue with the

instructions in the section Running The COMSOL Installer below.

| 71

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m U S B F l a s h D r i ve
This section applies if you have received a USB Flash Drive from a COMSOL
representative.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A USB FLASH DRIVE

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. To start the installer:
1 Connect the USB Flash Drive to your computer.
2 Launch the COMSOL Installer application from the Finder.
3 The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window appears. Now continue with the

instructions in the section Running The COMSOL Installer below.

Running The COMSOL Installer

The steps for running the COMSOL Installer are independent of the installation
media option you used. If you have followed the above instructions, the
COMSOL Installer should now appear. Now continue with the instructions for
Windows in the section Running the COMSOL Installer. The procedure is the
same for OS X with the following exceptions:
COMSOL does not work if the path to the COMSOL folder, or
the name of the COMSOL folder itself, contains spaces.
You cannot browse to the MATLAB installation directory directly.
You need to enter it manually. MATLAB is installed in the
/Applications directory, for example, as
/Applications/MATLAB_R2015a.app.

A u t o m a t e d I n s ta l l a t i o n
You can install COMSOL using an automated installation process with minimal
user interaction. This method requires installation from DVD or DVD image. The

72 |

documentation on how to create an answer file is available in the template,

setupconfig.ini, which is available on the DVD. When an answer file is
created, start the installation by running
<path to DVD>/setup -s <answer file path>

where <answer file path> is the path to the answer file.

R e m ov i n g ( U n i n s t a l l i n g ) t h e C O M S O L I n s t a l l a t i o n
The COMSOL 5.1 installation adds files only in the COMSOL51 folder. To
remove the COMSOL installation, delete the COMSOL51 folder including all
subfolders.

P ro d u c t U p d a t e s a n d A p p l i c a t i o n L i b r a r y U p d a t e
COMSOL periodically releases product updates with improvements and
corrections to reported problems. By default, COMSOL checks for updates at
startup. You can turn this feature on and off from the COMSOL Desktop
Preferences window. Here you can also configure settings for the Application
Library Update.
The COMSOL Application Library is updated on a regular basis by COMSOL.
To open the Application Library Update window from the File>Help menu
(Windows users) or from the Help menu (Mac and Linux users), select Update
COMSOL Application Library.
This connects you to the COMSOL Application Update website where you can
access the latest updates. This includes files that have been added or improved
since the latest product release.
Using the Updates section in the Preferences dialog box, which you open from
the COMSOL Desktop, you can configure proxy server settings as well as
application and documentation directories for the Application Library Update.
See the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual for more information
including command-line options for the Application Libraries.
As an alternative, you can update COMSOL without starting the update from
inside COMSOL Multiphysics. To do this, run COMSOL Update.app.

| 73

C h a n g i n g t h e Pat h t o t h e M AT L A B I n s t a l l a t i o n
You can change the path to the MATLAB installation in the Preferences>LiveLink
Connections window accessed from the Options menu of the COMSOL Desktop.
For more information, see the LiveLink for MATLAB documentation.

74 |

License Manager Installation on OS X

Many of the instructions for installing the FlexNet license manager are similar to
those for Windows. This section covers only the differences when installing on
OS X. For general information on the license manager software, see License
Manager Installation on Windows.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n ager S o f t w a re C o m p o n e n t s
The license manager consists of the following software components:
License manager daemon (lmgrd)
Vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL)
FlexNet utility program (lmutil and others)
The two daemons (lmgrd and LMCOMSOL) run on the license server. When a user
starts COMSOL on a client computer, communication is established through the
network from the client to the license server and the license manager daemon
(lmgrd). That daemon in turn makes a request to the vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL),
which releases licenses according to information in the license.dat file. The
FlexNet utility programs are used to handle license server management tasks.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n ager D o c u m e n ta t i o n
For detailed information on the FlexNet license manager software, from the File
menu choose Help>Documentation (Windows) or select Help>Documention
(Mac and Linux) and scroll to the bottom of the page to locate a PDF copy of the
FlexNet License Administration Guide.

| 75

T h e Li c e n s e F i l e
The license file for use on OS X is identical to that of Windows. See The License
File for more information.

I n s t a l l i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n age r
The FlexNet license manager is automatically installed when installing COMSOL
unless otherwise specified on the Features page of the COMSOL Installer; see
Products Page. The check box for the license manager components can be found
last in the list of software components.
If you want to install COMSOL on the same computer as the license manager, first
perform a complete COMSOL installation including the license manager software
components. When finished, skip the remainder of this section and continue with
Starting the License Manager.
To install only the license manager, follow the installation instructions for
COMSOL earlier in this document and, on the Features page, clear all check
boxes except the one for the license manager.
AUTOMATED LICENSE MANAGER INSTALLATION

Alternatively, the license manager can be installed using an automated installation

process with minimal user interaction; for this option, see Automated Installation.
Set licmanager = 1 in the answer file to install the license manager.

S t a r t i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n ager
Either start the license manager manually or let it run automatically at startup.
STARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER MANUALLY

To start the license manager manually:

1 Launch the Terminal application.
2 Change directory to the license/maci64 directory:
cd /Applications/COMSOL51/Multiphysics/license/maci64

76 |

3 Then enter
./lmgrd -c ../license.dat -l /var/tmp/comsol51.log

The server is now ready to distribute licenses over the network. It writes any debug
information to the log file /var/tmp/comsol51.log.
STARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER AUTOMATICALLY AT STARTUP

A folder COMSOL_Lmgr located in the folder COMSOL51/license/maci64 contains a

script that can automatically start the license manager when you start the
computer. By installing and configuring this folder, the license manager does not
need to be started manually.
1 Go to the top level /Library folder on your startup disk.
2 In the Library folder, create a folder StartupItems if it does not already exist.
3 Move or copy the folder COMSOL_Lmgr to the StartupItems folder.
4 Open the file COMSOL_Lmgr in a text editor, for example, TextEdit.
5 Edit the line
FP=<COMSOLPATH>

by replacing <COMSOLPATH> with the path to the COMSOL folder. If

COMSOL is installed in the Applications folder this path is
FP=/Applications/COMSOL51

6 Edit the line

USERNAME=<username>

by replacing <username> with your username.

To run the COMSOL_Lmgr file it must have the correct file permission
that include executable permission for the root user. To make sure
that it has the correct permission, enter the following commands:
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/StartupItems/COMSOL_Lmgr
sudo chmod -R 0755 /Library/StartupItems/COMSOL_Lmgr

Restart the computer to test the license manager installation.

During startup a message Starting COMSOL License Manager
should appear.

| 77

Ve rifying that the License Man age r is Runn in g

Once you start the license manager, it is good practice to verify that the license
manager processes are running. Start the Activity Monitor and check for the
vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL) and the license manager (lmgrd) in the list of
processes.

Starting COMSOL
After the installation is complete and the license manager daemons are running on
the license server, you can start using COMSOL. For more information on how
to run COMSOL, see Running COMSOL on OS X.

Changing the License

If you have received a new license filefor example, when adding COMSOL
products to an existing licensereplace the current license file with the new one.
Double-check the contents of this file to make sure it lists the products that the
license includes.
When the license file has changed, you must restart the license
manager; otherwise, it continues to use the old license file still in
memory.
RESTARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER

To restart the license manager:

1 Launch the Terminal application.
2 Change the directory to the license/maci64 (64-bit)
cd /Applications/COMSOL51/Multiphysics/license/maci64

3 Enter the commands

./lmdown -c ../license.dat
./lmgrd -c ../license.dat -l /var/tmp/comsol51.log

78 |

OBTAINING A HOSTID

If you need to verify the hostid of the license server, you can follow the steps in
Obtaining the Hostid. Alternatively, if COMSOL is already installed on the license
server, you can determine the hostid by executing the lmhostid command
COMSOL51/Multiphysics/license/maci64/lmhostid

The hostid is typically the Ethernet address (also called a MAC address) of the
network card of your computer. An Ethernet address has six bytes, each with two
hexadecimal digits. Thus, the full hostid has twelve hexadecimal digits.

Tro u bl e s h o o t i n g L i c e n s e E rro r s
If you have questions or problems with your installation, see Troubleshooting
License Errors.

| 79

Running COMSOL on OS X

The COMSOL Applications

After the installation is finished there are several COMSOL applications available.
How many are available depends which products and licenses you have:
This is the primary application for running COMSOL
Multiphysics. It launches COMSOL Multiphysics as a standalone application.

COMSOL Multiphysics

COMSOL Multiphysics (Classkit License) This application launches COMSOL

Multiphysics for a Classkit License. This application is only available if you have a
Classkit License.

Use this application for running COMSOL with

LiveLink for MATLAB. This application is only available if you have a
LiveLink for MATLAB license.
COMSOL with MATLAB

The COMSOL with MATLAB application requires X11 to be

installed. X11 server and client libraries for OS X are available from
the XQuartz (X11.app) project.
COMSOL Multiphysics Server This application launches the Terminal application
and starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Server in a terminal window.

This application checks for available product updates on

www.comsol.com.
COMSOL Update

The COMSOL applications do not work if moved outside the

COMSOL folder. Create an alias if, for example, a desktop icon is
required.

80 |

R u n n i n g C O M S O L f ro m a Te r m i n a l W i n d ow
COMSOL can also be launched from a terminal window using the shell script
COMSOL51/Multiphysics/bin/comsol.
To run the comsol command more easily, include the COMSOL51/bin directory in
the path or make a symbolic link from /usr/bin/comsol to the comsol script.
Those with administrator privileges can create a symbolic link with the command
sudo ln -s /Applications/COMSOL51/Multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/bin/comsol

(assuming COMSOL is installed in the Applications folder). This command asks

for a password before creating the link.
The comsol command must not be moved from the
COMSOL51/Multiphysics/bin folder. The COMSOL
applications also use this script.

Running a Classkit License

To start COMSOL using a Classkit License, start COMSOL from the terminal
window using the -ckl option, for example,
comsol -ckl

R u n n i n g C O M S O L i n C l i e n t- S e r ver M o d e
When you start COMSOL by, for example, launching the COMSOL Multiphysics
application, COMSOL is run as a single application that includes the functionality
of both the COMSOL Multiphysics Client and COMSOL Multiphysics Server, as
explained later in this section. However, the COMSOL Client/Server architecture
lets you access the COMSOL Multiphysics Serverthe COMSOL computational
engineas a separate process. For example, the COMSOL Desktop can act as a

| 81

COMSOL Multiphysics Client when connected to a COMSOL Multiphysics

Server.
The license server is not the same as a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server. The license manager can run on a computer different from
both the ones used by COMSOL Desktop and COMSOL
Multiphysics Server.
You need a Floating Network License to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server
and the COMSOL Multiphysics Client on separate computers. However, any
COMSOL license is sufficient for running the Client and the Server on the same
computer.
The Client and Server need not run on the same platform. For example, you can
run the COMSOL Desktop on Mac connecting to a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server on a Windows or Linux computer. This enables offloading heavy-duty
computations from your personal laptop or desktop to run just the COMSOL
Desktop graphical user interface. A typical use would be to run the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server on a computer with large amounts of memory (RAM) and
processing power and to use your personal computer for pre- and postprocessing
with the COMSOL Desktop.
STARTING A

COMSOL M ULTIPHYSICS S ERVER

To start the COMSOL Multiphysics Server, run the COMSOL Multiphysics

Server application. A terminal window appears asking you for a username and
password. You can use any username and password of your choice, it is only used
for connecting a COMSOL Multiphysics Client with a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server.
When the COMSOL Multiphysics Server starts, it listens for a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client connection on the port listed in the command window.
Connecting a COMSOL Multiphysics Client to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server

You can start a COMSOL Multiphysics Client session from the COMSOL
Desktop by selecting Connect to Server from the File menu in the COMSOL
Desktop. When you start the Client, a Connect to Server window appears

82 |

prompting you for a computer name (Server) where the COMSOL Multiphysics
Server is running, Port number, Username, and Password.

Once you have filled out this information and clicked OK, the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server terminal window displays information that a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client has connected. For more information on running COMSOL
in Client/Server mode, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.

Running COMSOL in Batch Mode

You can submit COMSOL batch jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run a COMSOL batch job, you need to make the Batch feature
visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select Advanced
Study Options. In the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and select Batch to
create batch jobs. From the terminal window, you can start batch jobs using the
comsol batch command. This is an example of how such a command could look:
comsol batch -inputfile in.mph -outputfile out.mph

To run a specific study add the command line option -study <tag>, where <tag>
is the tag of the study to run, for instance, std1. To see the tag, click the toolbar
button Model Tree Node Text in the Model Builder and select Tag.
The COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual includes a dedicated section on
running COMSOL from the terminal window, including a list of COMSOL
commands and associated syntax.

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R u n n i n g C O M S O L o n M u l t i c o re C o m p u t e r s
COMSOL supports two modes of parallel operation: shared-memory parallel
operations and distributed-memory parallel operations, including cluster support
for Windows and Linux. This section covers shared-memory processing, or
multithreading, which is important for the performance of COMSOL
computations. Some terms that are frequently used in when describing
multithreading are:
Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a
computational node with multiple processors.
Speedup is how many times faster a job runs on N cores compared to 1 core,
on a specific compute node. The speedup depends on the simulation type,
the hardware used, and hardware drivers used.
On OS X, the default number of processor cores used by COMSOL is the total
number of available physical cores. For example, if you have a 2 x dual core
machine, 4 cores are used in parallel by a COMSOL process.
SHARED - MEMORY OPTIONS

From the terminal window, use the comsol command option -np to control the
number of cores and processors used. The default is to use all available cores and
processors. For example:
comsol -np 2

launches COMSOL using 2 cores (if available).

You can experiment to find the options that work best for your configuration. For
more information see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.

Running COMSOL on Clusters

You can launch COMSOL cluster jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run COMSOL on a cluster, you need to make the cluster
feature visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select
Advanced Study Options. Then in the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and

84 |

select Cluster Computing or Cluster Sweep to create cluster jobs. Cluster computing
requires a Floating Network License.
COMSOL cannot be run on a cluster running OS X; however, you
can use the Cluster Computing or Cluster Sweep feature to
connect to a Windows or Linux cluster.
A tutorial model for cluster testing is included in the Application Libraries window
under COMSOL Multiphysics>Tutorial models>micromixer_cluster.
For more information about how to run COMSOL in parallel on clusters, see the
COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual. For installation on Clusters, see
Cluster Installation for Windows and Cluster Installation for Linux.

Running COMSOL on th e Cloud

COMSOL supports cloud computing using OS X through Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). See Running COMSOL on the Amazon
Cloud. This PDF can be accessed online: www.comsol.com/ec2_manual.

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Installing on Linux

I n s ta l l a t i o n O ve r t h e I n t e r n e t

INSTALLATION OF A PAID - FOR OR

TRIAL

LICENSE OVER THE I NTERNET

Installation of any paid-for license on Linux requires a license file, which is sent to
you by your COMSOL representative by email. To be able to generate the license
file, information about your hardware is needed in the form of a hostid (host ID).
The hostid is used to lock the license to your hardware and needs to be sent by
you to a COMSOL representative prior to the license file being generated.
A trial license can be given to you with the intention to test the
software without any payment obligation for noncommercial or
nonproduction use. This option is not available in all regions. For
installation of a Single User Trial License on Linux, you can follow
the same instructions as for a paid-for license.
Obtaining the Hostid

Follow these steps to obtain a hostid:

1 Start a Terminal window.
2 Enter /sbin/ifconfig eth0

This displays the Ethernet address (also called a MAC address) which consists
of six bytes displayed as six pairs of hexadecimal digits such as
00:40:05:16:E5:25.
Obtaining the Host Name

If you have been informed by a COMSOL representative that you need to run the
FlexNet license manager for your installation, then you also need the Host Name:
1 To get the Host Name, start a Terminal window.
2 Enter hostname at the terminal prompt.

If your network administrator prefers to use a fixed IP address for this particular
computer, this IP Address can be optionally used in place of the Host Name. For
more information on license manager installation see License Manager Installation

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on Linux.
Obtaining the License File from a COMSOL Representative

Send the hostid information, as well as Host Name, if applicable, in an email to

your COMSOL representative, who responds by email including an attached
license file (license.dat). Save this file to any location on your computer. You
need to refer to it during installation. A trial license file for Linux cannot normally
be edited or changed in any way by the user but has to be identical to the one sent
to you by a COMSOL representative. However, if you were sent a license file that
requires a license manager, then minor edits are required. For information on the
type of license file required for installations using a license manager, see The
License File.
Registering with COMSOL Access

Once you have saved your license file, follow these steps to register or login to
COMSOL Access and to start the installation:
1 Click the link for downloading the software as given in the software download

email from your COMSOL representative. This link is identical or similar to:
www.comsol.com/product-download
2 If you havent already created a COMSOL Access account, you are prompted

to create it. While creating the account, point to your license file
(license.dat) to associate it with your account information.
If you already created a COMSOL Access account, then you can associate the
license file on the COMSOL Access page with your account under Manage
Licenses at www.comsol.com/access/licenses.
3 Continue with the instructions in the next section Downloading the COMSOL

Installer.
DOWNLOADING THE COMSOL INSTALLER
1 Go to the web page www.comsol.com/product-download.
2 You are now given the option of installing COMSOL using the Online Installer.

(For the DVD option see Installation from Downloaded DVD Image.)
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), please review this knowledge base
entry: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you
still have problems, please contact your local COMSOL
representative or technical support from the Support Center page
at www.comsol.com/support.

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3 Clicking the install button starts the download of the COMSOL Installer. For

Linux, the file to download is comsol51_lnx.tar.gz.

STARTING THE INSTALLER FOR INSTALLATION OVER THE INTERNET

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. Start the COMSOL Installer by first extracting the
downloaded file and then running the setup script. The COMSOL 5.1 Installer
window should now appear. Now continue with the instructions in the section
Running The COMSOL Installer.

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m D ow n l o a d e d DV D I m age
Installation from a DVD where the DVD image is downloaded from COMSOL
for off-line installation requires you to first create a COMSOL Access account as
described in the section Installation Over the Internet.
1 Once you are logged in to COMSOL Access, you are now given the option of

installing COMSOL using the Online Installer or to download the DVD Image
for Offline Installation. This section covers the DVD Image option.
If you have problems downloading (such as Error downloading file.
Connection refused: connect), please review this knowledge base
entry: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149. If you
still have problems, please contact your local COMSOL
representative or technical support from the Support Center page
at www.comsol.com/support.
2 In the section for the DVD Image option, click the DVD Download button.

Clicking that button starts the download of the COMSOL DVD Image. The
file to download is called COMSOL51_dvd.iso.
3 When you have downloaded the DVD image, burn the DVD image to a disc.

Use a DVD burning tools or command such as cdrecord to burn the DVD.
Alternatively, directly mount the DVD using a loopback device:
mount -o loop COMSOL51_dvd.iso /mnt

88 |

S t a r t i n g t h e I n s t a l l e r f ro m D ow n l o a d e d DV D I m age
This section applies if you have burnt a DVD image downloaded from COMSOL
for off-line installation.
The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. To start the installer:
1 Make sure the COMSOL DVD is in the DVD drive (or mount the image).
2 Type /mnt/setup
3 The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window appears. Now continue with the

instructions in the section Running The COMSOL Installer.

I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m DV D
This section applies if you have received a DVD from a COMSOL representative.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A

DVD

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. To start the installer:
1 Insert the COMSOL 5.1 DVD into the DVD drive.
2 If the DVD is not mounted automatically by your operating system, use the
mount

command to mount it.

3 To start the installation, enter the command

sh drivepath/setup

where drivepath is the mount point of the DVD drive, for example
/media/cdrom.
You might have to mount the DVD with the option -o exec if your Linux
mounts the DVD without execute options by default.
The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window appears. Now continue with the instructions
in the section Running The COMSOL Installer.

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I n s t a l l a t i o n f ro m U S B F l a s h D r i ve
This section applies if you have received a USB Flash Drive from a COMSOL
representative.
STARTING THE INSTALLER FROM A

USB

FLASH DRIVE

The COMSOL Installer is a user interface tool that guides you through the
installation process. To start the installer:
1 Connect the USB Flash Drive to your computer.
2 If the USB Flash Drive is not mounted automatically by your operating system,

use the mount command to mount it.

3 To start the installation, enter the command
sh drivepath/setup

where drivepath is the mount point of the USB Flash Drive, for example
/media/usb.
You might have to mount the USB Flash Drive with the option -o exec if your
Linux mounts the USB Flash Drive without execute options by default.
4 The COMSOL 5.1 Installer window appears. Now continue with the

instructions in the section Running The COMSOL Installer below.

Running The COMSOL Installer

The steps for running the COMSOL Installer are independent of the installation
media option you used. If you have followed the above instructions, the
COMSOL Installer should now appear. For a detailed description and screen
shots of the different COMSOL Installer steps, see the instructions for Windows
in the section Running the COMSOL Installer. The procedure for running the
COMSOL Installer on Linux is similar and summarized below with the differences
from installation on Windows highlighted:
1 When the installer window appears, click New Installation.
2 Read the license agreement, select I accept the terms of the license agreement,

specify License information, and then click Next.

3 If you have a Named Single User License and you are installing the software on

the license server, a dialog box opens up and you are asked to enter the user to
bind the license to.

90 |

4 Select the features to install and specify the path to the COMSOL installation

directory.
5 Click Next.
6 If you have licensed LiveLink for MATLAB, then specify the MATLAB root

folder.
7 Click Next.
8 Click Install to start the installation.
9 When the installation process is finished, the Finish window appears. If errors

arose during installation, this window issues a notification. The installer also
writes a log entry into the text file comsolsetup.log, which resides in the
specified installation directory. Click Finish to quit the installer. If you installed
from DVD, use the unmount and eject commands to unmount and eject the
DVD. Some Linux configurations automatically unmount and eject the DVD
when you press the DVD drive button.
10 To make sure all users can easily start COMSOL, include the comsol51/bin

directory in all users paths or make a symbolic link from

to the comsol command (see the Linux ln command).
The installer can do this step automatically if you run the installer as an
administrator.

/usr/local/bin/comsol

We b B rows e r fo r V i ewi n g t h e D o c u m e n t a t i o n
The file browser in the bin directory attempts to start common web browsers that
are available with the supported Linux versions. Edit the file in any text editor to
adjust it for your preferred web browser. The variable BROWSERS in this file contains
a list of web browsers in order of preference. If you want to make a specific browser
the preferred web browser, put it first in the list.

A u t o m a t e d I n s ta l l a t i o n
You can install COMSOL using an automated installation process with minimal
user interaction. This method requires installation from DVD or DVD image. The
documentation on how to create an answer file is available in the template,

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setupconfig.ini, which is available on the DVD. When you have created an

answer file, start the installation by running
<path to DVD>/setup -s <answer file path>

where <answer file path> is the path to your answer file.

R e m ov i n g ( U n i n s t a l l i n g ) t h e C O M S O L I n s t a l l a t i o n
The COMSOL 5.1 installation adds files only in the comsol51 directory. To
remove the COMSOL installation, simply delete the comsol51 directory including
all subdirectories.

P ro d u c t U p d a t e s a n d A p p l i c a t i o n L i b r a r y U p d a t e
COMSOL periodically releases product updates with improvements and
corrections to reported problems. By default, COMSOL checks for updates at
startup. You can turn this feature on and off from the COMSOL Desktop
Preferences window. Here you can also configure settings for the Application
Library Update.
The COMSOL Application Library is updated on a regular basis by COMSOL.
To open the Application Library Update window from the File>Help menu
(Windows users) or from the Help menu (Mac and Linux users), select Update
COMSOL Application Library.
This connects you to the COMSOL Application Update website where you can
access the latest updates. This includes applications that have been added or
improved since the latest product release.
Using the Updates section in the Preferences dialog box, which you open from
the COMSOL Desktop, you can configure proxy server settings as well as
application and documentation directories for the Application Library Update.
See the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual for more information
including command-line options for the Application Libraries.

92 |

C h a n g i n g t h e Pat h t o t h e M AT L A B I n s t a l l a t i o n
You can change the path to the MATLAB installation in the Preferences>LiveLink
Connections window accessed from the Options menu of the COMSOL Desktop.
For more information, see the LiveLink for MATLAB documentation.

Cluster Installation
COMSOL supports two modes of parallel operation: shared-memory parallel
operations and distributed-memory parallel operations, including cluster support.
This section is dedicated to distributed-memory parallel installation.
COMSOL can distribute computations on compute clusters using the MPI
model. One large simulation can be distributed across many compute nodes. Also,
parametric sweeps can be done with individual parameter cases distributed to each
cluster node.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The installation instructions above can also be followed for clusters. COMSOL
supports shared-memory parallelism and distributed-memory parallelism on
64-bit Linux. For details on system requirements, see
www.comsol.com/system-requirements.
LICENSE MANAGER

COMSOL requires a Floating Network License for running on clusters. Please

check the license file for the CLUSTERNODE feature, which needs to be present
to enable the cluster computing functionality. The license manager needs to be
accessible from all nodes in the cluster. Therefore it is often a good idea to have it
run on the head node.
INSTALLATION FOLDER

The COMSOL installation folder should be shared between all compute nodes
and the head node.
FEATURES

During installation, make sure the Cluster Components feature is selected.

| 93

ACCESS TO CLUSTER

If you work on a computer that is not on the cluster, install COMSOL on that
computer. Typically, you use a scheduler to launch jobs on the cluster. Make sure
the scheduler client software is installed on that computer. You can configure the
installation to use the scheduler by changing the comsol.ini file according to the
section on MPI Options in the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.
For more information on installing and running COMSOL on clusters, see
Running COMSOL on Clusters and the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference
Manual.

94 |

License Manager Installation on Linux

You do not need to install the license manager if you are installing a trial version.
The paid-for version on Linux, however, always requires a running license
manager. Many of the instructions for installing the FlexNet license manager are
similar to those for Windows. This section covers only the differences when
installing on Linux. For general information on the license manager software, see
License Manager Installation on Windows.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n ager S o f t w a re C o m p o n e n t s
The license manager consists of the following software components:
License manager daemon (lmgrd)
Vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL)
FlexNet utility program (lmutil and others)
The two daemons (lmgrd and LMCOMSOL) run on the license server. When a user
starts COMSOL on a client computer, communication is established through the
network from the client to the license server and the license manager daemon
(lmgrd). That daemon in turn makes a request to the vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL),
which releases licenses according to information in the license.dat file. The
FlexNet utility programs are used to handle license server management tasks.

F l ex N e t L i c e n s e M a n ager D o c u m e n ta t i o n
For detailed information on the FlexNet license manager software, click the
button (File menu) and choose Help>Documentation (Windows) or select
Help>Documentation (Mac and Linux) and scroll to the bottom of the page to
locate a PDF copy of the FlexNet License Administration Guide.

| 95

T h e Li c e n s e F i l e
The license file for use on Linux is identical to that for Windows, except in the case
of a Named Single User License, which is described below. See The License File
for general license file information.
LICENSE FILES FOR NAMED SINGLE USER LICENSE

If you have a Named Single User License the installer automatically creates an
options file that binds the license to the named user. This section describes the
format of the options file and how the license.dat file points to the options file.
Below is an example of an options file, LMCOMSOL.opt, for a user philip who has
access to COMSOL Multiphysics, the Structural Mechanics Module, and the
CAD Import Module. Notice that to access COMSOL Multiphysics, the options
file must include both the COMSOL and the COMSOLGUI features:
INCLUDE
INCLUDE
INCLUDE
INCLUDE
INCLUDE

COMSOL USER philip

COMSOLGUI USER philip
CADIMPORT USER philip
CADREADER USER philip
STRUCTURALMECHANICS USER philip

Each INCLUDE row in the LMCOMSOL.opt file has a corresponding FEATURE row in the
license.dat file (with the USER_BASED keyword). The second item on each
FEATURE row is the name of the feature for which you have a license.
For more information on which FEATURE items are available, see The License
File.
The license.dat file needs to point to the options file. The path to the options
file is indicated by the options keyword. If your options file is placed here:
/usr/local/comsol51/multiphysics/license/LMCOMSOL.opt

then the VENDOR row in license.dat should read

VENDOR LMCOMSOL port=1719
options=/usr/local/comsol51/multiphysics/license/LMCOMSOL.opt

I n s t a l l i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n age r
The FlexNet license manager is automatically installed when installing COMSOL
unless otherwise specified on the Features page of the COMSOL Installer; see
Products Page. The check box for the license manager components can be found
last in the list of software components.

96 |

If you want to install COMSOL on the same computer as the license manager, first
perform a complete COMSOL installation including the license manager software
components. When finished, skip the remainder of this section and continue with
Starting the License Manager below.
To install only the license manager, follow the installation instructions for
COMSOL earlier in this document and on the Features page, clear all check boxes
except the one for the license manager.
AUTOMATED LICENSE MANAGER INSTALLATION

Alternatively, the license manager can be installed using an automated installation

process with minimal user interaction, see Automated Installation. Set licmanager
= 1 in the answer file to install the license manager.

S t a r t i n g t h e L i c e n s e M a n age r
You can start the license manager manually or it can run automatically at boot.
STARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER MANUALLY

To start the license manager manually, make the license/$arch directory the
current directory and enter
./lmgrd -c ../license.dat -l /var/tmp/comsol51.log

The server is now ready to distribute licenses over the network. It writes any debug
information to the log file /var/tmp/comsol51.log.
STARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER AUTOMATICALLY AT BOOT

In order for the license manager to start automatically at boot, you need to add
Bourne shell commands to the appropriate boot script. You must be a superuser
(root) to edit boot scripts.
For security reasons, it is recommended that the daemons are not
started as root. Instead, use a dedicated username to start the
license manager.

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The procedure for editing boot scripts on each platform appears in the following
table:
PLATFORM

PROCEDURE

SuSe Linux

The following instructions should work for SuSE Linux distributions:

In the comsol51/license/glnxa64 directory, enter the commands
cp rc.lm /etc/init.d/comsol51lm
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/comsol51lm

Edit /etc/init.d/comsol51lm, replacing dir with the full path to the

glnxa64 directory, and replace username with an actual username.
Now create the following link
cd /etc/init.d/rc5.d
ln -s ../comsol51lm S91comsol51lm

Debian
Linux

The following instructions should work for Debian Linux distributions:

Copy the file comsol51/multiphysics/license/glnxa64/lm_comsol to
/etc/init.d

Edit /etc/init.d/lm_comsol. Update the FP and MYUSER variables as

indicated in the file. Use the utility update-rc.d to automatically update the
system's init script links:
update-rc.d lm_comsol start 99 2 3 4 5 . stop 1 0 1 6 .

This means that the COMSOL license manager is started by runlevels 2, 3, 4, and
5, and stopped by runlevels 0, 1, and 6. Enter man update-rc.d for more
information on init scripts.
Linux,
General

The following instructions should work for most Linux distributions:

Copy the file comsol51/multiphysics/license/glnxa64/rc.lm and
paste it at the end of
/etc/rc.d/rc.local.
Replace dir in the code fragment with the full path to the glnxa64 platform
directory, and replace username with an actual username.

Ve rifying that the License Man age r is Runn in g

Once you start the license manager, it is good practice to verify that the license
manager processes are running. Use administrative commands such as top or ps to
check that both the vendor daemon (LMCOMSOL) and the license manager
(lmgrd) are running.

98 |

Starting COMSOL
After the installation is complete and the license manager daemons are running on
the license server, you can start using COMSOL. For more information on how
to run COMSOL, see Running COMSOL on Linux.

Changing the License

If you have received a new license filefor example, when adding COMSOL
products to an existing licensereplace the current license file with the new one.
Double-check the contents of this file to make sure it lists the products that the
license includes.
When the license file has been changed, you must restart the
license manager; otherwise, it continues to use the old license file
still in memory.
RESTARTING THE LICENSE MANAGER

To restart the license manager, make the license/$arch directory under the
COMSOL installation directory the current directory, then enter the following
commands:
./lmdown -c ../license.dat
./lmgrd -c ../license.dat -l /var/tmp/comsol51.log

OBTAINING A HOSTID

If COMSOL is already installed on your license server, you can determine the
hostid by executing the lmhostid command
comsol51/multiphysics/license/glnxa64/lmhostid

Tro u bl e s h o o t i n g L i c e n s e E rro r s
If you have questions or problems with your installation, see Troubleshooting
License Errors.

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L INUX S TANDARD B ASE L IBRARIES

If you get the following error:
./lmgrd: Command not found.

or
./lmgrd: No such file or directory

it might be because some required libraries are missing. The license manager in
COMSOL 5.1 is built with FlexNet 11.12.0.0, which requires LSB (Linux
Standard Base) 3.0 or later in order to start. These error messages indicate that the
license server is missing these required libraries. To solve this problem, install the
package that provides LSB support for your Linux distribution:
For Debian and Ubuntu: lsb-core. Installation command:
sudo apt-get install lsb-core
For Red Hat: redhat-lsb. Installation command:
sudo yum install redhat-lsb

For OpenSUSE: lsb. Install using the YaST package manager.

100 |

Running COMSOL on Linux

In order for the help system to work on Linux, some packages

need to be installed; for details, see
www.comsol.com/system-requirements.

Running COMSOL
If you are running a Linux version with a graphical desktop environment, you
might find a COMSOL Multiphysics icon that you can simply click to start
COMSOL. Alternatively, using a terminal window, you can run the comsol
command. If it is not available, ask your system manager to make it available to
you, or, if you have administrative privileges on your Linux system, add the comsol
command to the search path. The comsol command is located in the bin folder in
the COMSOL installation directory. This is a typical example of a command that
adds comsol to the search path is (assuming you are logged in as root):
ln -s /usr/local/comsol51/multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/bin/comsol

R u n n i n g C O M S O L o n M u l t i c o re C o m p u t e r s
COMSOL supports two modes of parallel operation: shared-memory parallel
operations and distributed-memory parallel operations, including cluster support
for Windows and Linux. This section covers shared-memory processing, or
multithreading, which is important for the performance of COMSOL
computations. Some terms that are frequently used in when describing
multithreading are:
Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a
computational node with multiple processors.
Speedup is how many times faster a job runs on N cores compared to 1 core,
on a specific compute node. The speedup depends on the simulation type,
the hardware used, and the hardware drivers used.

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On Linux, the default number of processor cores used by COMSOL is the total
number of available physical cores. For example, if you have a 2 x dual core
machine, 4 cores are used in parallel by a COMSOL process.
SHARED - MEMORY OPTIONS

From the Terminal window, use the comsol command option -np to control the
number of cores and processors used. The default is to use all available cores and
processors. For example:
comsol -np 2

launches COMSOL using 2 cores (if available).

You might need to experiment to find the options that work best for your
configuration. For more information see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference
Manual.

Running COMSOL in Batch Mode

You can submit COMSOL batch jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run a COMSOL batch job, you need to make the Batch feature
visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select Advanced
Study Options. In the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and select Batch to
create batch jobs. From a terminal window, you can start batch jobs using the
comsol batch command. This is an example of such a command:
comsol batch -inputfile in.mph -outputfile out.mph

To run a specific study add the command line option -study <tag>, where <tag>
is the tag of the study to run, for instance, std1. To see the tag, click the toolbar
button Model Tree Node Text in the Model Builder and select Tag.
The COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual has a dedicated section on
running COMSOL from a terminal window, including a list of COMSOL
commands and associated syntax.

R u n n i n g C O M S O L i n C l i e n t- S e r ver M o d e
When you start COMSOL by, for example, entering the comsol command with
no additional arguments, COMSOL is run as a single application that includes the

102 |

functionality of both the COMSOL Multiphysics Client and COMSOL

Multiphysics Server, as explained later in this section. However, the COMSOL
Client/Server architecture lets you access the COMSOL Multiphysics Serverthe
COMSOL computational engineas a separate process. For example, the
COMSOL Desktop can act as a COMSOL Multiphysics Client when connected
to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
The license server is not the same as a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server. The license manager can run on a computer different from
both the ones used by COMSOL Desktop and COMSOL
Multiphysics Server.
You need a Floating Network License to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server
and the COMSOL Multiphysics Client on separate computers. However, any
COMSOL license is sufficient for running the Client and the Server on the same
computer.
The Client and Server need not run on the same platform. For example, you can
run the COMSOL Desktop on Windows connecting to a COMSOL Multiphysics
Server on a Linux computer. This enables offloading heavy-duty computations
from your personal laptop or desktop to run just the COMSOL Desktop graphical
user interface. A typical use would be to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server
on a computer with large amounts of memory (RAM) and processing power and
to use your personal computer for pre- and postprocessing with the COMSOL
Desktop.
STARTING A

COMSOL M ULTIPHYSICS S ERVER

To start the COMSOL Multiphysics Server from a terminal window, run the
comsol command with the mphserver argument:
comsol mphserver

You are then prompted for a username and password. You can use any username
and password of your choice, it is only used for connecting a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client with a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
When the COMSOL Multiphysics Server starts, it listens for a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client connection on the port listed in the command window.
Connecting a COMSOL Multiphysics Client to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server

You can start a COMSOL Multiphysics Client session from the COMSOL
Desktop by selecting Connect to Server from the File menu in the COMSOL

| 103

Desktop. You can also start a COMSOL Multiphysics Client session from a
terminal window by running the comsol command with the client argument:
comsol client

When you start the Client, a Connect to Server window appears prompting you
for a computer name (Server) where the COMSOL Multiphysics Server is
running, Port number, Username, and Password:

Once you have filled out this information and clicked OK, the COMSOL
Multiphysics Server terminal window displays information that a COMSOL
Multiphysics Client has connected. For more information on running COMSOL
in Client/Server mode, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.

Running a Classkit License

To start COMSOL using a Classkit License, start COMSOL using the -ckl
option:
comsol -ckl

Running COMSOL on Clusters

You can launch COMSOL cluster jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the
command line. To run COMSOL on a cluster, you need to make the cluster
feature visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show button ( ) and select
Advanced Study Options. Then in the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and
select Cluster Computing or Cluster Sweep to create cluster jobs. Cluster computing
requires a Floating Network License.

104 |

The following terms occur frequently when describing the hardware for cluster
computing and shared memory parallel computing:
Compute node: The compute nodes are where the distributed computing
occurs. Each distributed COMSOL process resides in a compute node and
communicates with other compute nodes using MPI (message-passing
interface).
Host: The host is a physical machine (hardware) with a network adapter and
unique network address. The host is part of the cluster. It is sometimes
referred to as a physical node.
Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a
computational node with multiple processors.
The number of used hosts and the number of computational nodes are usually the
same. For some special simulation types, like very small simulations with many
parameters, it might be beneficial to use more than one computational node on
one host.
A tutorial model for cluster testing is included in the Application Libraries window
under COMSOL Multiphysics>Tutorial models>micromixer_cluster.
QUICK TROUBLESHOOTING

Your first step is to make sure you have the latest release installed. Check that
you have COMSOL 5.1 or later and make sure to install the latest product
updates.
If you get the error message Process status indicates that process is running,
then cancel any running jobs in the scheduler that you use. In the COMSOL
Desktop, locate the External Process page at the bottom right. Click the Clear
Status button.
For more information about how to run COMSOL in parallel on Linux clusters,
see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual. For installation on Clusters,
see Cluster Installation.

Running COMSOL on th e Cloud

COMSOL supports cloud computing using Linux through Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). See Running COMSOL on the Amazon
Cloud. This PDF can be accessed online: www.comsol.com/ec2_manual.

| 105

R u n n i n g C O M S O L w i t h M AT L A B
Running COMSOL with MATLAB starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Server and a
MATLAB Desktop. No COMSOL graphical user interface is involved. For a
tutorial, see the LiveLink for MATLAB Users Guide.
To launch MATLAB and connect it to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server, run the
command
comsol mphserver matlab

S TARTING

COMSOL WITH MATLAB USING THE GRAPHICS SERVER

To display the plot in a COMSOL graphics window you need to run COMSOL
with MATLAB using the graphics server. To do so, start COMSOL with
MATLAB from a terminal window with the -graphics flag:
comsol mphserver matlab -graphics

R EQUIRED P ROGRAMS

FOR

R UNNING COMSOL

WITH

MATLAB

The xterm program is necessary for the command comsol mphserver matlab.
The csh program is needed to call MATLAB functions from COMSOL.
To install the missing packages on Debian and Ubuntu, type
sudo apt-get install xterm csh

To install the missing packages on RedHat Enterprise and Fedora, type

sudo yum install xterm tcsh

To install the missing packages on OpenSUSE, type

sudo zypper install xterm tcsh

106 |

Troubleshooting License Errors

If you have questions or problems with your installation, start by checking the
COMSOL Support Knowledge Base at
www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/ for up-to-date information about
installation and license issues. If this does not help, then please contact COMSOL
technical support at [email protected].
THE COMSOL SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE BASE

The most important Knowledge Base entries for installation questions and license
errors are the following:
SUBJECT

KNOWLEDGE BASE ENTRY

Could not obtain license for

COMSOL Multiphysics GUI

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/903

Running COMSOL in parallel

on clusters

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1001

Updating the COMSOL

License Manager

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1022

COMSOL Installation
Companion

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1077

Error: An error has occurred.

See the log file C:\Users...

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1083

Selecting hardware for

clusters

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1116

Error: Error downloading file.

Connection refused: connect

www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1149

You can also view videos about installation at:

www.comsol.com/video/browse/installation.
LICENSE ERRORS

This section summarizes the most common post-installation error messages

generated by COMSOL, and it gives some advice how to troubleshoot them. For
a complete list of error messages, see the FlexNet license manager documentation.
This documentation is shipped with your COMSOL installation; see FlexNet
License Manager Documentation on where to find it.

| 107

If you need to review the license manager log file, or send it to COMSOL
technical support, this is where you usually find it (depending on choices you
made during the installation):
Windows: C:\Program Files\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\license\comsol51.log
OS X: /var/tmp/comsol51.log
Linux: /var/tmp/comsol51.log
If you need to access the license file, this is where you usually find it:
Windows: C:\Program Files\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\license\license.dat
OS X: /Applications/COMSOL51/Multiphysics/license/license.dat
Linux: /usr/local/comsol51/multiphysics/license/license.dat
ERROR MESSAGE

EXPLANATION

License error

A general license error has occurred. Check the error message for
details that might help solve the problem. If you need help in
interpreting the information, see the FlexNet License Manager
documentation or send the complete error message to
[email protected].

License error: -1.

Cannot find license
file.

The license file is missing or your system settings dont allow you to
read the file. Review the license manager installation steps above and
check that you have administrative rights on your computer.

License error: -2.

Invalid license file
syntax.

There is a formatting problem with your license file. This can happen if
you edit it with a word processing software such as Microsoft Word
which inserts extra (invisible) characters. Use a plain text editor
instead (on Windows: Notepad, WordPad, or similar). Formatting
problems can also happen if the file is corrupted while being copied
or emailed from one computer to another.

License error: -4.

Licensed number
of users already
reached.

The license manager has detected that all available licenses of a

certain COMSOL product have been used by other users. Contact
your license administrator and report this problem. You might need
more licenses of one of the add-on products.

License error: -5.

No such feature
exists.

The license manager has encountered a problem during startup.

Check the license manager log file for error messages.
Please send the log file to [email protected] if you want help in
interpreting the information.
NOTE: The license manager creates the log file. If there is no log file,
make sure to first start the license manager. Please refer to one of the
License Manager Installation sections of this manual for instructions
how to install and start the COMSOL license manager.

108 |

ERROR MESSAGE

EXPLANATION

License error: -10.

Feature has
expired.

This error message indicates that you have a time-limited (trial) license
and that your license has expired. Contact your license administrator
to see if a more recent license file is available. You can also contact a
COMSOL representative to renew your time-limited license.

License error: -12.

Invalid returned
data from license
server system.

Check that no firewall on the COMSOL client is preventing the

connection from the COMSOL client to the license server.
Temporarily disable any firewall on the COMSOL client to see if that
helps.
Check that no firewall on the license server is preventing the
connection from the COMSOL client computer to the license
manager, or the connection from the lmgrd daemon and the
LMCOMSOL daemon.
If the problems remain, send the license manager log file to
[email protected].

| 109

ERROR MESSAGE

EXPLANATION

License error: -15.

Cannot connect to
license server
system.

The COMSOL license manager has not been installed or started yet.
If the first line of your license.dat file looks like this:
SERVER mylicserver 000123456789 1718

a license manager is required. Please refer to the License Manager

Installation sections of this manual for instructions on how to install
and start the COMSOL license manager.
Check that no firewall on the COMSOL client is preventing the
connection from the COMSOL client to the license server.
Temporarily disable any firewall on the COMSOL client to see if that
helps.
Check that no firewall on the license server is preventing the
connection from the COMSOL client computer to the license
manager.
Check that the license.dat file on the COMSOL client computer
points to the correct license server host name. First, find the
license.dat according to the instructions above.
Check that the first line has the correct license server Host Name.
For example, if your license server Host Name is apollo, the first
row in the license.dat file should look like this:
SERVER apollo 000123456789 1718

If the COMSOL client computer does not recognize apollo as a

proper Host Name, it might help to instead use the fully qualified
domain name (apollo.thecompany.com) or the IP address. If
neither of these work, there might be a problem with DNS or the
HOSTS file on the client. Please ask your system administrator for
advice on how to connect with TCP/IP to the license server.
Finally, the license manager might have encountered a problem during
startup. Check the license manager log file for error messages.
NOTE: The log file is created by the license manager after it has been
started.
Please send the log file to [email protected] if you want help in
interpreting the information.
License error: -39.
User/host not on
INCLUDE list for
feature.

110 |

The error means that your username does not match the one listed in
the license-manager options file, LMCOMSOL.opt. To get access to
COMSOL, ask your license/system administrator for help. When the
username in the options file is changed, the license manager must be
shut down and restarted to give the new user immediate access to
COMSOL.

ERROR MESSAGE

EXPLANATION

License error: -88.

System clock has
been set back.

The software has detected that a system clock has been set back.
Please make sure that your computers clock is set to the current local
time and date. If the problem remains check that there are no files on
your hard drive that have a future date.

License error: -96.

License server
machine is down
or not responding.

Please make sure that the SERVER host name in the license.dat
file is valid and that the TCP/IP network connection between the
application computer and the license server is working properly.
This error could also indicate that your firewall is not configured
properly in order to let the license manager and vendor daemon
network traffic through (typically ports 1718 and 1719). It could also
indicate problems with other network security settings. Contact your
systems administrator for help.

License error: -97.

The desired
vendor daemon is
down.

The license manager has encountered a problem during startup.

Check the license manager log file for error messages.
NOTE: The log file is created by the license manager after it has been
started.
Please send the log file to [email protected] if you want help in
interpreting the information.

| 111

112 |

Index
A

Academic Server License 13

add feature 24
application libraries, installing 28

Linux 104

Application Library Update

Mac 85

configuring on Linux 92

Windows 64

configuring on Mac 73

comment line, license file 48

configuring on Windows 39

Community Discussion Forum 15

ASL license 13

compute node 64

AutoCAD

COMSOL Access 15

LiveLink for 42
Autodesk Inventor
LiveLink for 41
automated installation

COMSOL Client
Mac 82
Windows, connecting 62
comsol command, Linux 101

Linux 91

comsol command, Mac 81

Mac 72

COMSOL Conference 15

Windows 39

COMSOL Exchange 15

automated license manager installation

Windows 59
cluster computing

COMSOL Multiphysics Client

Linux license server 97

Linux, connecting 103

Mac license server 76

Mac, connecting 82

Windows license server 53

Windows 58

boot script 98
Bourne shell commands 97
browser, Linux file 91

Windows, running 61
COMSOL Multiphysics Server
Linux, running 103
Linux, running with MATLAB 106

change license, with COMSOL installer

24

changing the license

Linux 99
Mac 78
Windows 55
CKL license 13
Class Kit License 13
Classkit License
desktop shortcuts 60
Linux 104
Mac 81

Linux, starting 103

Mac 80
Mac, running 81
Mac, starting 82
Windows 58
Windows, running 61
Windows, running with MATLAB 66
COMSOL Server License 13
COMSOL Software License Agreement 11
COMSOL Video Center 9
core 64

| 113

CPU-Locked Single User License 12

utility program, Linux 95

Creo Parametric

utility program, Mac 75

LiveLink for 43

utility program, Windows 47

cross-platform user interface 57, 60

Floating Network License

csh program 106

definition 12

CSL license 13

Linux, client servers and 103

Linux, clusters and 104

DirectX runtime binaries 31

Linux, clusters installation and 93

documentation, installing 28

Mac, client server and 82

dongle 15

Mac, clusters and 85

downloading product 9

management software 14

Linux, DVD 88

Windows, client server and 61

Mac 67

Windows, cluster installation and 45

Mac, DVD 70

Windows, clusters and 64

troubleshooting 107

Windows, definition 46

Windows 16
Windows, COMSOL installer 19, 87

Windows, DVD 20
E

hard disk serial number 17

hardware address 68
hardware lock 15

errors, license 107

host 64

Ethernet address

hostid

Linux 86

Linux, changing licenses 99

Mac 79

Linux, Internet installations 86

Windows 17

Mac, changing licenses 79

Windows, changing license and 56

Mac, Internet installations 68

F

FEATURE line, license file 50

Windows, changing licenses 56

FEATURE names 50

Windows, Internet installations 17

FlexNet

Windows, license server and 49

control panel 47
License Administration Guide, Linux

installation

95

Linux 86

License Administration Guide, Mac

Mac 67

75

media options 9

License Administration Guide, Win-

OS X 67

dows 47

previous 10

license manager, troubleshooting 107

Windows 16

license manager, Windows 46

installation, quick selections 28

management, Linux 95
management, Mac 75
management, Windows 47

114 |

INCREMENT line, license file 50

Knowledge Base 9
COMSOL Access, and 15

troubleshooting 107
L

License Agreement 9
license agreement 11
license errors 107
license file
comment line 48
FEATURE line 50
FlexNet, and 14
INCREMENT line 50
Mac, obtaining 68
SERIAL line 50
SERVER line 49
troubleshooting 108
USE_SERVER line 49
VENDOR line 49
Windows, obtaining 18
license manager
automated installation on Linux 97
automated installation on Mac 76
automated installation on Windows
53

daemon, Linux 95
daemon, Mac 75
daemon, Windows 47
files for installation, Linux 96
files for installation, Mac 76
files for installation, Windows 52
installing files, Linux 96
installing files, Mac 76
installing files, Windows 52
Linux, log file 97
Linux, starting 97
log file 54
log file, troubleshooting 108
Mac, log file 77
Mac, starting 76
Windows, log file 55
Windows, starting 53
license server

Linux, and 95
Linux, client server and 103
Mac, and 75
Windows, and 26
Windows, client server and 61
license, changing
Linux 99
Mac 78
Windows 55
license.dat FlexNet, and 14
license.dat Linux 96
license.dat Linux, changing 99
license.dat Mac 75
license.dat Mac, changing 78
license.dat troubleshooting 108
license.dat Windows 48
license.dat Windows, FlexNet and

47

Linux Standard Base 100

LiveLink for
AutoCAD 42
Autodesk Inventor 41
Creo Parametric 43
Pro/ENGINEER 42
Solid Edge 44
SolidWorks 41
lmgrd.exe Linux 95
lmgrd.exe Mac 75
lmgrd.exe Windows 47
lmhostid

Linux 99
Mac 79
lmutil

Windows 56
lmutil Linux 95
lmutil Mac 75
lmutil Windows 47

log file, license manager 54

log file, Linux 97

| 115

log file, Mac 77

Windows, COMSOL installer 19, 87

log file, troubleshooting 108

Windows, DVD 20

log file, Windows 55

product updates 9

LSB 100
M

COMSOL Access, and 15

proxy server

MAC address

for software updates 38

Linux installations 86

Linux installations 92

Mac installations 79

Mac installations 73

Windows installations 17, 56

Windows installations 32

MATLAB
Linux, changing path to 93
Mac, changing path to 74

quick selections, for installation 28

Remote Desktop 32

running COMSOL Multiphysics on

remove feature 24

Linux with 106

root 97

running COMSOL Multiphysics on

Mac with 80

SERIAL line, license file 50

SERVER line, license file 49

running COMSOL Multiphysics on

shared-memory computing 11

Windows with 66

software license agreement 11

Windows, changing path to 66

Solid Edge

multicore computing 11

LiveLink for 44

multiprocessor computing 11

SolidWorks
N

Named Single User License

LiveLink for 41

definition 12

system requirements 9, 10

Linux, and 90, 96

T
O

operating system 11

technical support, website 9

options file 96
P

three-server redundancy 26

passcode 16

trial license

physical address 17

Linux 86

port number 26

Mac 67

previous installation 10

Windows 16

Pro/ENGINEER

troubleshooting license errors 107

LiveLink for 42

tutorials, installation 107

product downloads 9
COMSOL Access, and 15
Linux, DVD 88
Mac 67
Mac, DVD 70
troubleshooting 107
Windows 16

116 |

technical support, contacting 107

tutorials, videos 9
U

unattended installation
Linux 91
Mac 72
Windows 39
uninstalling COMSOL

Linux 91
Mac 73
Windows 36
updates, product 9
COMSOL Access 15
USE_SERVER line, license file 49
user interface, cross-platform 57, 60
utility program, Linux 95
utility program, Mac 75
utility program, Windows 47
V

vendor daemon
Linux installations 95
Mac installations 75
Windows installations 47
VENDOR line, license file 49
videos
installation 107
tutorials 9
volume serial number 17

W web browsers, for Linux 91

Windows Remote Desktop 32

X

xterm program 106

| 117

118 |