User manual | COMSOL Server Manual

COMSOL Server

Manual

C O M S O L S e r v e r M a n u a l

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

C o n t a c t I n f o r m a t i o n

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 .

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M o n i t o r

On the Monitor page you find information including: the local IP address, OS and architecture, start time and uptime, CPU and memory use, and also an overview of the running application sessions with the session ID, application, user, start time and uptime, and memory and CPU usage. Click the column header for a session property to sort the application sessions alphabetically based on that property. The Monitor panel for a server can be collapsed and expanded by clicking on its name. Click Close to stop a session.

When running COMSOL Server on multiple computers, there is one panel for the

Primary server and one for each Secondary server. For more information, see

Running COMSOL Server on Multiple Computers

Selecting the Show prelaunched application processes check box enables the display of prelaunched application processes in the list of Application Sessions. A prelaunched application process is used to speed up the launch of new applications and does not check out any COMSOL Server license.

The Client type can be either Web or Native. Web means that the application is run in a web browser. Native means that the application is run as a native Windows application using the COMSOL Client for Windows

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U s e r D a t a b a s e

On the User Database page you can add users and groups to the server’s user database. See

Adding and Editing Users and Groups .

P re f e re n c e s

On the Preferences page you access server administrative preferences and settings divided into the following sections.

•

ENERAL

Under General, you can control the following settings:

Choose the language to use for COMSOL Server from the Language list.

COMSOL Server supports the same languages as the COMSOL Desktop user interface.

Choose a theme for the application’s look and feel from the

Application Theme

list: Choose COMSOL for a look and feel that is similar to the

COMSOL Desktop user interface, or choose COMSOL Website for a look and feel that is more adapted for display on the web.

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ISUALIZATION

The table below summarizes the settings in the Visualization section.

SETTING

Web rendering

Server image rendering

DEFAULT

WebGL

DESCRIPTION

Rendering method when running in a web browser:

WebGL

™ or Images from server.

Software Rendering method for images in COMSOL Server: Software or OpenGL.

WebGL

is an emerging standard for interactive 3D and 2D graphics in web browsers. The option Images from server is used for browsers that do not support

WebGL. It renders by generating images instead of offering interactive graphics.

The Software and OpenGL options are the same as in the COMSOL Desktop environment but are here used for image rendering for the purpose of image export in an application. The COMSOL Client for the Windows

operating system provides the same interactive graphics rendering options as the COMSOL

Desktop user interface: OpenGL, DirectX, and Software. These options are chosen from the COMSOL Desktop Startup menu icons.

ESSIONS

The table and associated figure below summarizes the settings in the Sessions section.

SETTING

Prelaunch application processes

Max number of concurrent applications per user

Idle timeout (s)

Total timeout (s)

DEFAULT

DESCRIPTION

Prelaunching allows fast launch of an application but requires more resources on the server computer.

The maximum number of concurrently running applications per user is four. You can use a lower number to restrict the number of concurrent applications per user.

The maximum idle time in seconds before the user is thrown out and the applications started by that user are shut down. This option makes it possible to reduce resources and licenses required on the server. The default (0) is an infinite timeout time.

The maximum total elapsed time in seconds before the user is thrown out and the applications started by that user are shut down. This option makes it possible to reduce resources and licenses required on the server. The default (0) is an infinite timeout time.

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ULTICORE

The table below summarizes the settings in the Multicore section.

SETTING DEFAULT

Number of cores Off

Manual All cores

DESCRIPTION

Determines if the number of cores assigned to each application is determined automatically or by manual input.

Number of cores assigned to each application in the manual case.

Each user may have up to four (4) applications running at the same time.

Assuming that intense computations are performed only with one of these applications at a time, then the best performance is achieved with one core per user. Adjust the Number of cores setting accordingly with respect to expected number of concurrent users, concurrently running applications, and the number of cores on the computer hosting COMSOL Server.

MAIL

In this section you can define the settings for sending emails from applications:

SETTING

Host

Port

Connection security

User

Password

From address

DESCRIPTION

The email server’s host name.

The port number (default: 25)

Use no connection security (None; the default), or use an encrypted connection for emails sent from applications by selection STARTTLS or TLS/SSL.

The user account for logging in to the email server, if required by the server.

Password for the user account, if required by the server.

The sender’s email address for emails sent from applications.

ILES

The table below summarizes the settings in the Files section.

SETTING DESCRIPTION

Folder for uploaded applications Folders for MPH-files.

Folder for user files (user:///) Folders for files referred to in MPH-files.

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SETTING

Folder for common files

(common:///)

Folder for temporary files

(temp:///)

Show demo applications

DESCRIPTION

Common storage area for files created by applications.

Storage area for temporary files created by applications.

Include the demo applications included in the shipped

Application Libraries (On; the default) or no (Off).

Do not modify these file paths when COMSOL Servers is running on multiple computers, as the secondary servers will not see the new path.

•

ECURITY

The following security settings are available in the Preferences page in the

COMSOL Server web interface when you are logged in as an administrator. (The corresponding settings in COMSOL Multiphysics can be found on the Security page in the Preferences dialog box, which you open from the COMSOL Desktop.)

Select the Allow batch jobs check box to allow applications to run detachable batch jobs (default: On). These are separate COMSOL Server processes where the simulation is stored on file when the computation is finished. This functionality is used in 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 hosting COMSOL Server (default: Off).

This includes using the built-in executeOS()

method. This setting also allows external C libraries to be called from methods in an application. The security settings do not extend to methods used to access the model object.

Under Methods and Java libraries:

•

The Enforce security restrictions check box is selected by default. If selected, this check box enforces the following restrictions on 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 Server currently uses.

Select the Allow changes to the runtime system check box to allow methods and Java libraries to change the runtime system—for 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,

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or select All files to allow methods and Java libraries to access all files that the account used to start the COMSOL Server service (default: LocalService) has 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 settings above are Off by default, enforcing those security restrictions.

ECOVERY FOR

PPLICATION

UILDER

The table below summarizes the settings in the Recovery section.

SETTING DEFAULT

Save recovery file Off

DESCRIPTION

Determines if launched applications should be configured to automatically use recovery files.

This means that failed applications can be recovered by accessing these files.

Common storage area for recovery files.

Folder for recovery files

HOME\.comsol\ v51server\recoveries

Click Save to store the updated preference settings.

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Running Applications

COMSOL applications can be run by connecting to COMSOL Server from a web browser, or from a COMSOL Client for Windows

. The COMSOL Client for

Windows

allows a user to run applications that require a LiveLink

™

product for

CAD, as described in

Running Applications in the COMSOL Client

. In addition, the COMSOL Client for Windows

® supports interactive graphics in 1D, 2D, and

3D.

Running applications in a web browser does not require any installation and no web browser plug-ins are needed. Running an application in a web browser supports interactive graphics in 3D using WebGL

™

technology. However, selecting objects in graphics using mouse clicks in not supported when running in a web browser.

R u n n i n g A p p l i c a t i o n s i n a We b B row s e r

Using a web browser you can point directly to the computer name and port number of a COMSOL Server web interface—for example, http://abc.mycorp.com:2036

. You need to provide a username and password to log in using the web interface.

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When logged in, the Application Library page displays a list of applications to run.

When logged in as user or guest, the Administration options, in the panel to the left, are not visible.

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Click Launch to run an application. Applications are run in separate tabs in the browser.

Users can upload applications and determine which groups have access. Guests can only run applications.

Click the Properties and Descriptions button to show a description and some general information about that application.

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In the information display, under Used Products, you find the COMSOL products used to create and run the application.

Click the Add to Favorites button to add the application under Favorites.

Click an application under Favorites to launch it. For an application already marked as a favorite, click the star or the Remove from Favorites button next to the application under Favorites to remove it from the Favorites section.

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PLOADING AND

DITING

PPLICATIONS

As a user or administrator, you can expand the Application Library by uploading applications (MPH-files). Click Upload, in the panel to the left, to open the Upload

Application

dialog box.

Click Browse to browse and select the application to upload. Then select an option under Visibility: Public, Group, or Private (the default). A public application is available to all users.

An application with a group visibility is available to members of the groups that you select under Groups. A private application is available only to the user who uploads it.

When you have uploaded an application, a message Your application has been

uploaded

appears at the top of the COMSOL Server window. Click the x to the right of the message to remove the message. The uploaded application gets an orange border to identify that it has recently been uploaded.

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For applications that have been uploaded, click the Edit button to open the Edit

Application

dialog box.

This dialog box contains a Delete button to delete the application from the

Application Library and a Save button to save any new visibility settings.

HANGING THE

IEW OF

PPLICATIONS

To the right of the top Library menu bar, you can choose three different views of the applications:

•

The Grid View (left) is the default view, which shows an image and a title for each application in a grid.

The Detailed View (middle) shows the applications in a list, including a full description and information about the author, owner, visibility, COMSOL products used, and date that the application was uploaded. Buttons are available to edit the application, show its properties, mark it as a favorite, and to launch it.

The List View (right) shows the applications in a list with their names, and buttons are available to edit the application, show its properties, mark it as a favorite, and to launch it.

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The following image shows the detailed view:

•

ORTING AND

HOWING

PPLICATIONS

The menu at the top of the Application Library window contains options for sorting and filtering the applications:

From the Sort By list, choose to sort the applications by Name

(alphabetically), which is the default, Date uploaded (showing the latest uploaded application first), or Author.

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•

From the Filter list, choose All (the default), Public, All Groups, Private, or any available group.

HANGING

ASSWORD

Under Your Settings in the menu to the left, click Change Password to open a

Change Password

dialog box where you can change the password used to log in to

COMSOL Server.

HANGING

EFAULT

MAIL

Under Your Settings in the menu to the left, click Change Default Email to open a

Change Default Email

dialog box where you can change the default recipient’s email address for emails sent from applications unless another email address is specified

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in the application.

IMITATIONS

HEN

UNNING

PPLICATIONS IN

ROWSERS

When you create applications for running in a web browser, it is recommended that you use the grid layout mode in the Application Builder. This will ensure that the user interface layout adapts to the size and aspect ratio of the browser window.

For low-resolution displays, make sure to test the user interface layout in the target platform to check that all form objects are visible. Applications that contain resizable graphics forms may not fit in low-resolution displays. In such cases, use graphics with fixed width and height to make sure all form objects fit in the target browser window.

When running in a web browser, the interactive selection of domains, boundaries, edges, and points is not supported. The LiveLink

™

products for CAD software packages are not supported when running in a web browser.

When running COMSOL applications in web browsers for smartphones and certain tablets, not all functionality is supported. Typical limitations include the ability to play sounds or open documents. In addition, file upload and download may not be supported.

R u n n i n g A p p l i c a t i o n s i n t h e C O M S O L C l i e n t

As an alternative to using a web browser for running applications, the COMSOL

Client for Windows

can be used to connect to COMSOL Server and run applications natively in the Windows

operating system. This typically gives better graphics performance and supports interactive graphics in 1D, 2D, and 3D. In

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addition, the COMSOL Client for Windows

allows applications that require a

LiveLink

™

product for CAD, as listed below.

To use COMSOL Client, you need to have at least Internet Explorer

® version 9 or later installed.

You can install the COMSOL Client together with COMSOL Server. You can also download the COMSOL Client from www.comsol.com/client-download . In the download page, you can choose between a 32-bit and a 64-bit version and the corresponding installation files are:

COMSOL51_client_win32.exe

and

COMSOL51_client_win64.exe

, respectively. The size of an installation file is about 40 MB and expands to about 70 MB in the installation.

Double-click the download file to start the COMSOL Client installer:

In the next few steps of the installer, accept the license agreement and choose the installation folder.

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In the step Select Installation Options you get the options shown in the figure below.

The following LiveLink

™

products are available in the COMSOL Client:

•

LiveLink

™

for

AutoCAD

•

LiveLink

™

for

Excel

LiveLink

™

for

Inventor

(One Window interface not available)

•

LiveLink

™

for

PTC

Creo

Parametric™

LiveLink

™

for

PTC

Pro/ENGINEER

LiveLink

™

for

Revit

LiveLink

™

for

Solid Edge

LiveLink

™

for

SOLIDWORKS

(One Window interface not available)

Once installed, double-click the Desktop or Start menu icon to start.

There are three Start menu options depending on the graphics renderer you want to use: DirectX, OpenGL, and Software. When clicking the Desktop icon, the default

OpenGL

renderer will be used. If the OpenGL renderer fails to function properly— for example, due to limitations in the graphics card—then the COMSOL Client

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shuts down. The next time you start the COMSOL Client, Software rendering will be used as a fallback renderer. The OpenGL and DirectX options use hardware graphics acceleration and give higher performance on supported graphics cards.

The installation options also let you associate the MPH-file type with the

COMSOL Client installation.

COMSOL Client can only be used to log in to COMSOL Server with local users

(see

Configuring a Local User Database

). To use a non-local user account to log in to COMSOL Server, like Windows Authentication or LDAP, first log in to the web GUI and then use Set Password under Your Settings to set a local password that can be used with COMSOL Client using the username of the non-local account.

If you select the Encryption check box, the client tries to log in with SSL/TLS to enable secure communication. The COMSOL Server that you connect to must be set up with a valid certificate to support this. See

Setting Up COMSOL Server for

Secure Connections

Logging in from the COMSOL Client displays a COMSOL Server web interface identical to that seen when logging in from a web browser. Using the COMSOL

Client, applications run as native Windows

applications in separate windows that have a Windows

® look-and-feel. For example, applications run in the COMSOL

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Client may have a Windows

specific ribbon with tabs. When run in a web browser, ribbons are represented by a toolbar.

For more information on running applications, see

Running Applications in a Web

Browser .

R u n n i n g A p p l i c a t i o n s t h a t u s e L i ve L i n k P ro d u c t s

Most of the LiveLink

™

products can be used in applications run with COMSOL

Server. However, in some cases the functionality is limited compared to running

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with a COMSOL Multiphysics license that includes the COMSOL Desktop.

Depending on the LiveLink product, software components are installed with the

COMSOL Client or COMSOL Server. The table below summarizes where the software components are installed and which functionality is available.

LIVELINK PRODUCT

LiveLink

™

for for for for for for

MATLAB

Excel

Revit

SOLIDWORKS

Inventor

LiveLink

™

for

PTC

LiveLink

™

for for

AutoCAD

PTC

Pro/ENGINEER

Solid Edge

LOCATION OF

SOFTWARE

COMPONENTS

Server

FUNCTIONALITY

Client

Creo

Parametric™

Client

Support is limited to function calls from the Global Definitions node in the model tree. Can be used only when accessing an application in a web browser.

.Loading and saving files is supported.

Same as COMSOL Desktop, with the exception that the One

Window interface is not supported.

Not supported when running applications in a web browser.

Same as COMSOL Desktop, with the exception that the One

Window interface is not supported.

Not supported when running applications in a web browser.

Same as COMSOL Desktop. Not supported when running applications in a web browser.

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Running COMSOL Server on Multiple Computers

Running COMSOL Server on multiple computers allows for supporting more simultaneous users and concurrent applications than a single computer would support. The main COMSOL Server instance is called Primary and the rest are called Secondary. The Primary server is used for all incoming connections—for example, to show the web interface or to run applications in a web browser or with

COMSOL Client. The actual work of running the applications is offloaded to the

Secondary server computers.

A prerequisite for running COMSOL Server on multiple computers is that there is a Shared working directory on the network that is accessible by all Primary and Secondary servers. The user account that is used to run the COMSOL Server instances should have read and write access to this

directory. See

Setting up a Shared Working Directory

for information

about how to do this using the Windows operating system, and refer to other documentation sources for sharing a directory on Linux or OS X.

I n s t a l l i n g C O M S O L S e r ve r o n M u l t i p l e C o m p u t e r s

The installation of COMSOL Server on multiple computers is similar to a regular

COMSOL Server installation. You first install the Primary COMSOL Server on one computer and then install Secondary COMSOL Servers on the other computers. During the installation you point out a Shared working directory on the network that must be accessible for COMSOL Server on all of the installed computers.

Optionally it is possible to share a common installation folder on the network for all computers running COMSOL Server, both Primary and

Secondary. See the

Sharing a COMSOL Server Installation

for more information.

NSTALLING THE

RIMARY

COMSOL S

ERVER

On the Options page of the installer, choose Primary. On the Server page of the installer, select the Support running COMSOL Server on multiple computers check

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box and browse to your Shared working directory. The subdirectory v51server will be appended to the working directory path to keep different versions of

COMSOL Server apart. Under Primary server hostname, the installer fills in a guess for the hostname that the Secondary servers should use to contact the

Primary server. This should be a valid hostname that resolves to the primary computer’s IP address.

When installing the primary COMSOL Server as a Windows service, the service account must be able to access the shared working directory on the network. For this reason, the default Service account changes from LocalService to NetworkService when you select the Support running COMSOL Server on multiple computers check box on the Server page. The NetworkService account presents itself as the computer’s credential on the network, allowing it to access network shares without a regular user account.

If installing COMSOL Server as a Windows service on a computer that is not joined to a domain, the NetworkService account cannot be used because computer credentials are not valid on work group networks. A local user account should be entered instead in the

Service account

field.

NSTALLING THE

ECONDARY

COMSOL S

ERVER

On the Options page of the installer, choose Secondary. On the Server page of the installer, browse to your Shared working directory under Secondary COMSOL Server

settings

to automatically load the settings used during the primary installation for the Primary server hostname, Primary server port, and Primary server username fields. If the loaded settings are not correct you can edit them before continuing, for example if the secondary server would have to use a different hostname to reach the primary server.

The path to the Shared working directory does not necessarily have to be identical for the primary and secondary installation, as long as it points to the same directory on all installations. For example, the path could be written as

\\ServerName\shared\v51server

on Windows and

/mnt/servername/shared/v51server

on Linux.

S t a r t i n g C O M S O L S e r ve r o n M u l t i p l e C o m p u t e r s

The primary COMSOL Server is started similarly to a regular COMSOL Server installation, either automatically or manually, which is described in

Starting

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COMSOL Server

. Once the primary COMSOL Server has started, you can log in with an administrative user and check on the Monitor page that the secondary

COMSOL Servers have connected.

Secondary COMSOL Servers are also started similarly to a regular COMSOL

Server installation. Once the secondary COMSOL Servers are started they periodically try to connect to the primary COMSOL Server. This means that the starting order of the primary and secondary COMSOL Servers is not important

S e t t i n g u p a S h a re d Wo r k i n g D i re c t o r y

HARING A

IRECTORY IN

INDOWS

The following steps provide a basic procedure for setting up a Shared working directory in Windows

for installing COMSOL Server on multiple computers:

Create a new folder in a convenient location on the computer that should host the share.

Right-click the folder and choose Share with>Specific people.

Type

Everyone

and click Add.

Change Read to Read/Write next to

Everyone

Click Share.

Note the network path to the shared folder (for example,

\\ServerName\shared

). This is what you will use during the installation.

Note that this procedure will give anyone on the network access to the share. Once you know which user accounts and server computers that need to access the share it is recommended to limit the access to those. Exactly how the shares should be set up depends on for which user account COMSOL Server has been installed.

The default on Windows is the

NetworkService

user in the multiple computer case. This is a special account with limited capabilities, which presents itself as the computer on the network, not any specific user. In this case, the shares can be secured as follows:

Right-click the shared folder and choose Properties, then switch to the Security tab.

Click Edit, make sure

Everyone

is selected and click the Remove button to remove access to everyone.

Click Add, then Object Types and make sure Computers is selected in the list.

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Click OK and type a semicolon-separated list of all the computers where

COMSOL Server runs under the

NetworkService

account. (Alternatively, if

NetworkService

has not been used, enter the accounts that COMSOL Server runs under.)

Click OK and verify that the entries are added to the list.

Select the new entries and select the Full control check box (under Allow) for each one.

Click OK and Close.

Network administrators can also make use of groups to more easily manager access to the shared directory.

HARING A

IRECTORY IN

INUX OR

Consult the documentation that came with the operating system for information about sharing directories on the network.

S h a r i n g a C O M S O L S e r ve r I n s t a l l a t i o n

As an alternative to installing the secondary COMSOL Servers separately on each computer, it is possible to launch the secondary COMSOL Server processes from the primary installation directory. To do this, first make sure that the computers that should run the secondary COMSOL Servers have read access to the primary installation directory over the network. Then use the procedure described in the following subsections to launch the secondary COMSOL Server.

When secondary COMSOL Servers are launched from the primary installation directory, their settings are read from a separate set of secondary

.ini

files, which are created during the primary installation. This is similar to the automatic loading of settings from the Shared working directory during a separate secondary installation.

AUNCHING

HROUGH A

HORTCUT IN

INDOWS

On the computer that should run the secondary COMSOL Server, do the following:

Navigate to the primary installation directory (for example,

\\ServerName\installation\COMSOL51\Server\bin\win64

Right-click comsolserver.exe

and choose Create Shortcut. Accept to have it on the desktop because you cannot write to the installation directory.

50 |

Locate the new shortcut, right-click, and open the Properties. Add

-secondary to the end of the Target field.

Double-click the shortcut to launch the secondary COMSOL Server.

NSTALLING AS A

ERVICE IN

INDOWS

On the computer that should run the secondary COMSOL Server, do the following:

Open an administrative console (Windows-key + type cmd

+ right-click it and choose Run as Administrator).

Enter the following command (notice that the spaces after, but not before, the equal signs are mandatory; adapt the network path to match your installation):

sc create "COMSOLSecondaryService" binpath=

\\ServerName\installation\COMSOL51\Server\bin\win64\ comsolservicesecondary.exe

obj= "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" password= "" start= auto

The service is now installed. Enter this command to start it: sc start "COMSOLSecondaryService"

AUNCHING ON

INUX AND

Use the procedure described in

Starting COMSOL Server

but append the

-secondary

flag to the command.

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Configuring COMSOL Server

To operate COMSOL Server, you must set up user authentication (password validation) and authorization (groups and roles) for your users.

One administrator account can be added during installation. You can also create an administrator after installation using comsolserver.exe in the Windows

operating system or comsol server in the OS X and

Linux

operating systems.

COMSOL Server can maintain its own local user database. This is the easiest way to set up the server. In addition, you can use your operating system’s user authentication method.

Using the authentication method of your operating system is only supported when accessing COMSOL Server from a web browser. To use this method to log in to COMSOL Server with COMSOL Client, first log in using a web browser and then use

Set Password

under

Your Settings

to set a local password that can be used with COMSOL Client using the username of the account.

C o n f i g u r i n g a L o c a l U s e r D a t a b a s e

Using the COMSOL Server installer, you can set up an initial administrator account that is available when COMSOL Server is started as a service. When

COMSOL Server is not started as a service, the initial administrator account is created the first time it is started.

You can add more users to the local user database as soon as COMSOL Server is started. These users are automatically added to the local user database of your

COMSOL Server installation.

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DDING AND

DITING

SERS AND

ROUPS

When you run COMSOL Server as administrator, you have access to a User

Database

page under Administration in the menu on the left side of the COMSOL

Server web interface.

From this page you can manage users and groups for running and accessing applications. Under Users, you see all users with their username, role, groups they belong to, and status (if the user is logged in or not). Click a column header for a user property to sort the users in alphabetical order based on that property. Click the Edit User button to open an Edit User dialog box for a user, where you can change the username, set a default email address, and change the password, role, and which groups the user belongs to.

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Click Save to store the new user properties. You can also click Log Out User to log out a user that is currently logged in, or click Delete to remove a user from the list.

Adding a New User

To add a new user, click the Add New User button.

In the New User dialog box, specify the Username and Password (you need to confirm the password in the Repeat password field). Also enter a default email address in the Default email field. Under Role, click Administrator, User (the default), or Guest, depending on the role that you want the user to have (see Users and Roles in COMSOL Server ). Under Groups, select the check boxes for the available groups that you want the new user to belong to. Finally, click Save to store the new user and its properties. The new user then appears in the list under

Users

54 |

Adding Groups

You can use groups to ensure that users assigned to the same group can view and run the same applications. Available groups appear on the User Database page under Groups. To add a new group, click the Add New Group button.

In the New Group dialog box, enter a Group name and then click Save. The added group then appears in the list under Groups.

You can control the visibility of the applications so that they are available only for users within a certain group (or groups). Click the Delete Group button next to a group to remove that group.

C o n f i g u r i n g W i n d ow s A u t h e n t i c a t i o n

In addition to the local user database, the COMSOL Server installer for the

Windows

operating system makes it possible to use Windows

authentication.

To determine which Windows users are allowed to log in, and which COMSOL

Server roles they should have, you set up a mapping between Windows

groups and COMSOL Server roles.

You will find the login configuration file created by the installer in

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\login.config

. In addition, there is a sample file for

Windows

authentication available in the file

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\login.win.config

ComsolServerLogin { waffle.jaas.WindowsLoginModule optional

principalFormat=both

roleFormat=fqn; com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule optional

authenticate=true

"BUILTIN\\Administrators"=ComsolServerAdministrator

"BUILTIN\\Users"=ComsolServerUser

"Everyone"=ComsolServerGuest;

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};

ComsolWebsocketLogin { com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule required;

};

By modifying this

login.win.config

file and copying it to the file

login.config

you can change the actual configuration used by the server and thus override any settings made by the installer.

The lines

"BUILTIN\\Administrators"=ComsolServerAdministrator

"BUILTIN\\Users"=ComsolServerUser

"Everyone"=ComsolServerGuest; map the Windows

groups

Administrators

Users

, and

Everyone

to the roles identifiers

ComsolServerAdministrator

ComsolServerUser

, and

ComsolServerGuest

, corresponding to the COMSOL Server roles administrator, user, and guest, respectively.

For the details about settings in the configuration file, see the section

Advanced

Finally, use administration tools in Windows

to set up users and groups. For example, use the Control Panel and the User Accounts settings in the control panel.

Using the authentication method of your Windows

operating system is only supported when accessing COMSOL Server from a web browser. To use a Windows user account to log in to COMSOL Server with

COMSOL Client, first log in using a web browser and then use

Set

Password

under

Your Settings

to set a local password that can be used with COMSOL Client using the username of the Windows account.

C o n f i g u r i n g A c t i ve D i re c t o r y o r L DA P

In addition to the local user database and to the Windows Authentication available on the Windows

operating system, it is possible to use a Windows

Active

Directory

or LDAP server to authenticate users. This means that you can use your Active Directory

or LDAP usernames and passwords to log in to COMSOL

Server.

56 |

Configuring COMSOL Server to use an Active Directory or LDAP server for authentication requires editing the configuration file at:

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\login.config

. There is a sample file for Active

Directory

authentication available in the file

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\login.ad.config

ComsolServerLogin {

com.sun.security.auth.module.LdapLoginModule OPTIONAL

userProvider="ldap://ldap.example.com:3268/DC=example,DC=com"

authIdentity="{USERNAME}@example.com"

userFilter="(&(sAMAccountName={USERNAME})(objectclass=user))"

authzIdentity="{MEMBEROF}"

useSSL=false;

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule OPTIONAL

authenticate=true;

};

ComsolWebsocketLogin {

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule required;

};

In addition, a sample file for OpenLDAP is available in the file

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\login.openldap.config

ComsolServerLogin {

} com.sun.security.auth.module.LdapLoginModule REQUIRED

userProvider="ldap://ldap.example.com/ou=People,dc=example"

userFilter="(&(uid={USERNAME})(objectClass=inetOrgPerson))"

authzIdentity="{MAIL}"

useSSL=false;

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule required

authenticate=false;

};

ComsolWebsocketLogin {

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule required;

;

Modify the sample files and overwrite

login.config

with the changes to configure

Active Directory

or LDAP authentication. You need to replace ldap.example.com

, example

, and com

with the name of your Active Directory

® or LDAP server and

DC=example

DC=com

with the settings of your Active

Directory

or LDAP server, respectively.

You need to add each user and the user’s associated role to the roles.properties

file in

<Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf\

. COMSOL

Server will user the username and password to authenticate. Use the syntax alice=ComsolServerAdministrator; dave=ComsolServerUser; carol=ComsolServerGuest;

| 57

to add roles to the users alice

, dave

, and carol

ComsolServerAdministrator

ComsolServerUser

, and

ComsolServerGuest

are valid as the right-hand side, representing the administrator, user, and guest roles in COMSOL Server, respectively.

Alternatively, if a user has attempted to log in using an Active Directory

or LDAP username, you can assign a role for that user from the COMSOL Server web interface by editing the automatically created user account under

Administration>User Database

The LDAP login module that COMSOL Server uses does not easily allow direct mappings from Active Directory groups to COMSOL Server roles.

For the details about settings in the configuration file, see the section

Advanced

Active Directory

and LDAP authentication is only supported when accessing COMSOL Server from a web browser. To use Active

Directory

and LDAP authentication to log in to COMSOL Server with

COMSOL Client, first log in using a web browser and then use

Set

Password

under

Your Settings

to set a local password that can be used with COMSOL Client using the username of the account.

A d v a n c e d L og i n C o n f i g u r a t i o n

COMSOL Server uses the pluggable authentication mechanisms of JAAS (Java

Authentication and Authorization Services). Using JAAS configuration files you can configure to use Windows

authentication and LDAP authentication. You can also combine local database users and operating system users by merging configurations.

OGIN

ODULE

ONFIGURATION

ILES

The COMSOL Server installation includes prepared login configuration files. Use a suitable file, modify it, and replace the login.config

file with an edited file to configure the required login module.

58 |

Configuration Files in <Installation>\bin\tomcat\conf

FILE NAME login.config

FILE DESCRIPTION

LDAP configuration sample file login.ad.config

Active Directory sample file

Windows authentication sample file login.local.config

Local configuration sample file

Initial user and password file roles.properties

Initial policy group file

ACTION

Contains the login configuration that the running server uses.

Modify and copy to login.config to use a

OpenLDAP configuration.

Modify and copy to login.config to use a

Active Directory configuration.

Modify and copy to login.config to use a

Windows

authentication configuration.

Modify and copy to login.config to use a local user database configuration.

Created by installer. Automatically copied to the <user home>\.comsol\v51server\ login.properties of the user account that started COMSOL Server the first time the service is started.

Created by installer. Automatically copied to the <user home>\.comsol\v51server\ service\roles.properties of the user account that started COMSOL Server the first time the service is started.

The local user database is represented by two files:

•

The login.properties

file, which contains the local user database. Each row in this file represents a user. The username is followed by an equal sign and a hashed password. The file should only be readable to the account running

COMSOL Server.

•

The roles.properties

file, which contains the roles of the users. Each row in this file contains a user. The username is followed by an equal sign and a semicolon-separated list of roles and groups that the user is associated with.

| 59

EFAULT

OCAL

DMINISTRATIVE

SER

When you have selected the Create default local administrative user check box in the installer, it creates:

•

A local user in the file <

COMSOL Server installation directory>\ bin\tomcat\conf\login.properties

•

A roles file

<COMSOL Server installation directory>\ bin\tomcat\conf\roles.properties

. The roles file assigns administrative rights to the user you specify.

When COMSOL Server is started for the first time as a service, the command

<COMSOL Server Installation Directory>\bin\win64\comsolservice copies the password and roles files from the installation directory to the service user’s home directory in:

•

<User’s home directory>\.comsol\v51server\login.properties

, and

•

<User’s home directory>\.comsol\v51server\server\roles.properties

For the LocalService account, the home directory typically is

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService

COMSOL L

OGIN

ODULE

Configurable login modules are used to achieve the desired mechanism, and you can combine multiple modules in an authentication and authorization chain.

A local user database is used by the default JAAS configuration for both authentication (password validation) and authorization (groups and roles). A local user account with administrative privileges can be created during the installation process to allow subsequent login. It is also possible to configure COMSOL

Server to allow logins using nonlocal accounts optionally with a mapping from nonlocal to local groups and roles as a part of the installation process.

The

COMSOLServiceLoginModule

can be used to perform authentication and authorization of users based on the local user database or to perform mapping of nonlocal to local roles and groups. This login module always gives administrative privileges to the user owning the COMSOL Server process and all authenticated users belong to the group Authenticated, which gives access to the COMSOL

Server web interface.

60 |

COMSOLServiceLoginModule Configuration Options

OPTION debug authenticate non-local-principal

VALUES true/false

DESCRIPTION

Debug information will be printed to the console.

true/false Determines if the module is used for authentication or only for mapping of roles and groups.

<local-principal> Any number of mappings from nonlocal role and group names to local; note that multiple nonlocal roles and groups can map to the same local roles or groups but there can be only one mapping per nonlocal role or group.

Other login modules: Any JAAS-compliant login modules can be used as a part of the authentication sequence, but configuration sometimes requires detailed knowledge about the authentication server setup and IT system administrator skills.

JAAS C

ONFIGURATION

ILE

YNTAX

The configuration file is a text file with an arbitrary name and extension containing any number of entries of the form

RealmName{

LoginModuleClassName <behavior>

<option> = <value>;

}

RealmName

is the name of the login realm this configuration represents, and for

COMSOL Server the two required realms are as follows:

•

The

ComsolServiceLogin

realm is used for authentication of users through the web interface.

The

ComsolWebsocketLogin

realm is used for authentication of clients connecting via websockets.

LoginModuleClassName

is the full name of a class implementing the

LoginModule

interface, and in addition to those provided in the Java distribution

(like com.sun.security.auth.module.LdapLoginModule

), COMSOL Server provides com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule

For integrated Windows

authentication the waffle.jaas.WindowsLoginModule

is also included in the installation.

The

can be one of the following keywords:

• required

—must authenticate the user

| 61

• requisite

—no subsequent login modules will run if this fails

• sufficient

—continues to run the other login modules in the list on failure

• optional

—at least one optional module must succeed if all are optional

The

is one of the valid options for the login module, and

<value>

is a valid selection for this option. The configuration entry for one login module is terminated by a semicolon, after which any number of additional login module configuration entries can appear. However, there can be only one configuration entry per login module.

The COMSOL Server login configuration file installation-path/bin/tomcat/conf/login.config

is created during installation according to the selected options.

A configuration example for integrated Windows

authentication:

ComsolServerLogin {

waffle.jaas.WindowsLoginModule required

principalFormat=both

roleFormat=fqn;

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule required

authenticate=false

"BUILTIN\\Administrators"=ComsolServerAdministrator

"BUILTIN\\Users"=ComsolServerUser

"Everyone"=ComsolServerGuest;

};

In this case the user must be authenticated by the waffle.jaas.WindowsLoginModule

, and the com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule

groups from the Windows

performs a mapping of

account to COMSOL Server roles without authenticating the user.

The following is a configuration example using either the LDAP interface of an

Active Directory server for authentication or the COMSOL Server local user database:

ComsolServerLogin {

com.sun.security.auth.module.LdapLoginModule optional

userProvider="ldap://ldap.example.com:3268/DC=example,DC=com"

authIdentity="{USERNAME}@example.com"

userFilter="(&(sAMAccountName={USERNAME})(objectclass=user))"

authzIdentity="{MEMBEROF}"

useSSL=false;

com.comsol.jaas.ComsolServiceLoginModule optional

authenticate=true

examplegroup=ComsolServerAdministrator

;

62 |

};

•

If login is successful with the

LdapLoginModule

, the users belonging to the group examplegroup

get the

ComsolServerAdministrator

role.

If login is successful with the

ComsolServiceLoginModule

only the local user database is used to assign roles to the user.

S e t t i n g U p C O M S O L S e r ve r f o r S e c u re C o n n e c t i o n s

COMSOL Server can be configured to use a server certificate from a keystore file with a password through the

-keystorefile

and

-keystorepass

command line switches. The default keystore file location is

{COMSOL51}/bin/tomcat/conf/keystore.jks

and the default password is changeit

. If the certificate is signed with a trusted root certificate by a Certificate

Authority (CA), web clients will automatically be redirected to use the secure connection. In case the certificate is not trusted by default, the public part of it will have to be added to the trust store used by the client. On Windows this can be done using the Certificate snapin module for the Microsoft Management Console

(run certmgr.msc)

by importing the server certificate to the trusted root certificate issuers category, or via other centralized computer management tools.

The certificate can also be downloaded using a standard web browser by inspecting the details of a web site or exported from the trust store on the server computer. COMSOL Server uses the central trust store by default on Windows, but on Mac and Linux the trust store of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), found in the file

{COMSOL51}/java/[glnxa64 or maci64]/jre/lib/security/cacerts

is used unless the system property javax.net.ssl.trustStore

has been set. The keytool command found in

{COMSOL51}/java/[glnxa64 or maci64]/jre/bin

can be used to import the server certificate into the trust store used by the client. Start a command window and run keytool -import -alias COMSOLServer -file <file.crt> -keystore <cacerts>

-trustcacerts with the

<*>

entries replaced by the paths to the actual files. When prompted, enter the keystore password (which is changeit

by default for the JVM).

Note that COMSOL Server interprocess communication via websockets will also require the certificate to be present in the trust store used by a secondary

COMSOL Server.

| 63

To create a self-signed certificate on your computer, start a command window and run keytool -genkey -alias COMSOLServer -keypass <password> -storepass

<password> -dname "cn=<ServerHostName>, ou=<Org>, o=<Unit>, c=<CountryCode>" -keyalg RSA after having replaced the

<*>

entries with the information and the passwords that you want to use. Note that the password used for the keystore by COMSOL

Server must be specified with the

-keystorepass

switch.

64 |

I n d e x

adding groups 55

adding users 54

add-on products 5

administration in COMSOL Server 26