COMSOL Server, COMSOL Compiler and applications form COMSOL’s deployment layer. Simulation experts build Applications in COMSOL Multiphysics with the Application Builder, and COMSOL Server or COMSOL Compiler lets other people run them. COMSOL Server gives an organisation access to applications that run through a web browser or thin client and are managed with administrator tools. COMSOL Compiler creates standalone simulation apps that run without a COMSOL paid-for licence.[6][7] The SLA defines an “Application” as the output produced by the Application Builder, with or without modification through the COMSOL API, or output that uses the API to link a model to an external user interface.[1]
Editions
COMSOL lists three licence types around deployment. The COMSOL Server License (CSL) is licensed on a concurrent user basis, and each concurrent user may run up to four concurrent applications. It lets the licensee host and run Applications within its organisation and also for people outside it, who time-share the licensee’s concurrent user slots, worldwide.[8] The Academic Server License (ASL) is a 300-concurrent-user licence for students, faculty and staff of the licensed institution or of any other academic institution, worldwide.[8][1] COMSOL Compiler is available under an NSL, a CPU licence or an FNL, as an add-on to a COMSOL Multiphysics licence of the same type.[7][8]
| Product | Licence type | What the licence grants | Distribution of the software |
|---|---|---|---|
| COMSOL Server License | CSL (commercial) | Host and run Applications; four Applications per concurrent user | Installed by the licensee on a server or cluster, or on a third party’s secure remote computing capacity |
| Academic Server License | ASL (academic) | 300 concurrent users; four Applications each | As above, with academic restrictions |
| COMSOL Compiler | Add-on to NSL, CPU or FNL | Create Compiled Applications from Applications | Runtime libraries embedded in each Compiled Application |
| COMSOL Client | Client agreement | Connect to a COMSOL Server installation | Free download; distributable by a CSL licensee to its authorised users |
| COMSOL Runtime | Runtime agreement | Run Compiled Applications | Embedded in Compiled Applications |
Metrics
The COMSOL Server concurrent user is counted by the licence manager. COMSOL Server checks out a CSL feature for each add-on product that an Application uses, which lets each user run four Applications, and a CSLU feature, which counts users. COMSOLSERVER is checked out by each COMSOL Server process without any limit on the number of checkouts.[10] Under the SLA, no more than four Applications may run at a time for each licensed concurrent user, and log-in credentials may not be shared among authorised users.[1] The Application session per user row records the four-Application ceiling.
Batch jobs started from running Applications always use COMSOL Server batch features such as COMSOLBACSL. They check out COMSOLUSERCSL, and the same hash rule applies: a concurrent user can run unlimited distinct batch processes on one licence if the models differ only by parameter values.[10] Batch jobs can be started only from running Applications and not from the command line.[10]
The Academic Server licence limits are written into the Academic Addendum. The institution must ensure that the number of authorised concurrent users of each Program does not exceed 300, and must assign a central administrator to count, control and administer use.[1]
Counting / floors
No minimum quantity is stated. The quantity is the number of concurrent users on the invoice or accepted purchase order.[1] COMSOL describes the CSL as “enabled out-of-the-box for an unlimited number of cores and compute nodes without extra licensing fees”, so server hardware size is not a licensing variable.[6] COMSOL Server can also use several computers, with one primary server for accounts and access management and secondary servers for computation, and multiple sets of primary and secondary servers can be controlled by a single licence manager.[6]
The CSL has two functional limits. It “may not be used as a replacement for an NSL, CPU, FNL, or CKL license for the purpose of developing Models or Applications”, and it may not host Applications whose purpose is to load and run Models that were not originally embedded in the Application when developed in the Application Builder.[1] Both are in the SLA’s CSL section.
Virtualization & partitioning
A CSL may be installed on an individual computer, in a central location on a single dedicated network server or on the server of a third party providing secure remote computing capacity.[1] COMSOL’s page says that a CSL can be hosted on a virtual private cloud (VPC), and that the licensee can be paid by third parties for use of its applications and licence.[6] The SLA wording for the third-party case is the sublicensing clause below. There is no processor, core or virtual-machine count.
Cloud / BYOL
The CSL may be installed, accessed and used worldwide, “but you must reside in the same Territory in which the CSL license was sold”.[1] The Territory limit that applies to other licence types for internal operations does not apply to the CSL and ASL, or to Compiled Applications and Model Manager.[1] COMSOL describes hosting on a VPC and cluster or cloud computing on Windows and Linux.[6][9]
Programs
- Sublicensing and time-sharing. Each concurrent user’s rights to the CSL may be sublicensed in whole or in part to third parties, including on a time-share basis, for the sole purpose of hosting and running Applications. The conditions are that each sublicensee must accept the COMSOL Server End User License Agreement, that the licensee must not interfere with its automatic delivery, that no terms set by the licensee conflict with the SLA, that trademark guidelines are followed and that the CSL is not used for any Application the licensee or sublicensee is not authorised to run.[1] See CSL concurrent-user rights may be sublicensed.
- Compiled Application distribution. COMSOL Compiler gives a nonexclusive licence to create Compiled Applications from Applications within the Territory, and a perpetual, nonexclusive, worldwide licence to distribute them and sublicense their distribution. A Compiled Application may be used on any machine or network whether or not it holds any COMSOL software, but may not replace an NSL, CPU, FNL or CKL for development and may not load models not originally embedded in it.[1]
- Compiler limits. Compiled applications do not support the batch processing or cluster computing options of an FNL, and Compiler cannot compile applications that use the Material Library, LiveLink for Simulink or File Import for CATIA V5.[7] The Application Builder requires the Windows version of COMSOL Multiphysics.[7] The Compiler’s application author can password protect an application, set an expiration date and lock it to a hostid.[7]
- COMSOL Client. The Client may be used only for connecting to an authorised COMSOL Server installation, running hosted Applications and, where privileges were granted, uploading Applications and performing administrative tasks. The Client licence is non-transferable.[4] A CSL licensee may distribute the Client to authorised users of its installation.[1]
- COMSOL Runtime. The Runtime is licensed “solely in conjunction with Compiled Applications”. If it came as part of the COMSOL Compiler, the SLA applies instead.[3]
Application restrictions
Anyone who builds Applications is bound by section 3 of the SLA. No Application may be marketed, distributed or licensed in competition with COMSOL or any of its Programs, or as a general purpose multiphysics simulation package.[1] An Application may not be distributed under the GNU General Public License, the Lesser General Public License, the Artistic, Mozilla, Netscape, Sun Community Source, Sun Industry Source or Common Public Licenses, or any other licence that requires source disclosure, derivative-work licensing or free redistribution.[1] Applications that require the CAD Import Module, Design Module or the LiveLink products for CAD have further limits, covered in COMSOL modules and add-on products. Users of a Compiled Application must be required to accept the COMSOL Runtime License Agreement, and the publisher may not interfere with its delivery. A publisher may add its own end user licence agreement that does not conflict with it.[1] COMSOL’s own example Applications are covered by a separate COMSOL Application License, a permission notice that allows use, modification and distribution subject to conditions such as the CAD restriction and compliance with the then-applicable SLA.[5]
The SLA also gives the licensee a perpetual, nonexclusive, worldwide licence to distribute Applications it creates or receives, and a licence to sublicense distribution, provided distributors require licensed use of the Programs that the Application needs or, for use of a CSL, the COMSOL Server End User License Agreement.[1]
Audits and compliance
The SLA has no audit clause in the retrieved text. For hosting, the compliance points are the four-Application limit per concurrent user, the no-credential-sharing rule, the sublicensing conditions and the Territory residence rule.[1] A person who accesses a COMSOL Server installation that neither they nor their organisation obtained from COMSOL or its authorised distributors is bound by the COMSOL Server End User License Agreement. Use is limited to running Applications and administering their use, and the licence is non-transferable.[2] COMSOL’s index lists separate versions of the Server, Client, Runtime and Application agreements for each release from 5.4 onward.[11]
Out of scope
- NSL, CPU, FNL and class kit licences for COMSOL Multiphysics: see COMSOL Multiphysics licence types.
- Third-party software that an Application calls, which must be licensed under its own terms.[1]
- Any services that COMSOL itself hosts, which the retrieved documents do not describe.