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Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science

Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science

Where can I access Matlab software on campus and remotely?

Students, faculty and staff of the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science (GCS) may access Matlab software by:

 

FAQs

Pre-requisites

  1. In order for Matlab to be installed on your computer system, it must have an ENCS barcode. If your computer system was purchased with GCS funds and does not have a barcode, please contact the AITS Service Centre before continuing.
  2. You must have an active ENCS user account

Procedure

  1. Complete and submit the Software Installation Request Form from the system you wish to install Matlab on.
  2. Install the software via the link emailed to you or make arrangements for a member of the AITS team to perform a manual installation.
If your system is connected to the ENCS LAN, no other steps are required.
 
If your PC is connected to the Concordia Wireless or is off campus, please follow instrucions below on how to remotely access the ENCS Matlab license servers.
 
 

Before beginning the procedure below you will need to install an SSH client such as PuTTy

  1. Launch PuTTy 
  2. In the Category pane of the PuTTY Configuration window, expand Connection then expand SSH and select Tunnels.
  3. Under "Options controlling SSH port forwarding" enter the following:
    1. Source Port: 1711
    2. Destination: license-matlab.encs.concordia.ca:1711
  4. Click the Add button
  5. Add another source port and destination
    1. Source port: 5001
    2. Destination: license-matlab.encs.concordia.ca:5001
  6. Click the Add button
  7. In the Category pane of the PuTTY Configuration window, click on Session
  8. Under "Basic options for your PuTTy session" enter:
    1. Hostname: login.encs.concordia.ca
    2. Port: 22
    3. Saved Sessions: Matlab
  9. Click the Save button
  10. Exit PuTTy

  1. Open up your computer's Properties (e.g. Right click on the "This PC" Desktop icon and select properties)
  2. Select "Advanced system settings"
  3. Select "Environment variables"
  4. Under "System variables", click on the "New..." button
  5. Enter the following:
    1. Variable name: MLM_LICENSE_FILE
    2. Variable value: 1711@localhost,1711@license-matlab.encs.concordia.ca
  6. Click "OK" to close the "Environment Variables" window
  7. Click "OK" to close the "System Properties" window
  8. Click "OK" a final time to close the "Computer Properties" window

Establish the SSH tunnel

  1. Launch PuTTy
  2. Select the "Matlab" session you created above under Saved Sessions
  3. Click "Open"
    1. If this is the first time you have created an ssh session with login.encs.concorida.ca you will be informed that the system's host key is not cached in the registry.
    2. Click "Yes" to save the host key
  4. At the "login as:" prompt, enter your ENCS account's username and press Enter
  5. When prompted for a password, enter your ENCS account's password and press Enter
Launch Matlab
Double click the Matlab icon on your Desktop to launch Matlab.

  • Open up a terminal window on your GCS Purchased system and enter the following
 ssh login.encs.concordia.ca\ 
    -L 1711:license-matlab.encs.concordia.ca:1711\
    -L 5001:license-matlab.encs.concordia.ca:5001
  • You will be prompted for your encs username and password
  • Do not close the terminal window

Note: Everytime you wish to use Matlab on your PC, this SSH tunnel has to established with the Matlab License Servers prior to the application being launched.

  • Find the network.lic file for Matlab on your system. The file location should be similar to: <user's home>/⁩Applications⁩/MATLAB_R2018b.app⁩/⁨licenses⁩/network.lic

  • Edit the first line of the file to point to the ssh tunnel you created.

SERVER 127.0.0.1 000D601A84C6 1711
USE_SERVER
  • Save the file

Note: You will only have to update this license file once.

After the network.lic file has been updated and an SSH Tunnel to the Matlab license servers has been created, your locally installed instance of Matlab should launch without errors.

If both the local and remote hosts are Unix or Linux, an ENCS user simply has to enter the following in order to enable an X-windows secure shell to computation.encs.concordia.ca:


ssh -Y username@computation.encs.concordia.ca
*(For remote login with Trusted X11 Sessions)

ssh -X username@computation.encs.concordia.ca
*(For remote login with non-Trusted X11 Sessions)

Where username is your ENCS username.

For more information about X11 options in ssh, open a terminal window on your client system and enter 'man ssh'.

After executing the above ssh command, launch your application from the command line, e.g., enter matlab

Pre-requisites

The following software must be installed on your windows system before proceeding:

  • an X-Server software such as Xming
  • an SSH client such as PuTTy

Procedure

  1. Launch Xming
  2. Ensure that the Xming X-Server has been launched by verifying that the X icon appears in the launch tray of your system's task bar.
  3. Launch PuTTy 
  4. In the Putty Configuration screen configure the following:
    1. Session:  
      1. Set Host Name to computation.encs.concordia.ca 
      2. Activate the SSH radio button under Connection Type
    2. Under Connection > SSH > X11, check Enable X11 forwarding
    3. Optionally, enter a Saved Session name, e.g., Tunnel, and click on Save
  5. Once you have configured your session, click the Open button.
  6. Enter your ENCS username and password when prompted.
  7. Launch matlab as an X Windows application from the PuTTy command line. For example, type matlab at the PuTTy command prompt.
  8. A matlab window should appear on your local desktop.

Currently, on campus access to the GCS Public Access Labs is closed. Please follow the instructions on how to Remotely Access a GCS Public Lab Computer

Please follow the intructions on https://www.concordia.ca/ginacody/aits/speed.html

 
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