Can I force users to use the latest matlab version via an options file

I set up an automated installation for the users so all they need to do is double click to upgrade. about 10 of the 50 users did it. so i told them i would cut off their access to the license server if they didn't upgrade by the end of the month. nobody upgraded, so i need to only allow users on the latest version to connect. I have a vbscript that polls the users workstations and finds what version they have installed via WMI. so i can deny matlab by username using information from the script. is there a cleaner way to do this? can i somehow tell the options file to only allow 2013b?

thanks

adam

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Please explain why this seems to be desirable? Every upgrade involves changes to functionality, and requires re-testing and re-validation of existing programs. Each upgrade also introduces new bugs (one hopes at a lower rate than fixes are introduced!)

The latest MATLAB versions, R2012b and later, also use a quite different desktop interface that can rather get in the way for some people, and does not have some of the functionality that others rely on.

When I admin'd, I gave long lead times for people to upgrade, and I looked through the license logs to see what was being used in practice, and I polled users about whether keeping the old version was important. Pruning away the old versions was part of janitorial cleanup rather than forcing people to use only the newest version.

Answer 2

[Ori]

Hi. I know this is an old post, but I would like to leave my two-pence here to assist other users.

Yes, It is possible to set restrictions on license usage according to versions through the Options file. In fact there is a list of strings that can distinguish one license pool from the other; e.g. VERSION, HOSTID, EXPDATE, KEY, SIGN, ISSUER, NOTICE and VENDOR_STRING.

The syntax should be something like:

GROUP MATLAB_GROUP1 User1 User2 User3 User4 User5

INCLUDE MATLAB:VERSION=123 GROUP MATLAB_GROUP1

EXCLUDE MATLAB:VERSION=456 GROUP MATLAB_GROUP1

(Change the restriction attribute INCLUDE/EXCLUDE/MAX etc. as required)

For more information on this, please take a look at this document .

All the best, Ori Kaplan

OpenLM License management

[Andreas Goser]

I still like to point all admins to the list of questions and concerns from Walter's answer. I am working for 15 years with users around MATLAB upgrades and although the fears are bigger that the factual issues, I would be very concered if IT departments force users to upgrade instead of get agreement together with the users on project and MathWorks about an uprade plan.