Server configuration for MATLAB

Our lab is thinking of setting up a server to run computational physics programs written in MATLAB. We are thinking of a relatively powerful computer (think high CPU clock speeds, 32 cores, and high-end GPUs). Our concern is how one would access the computational resources of this computer simultaneously. A plausible scenario is where 2 or 3 of us want to concurrently run programs on the server.

The programs we have written often have a live GUI to see the progress and results of our simulations. This is a problem we have encountered with running programs on the university cluster where we have to queue a program and there is no easy GUI access to see the results live. We also have to use command-line tools or something like FileZilla to upload the program and then download the results which can be a little annoying.

So what we are looking for ideally is a system where we can write programs/scripts on our personal lab computers and when we click 'run', the program runs on the lab server and "streams" the results to our local computer.

I did not find any obviously relevant products from a Google search. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated!

-Paddy

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Parallel Server https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab-parallel-server.html (formerly called Distributed Computing) is one possibility. As you can see on the landing page, you can create a parcluster that will execute on the server, but the interface is still back at the desktop.

[Pradyoth Harish Shandilya]

Thanks! A MATLAB representative reached out to me and offered to walk me through Parallel Server. I wonder if the lab will have to get a license for this or if the university has a compatible license already.

Thanks again for the suggestion!