What is the difference between the Distrib_Comp_Engine and Distrib_Co​mputing_To​olbox licenses?

I am trying to create a generic cluster in order to distribute Matlab jobs across multiple nodes in my cluster. I think that I have the correct license because all of the tools appear to be installed and my license servers indicates that I have plenty of licenses available for the feature Distrib_Computing_Toolbox. When I set things up and try to start a job it fails with an error in checking out the license and mentions the feature Distrib_Comp_Engine. I can't find any documentation that indicates there is a difference between these different distributed computing features.

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

Originally, the product now known as Parallel Computing Toolbox was named Distributed Computing Toolbox. Similarly, MATLAB Distributed Computing Server was originally named MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine. These products were renamed in release R2008a according to the Renamed Products section of that release's Release Notes.

While the products were renamed in that release, the strings used to identify their licenses were not changed. I believe the license strings were left unchanged to avoid requiring license administrators that needed to maintain license servers for release R2008a and earlier releases from having to deal with two license strings for essentially the same product.

As for what you need to run on a cluster, take a look at the table and flowchart on this documentation page. In general if you want to run a local cluster on your own machine Parallel Computing Toolbox should be all you need, but if you want to distribute the cluster across multiple machines my understanding is that you will need MATLAB Distributed Computing Server. But if you want to confirm what I'm saying with an official answer, you can contact Technical Support using the Contact Us link in the upper-right corner of this page.

[Steven Lord]

In R2019a, the MATLAB Distributed Computing Server product was renamed to MATLAB Parallel Server. The string used to identify the license name was not changed and remains MATLAB_Distrib_Comp_Engine.

Answer 2

[Abhiram Bhanuprakash]

Hi Michael,

I guess the difference between the two is:

Distrib_Computing_Toolbox = Parallel Computing Toolbox (PCT)

Distrib_Comp_Engine = MATLAB Distributed Computing Server (MDCS)

With PCT, you can run your parallel algorithms on a local cluster (local multicore machine). But, if you want to run on server-hosted clusters, clouds, and grids, you would need an MDCS license.

The typical workflow is, you develop your program or model on a multicore desktop computer using PCT and then scale up to many computers by running it on MDCS.

Check out the product pages of these two here:

1. PCT: http://www.mathworks.com/products/parallel-computing/

2. MDCS: http://www.mathworks.com/products/distriben/

I guess that you are getting this error message because you have a license for PCT, but do not have a license for MDCS. Do you have one? If you do not have one and wish to purchase MDCS, please contact your MathWorks Sales Account Manager.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

Abhiram

[Michael Robbert]

Thank you for the thorough answer, but I'm still a little hesitant by the fact that you had to use the word "guess" twice in your answer. Your answer is what I'm guessing as well, but I'd like to know for sure. Further what I'd really like to know is why Mathworks would make this so unclear and confusing in their naming conventions. Can anybody verify that when MDCS is purchased the license feature given to them is Distrib_Comp_Engine?

[Malcolm Cook]

I agree with you @Michael. The naming convention is quite unclear. Did anyone ever point you at authoritative answer to your questions?