COMSOL Multiphysics® Installation Guide > Running COMSOL on Windows > Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode
Running COMSOL in Client-Server Mode
When you start COMSOL by, for example, double-clicking the Windows desktop icon, COMSOL is run as a single application that includes both the COMSOL Multiphysics Client and COMSOL Multiphysics Server, as explained later in this section. However, the COMSOL client-server architecture lets you access the COMSOL Multiphysics Server — the COMSOL computational engine — as a separate process. For example, the COMSOL Desktop can act as a COMSOL Multiphysics Client when connected to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
The license server is not the same as a COMSOL Multiphysics Server. The license manager can run on a computer different from both the ones used by COMSOL Desktop and COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
You need a Floating Network License to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server and the COMSOL Multiphysics Client on separate computers. However, any COMSOL license is sufficient for running the Client and the Server on the same computer.
The Client and Server need not run on the same platform. For example, you can run the COMSOL Desktop on Windows connecting to a COMSOL Multiphysics Server on a Linux or Mac computer. This enables offloading heavy-duty computations from your personal laptop or desktop to run just the COMSOL Desktop graphical user interface. A typical use would be to run the COMSOL Multiphysics Server on a computer with large amounts of memory (RAM) and processing power and to use your personal computer for pre- and postprocessing with the COMSOL Desktop.
starting a COMSOL Multiphysics server
The COMSOL Multiphysics server is a single user server allowing multiple sessions by the same user, one session at a time. To start the COMSOL Multiphysics Server, click COMSOL Multiphysics Server in the Client-Server folder underneath your COMSOL Multiphysics folder on the Windows Start menu. (On Windows 8 you find this on the All apps page under COMSOL Launchers.) When you start the COMSOL Multiphysics Server from the Windows Start menu, a command window appears asking you for a username and password. You can use any username and password of your choice, it is only used for connecting a COMSOL Multiphysics Client with a COMSOL Multiphysics Server.
When the COMSOL Multiphysics Server starts, it listens for a COMSOL Multiphysics Client connection on the port listed in the command window. In the example above it is port 2036.
connecting a COMSOL client to a COMSOL Multiphysics server
You can start a COMSOL Multiphysics Client session by clicking COMSOL Multiphysics Client in the Client-Server folder underneath your COMSOL folder on the Windows Start menu. (On Windows 8 you find this on the All apps page under COMSOL Launchers.) You can also connect to a COMSOL Multiphysics server from the COMSOL Desktop by selecting Connect to Server from the File menu. When you start the Client, a Connect to Server window appears prompting you for a computer name (Server) where the COMSOL Multiphysics Server is running, Port number, Username, and Password.
Once you have filled out this information and clicked OK, the COMSOL Multiphysics Server command window indicates that a COMSOL Multiphysics Client has connected. For more information on running COMSOL in Client-Server mode, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.