License for MATLAB with Optimization_Toolbox

We use version 8.6.0.267246 (R2015b) of MATLAB. At this moment, we need to start using the Optimization Toolbox.

Sometimes we have luck, but in most cases we get the error message when launching our code requiring OT functions (see below). Is there any easy way we can add extend our license so that we can us the OT every time? Best Regards,

Andrey Filippov

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License checkout failed.
License Manager Error -4
Maximum number of users for Optimization_Toolbox reached.
Try again later.
To see a list of current users use the lmstat utility or contact your License Administrator.

Troubleshoot this issue by visiting:
http://www.mathworks.com/support/lme/R2015b/4

Diagnostic Information:
Feature: Optimization_Toolbox
License path: C:\Users\hb74762\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2015b_licenses;C:\Program
Files\MATLAB\2015b\licenses\license.dat;C:\Program Files\MATLAB\2015b\licenses\network.lic
Licensing error: -4,132.

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

You have a limited number of licenses for a group of people. When this is done, then as you use a toolbox, MATLAB checks out a license to you. But if your group quota of license is already checked out to other people, then you are out of luck.

I think it is still true that MATLAB does not release the license as checked out until a user terminates their MATLAB session. So if they leave their MATLAB session running for days on end, then they have a virtually permanent license checked out to them.

In the old days when we ran MATLAB on a cluster of Unix machines, the admins set up a script that automatically unchecked out all licenses every few minutes. Then if you needed the license again, when you used a function from that toolbox, it just grabbed a new license. I'm not sure if this is still possible to do. We did have a large group of users, and the admin in charge of licenses knew that if they saw a significant number of license refusals, then they just added a few more licenses for the refused toolbox to relive the bottleneck.

If the above is not still possible to do, or if you ABSOLUTELY always need to assure a license every time you need it, then you need to buy one license for that the toolbox for every user who will be using the TB.

Whatever you do, your sales rep can help you. We are NOT MATLAB sales people here, in fact, Answers is not the place to give you an official answer at all on the topic of a license.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

You should talk to Mathworks Sales about the most appropriate way of extending your license. You might want to increase the number of users allowed to access the toolbox simultaneously, or you might want to reserve some of the licenses for particular people (which might involve adding additional licenses.

If you have internal difficulties with people starting MATLAB and then wandering away for long periods, then you might want to turn on the license timeout feature. The minimum timeout period is 4 hours.

[John D'Errico]

Ah. They must have introduced a timeout since we encountered the problem. In the old days for us, licenses were permanent once you checked one out, until the person quit their session. And since most users just left a session running for days, it was a problem. (That was probably in the mid 90s I'd guess.)

[Walter Roberson]

http://www.mathworks.com/help/install/license/using-time-outs-to-free-idle-license-keys.html