Created by Frank Schluenzen, last modified on Jul 31, 2023 10:43

COMSOL has recently introduced the COMSOL model manager (CMM) which allows to manage and version models and assets:

The COMSOL Multiphysics® software includes the Model Manager, a tool for efficient database storage and version control of models and related files, such as experimental data and CAD files. The Model Manager is fully integrated into the COMSOL Multiphysics® user interface. It provides organization and advanced search functionality, including search for features within a model, and a compare feature that displays the exact differences between two versions of a model. Model files are stored efficiently in the system with a minimum of redundancy. In addition to getting access to your model versions through the COMSOL Desktop®, the Model Manager server includes a web interface for managing modeling and simulation projects, including user account administration and asset management.

The introduction to the CMM can be found at https://www.comsol.com/comsol-multiphysics/model-manager

COMSOL Model Manager Server

CMM can be used without any central management using a local database. A centralized CMM server in addition allows sharing models and assets across users and nodes. An instance of the CMM server has been created which might be useful in particular for the users running COMSOL on the Maxwell cluster.

CMM server can be accessed at https://max-cmm.desy.de/. Use your DESY credentials to login on the website or with COMSOL.

The service is kind of experimental, but has a fairly solid setup:

Setup of max-cmm.desy.de

  • CMM server uses an SQL DB and Apache SOLR for indexing the content.
    • Both reside on local disks with about 50TB of space.
    • The contents is automatically backed up to BeeGFS.
    • The setup is fairly solid, but it's advisable to keep local copies of important models and assets.
  • The setup is reasonably secure.
    • CMM server is behind an NGINX proxy both running as non-privileged accounts.
    • The service is accessible only within the DESY network!
    • Authentication is LDAP based
  • Groups are currently not properly supported.
    • Groups currently have to be created manually by an admin.
    • Using LDAP groups doesn't seem to be an option. That needs to be investigated.