MATLAB: Which processes related to MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine and Distributed Computing Toolbox 1.0 (R14SP1+) should be granted access to the network when configuring the Windows firewall

computingdctdistributedenginefirewalljobmanagerMATLAB Parallel Servermdcemdce.exeParallel Computing Toolboxprocessprocessestoolboxwindowsworkerworkers

My Windows firewall requires that I grant access to the network by process name, rather than by port. I would like to know which processes I should grant access to so that the job manager and workers can communicate.

Best Answer

There are two sets of processes which need to be granted access through the firewall:
1) The MATLAB.exe process spawned by the MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine Service (mdced.exe).
2) All of the "java.exe" processes spawned by the MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine Service (mdced.exe) also require firewall access.
The mdced.exe process itself does not require access.
On this note, there might be several java.exe processes listed in the task manager if you are running other Java applications. Because there is no way of knowing whether these processes were started by MDCE or another process, it is important to use caution when setting up your firewall rules.
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