Manage MATLAB Web App Server on AWS Using Admin Portal

Since R2025a

Supported Platforms: Linux^® server only

After you deploy the MATLAB^® Web App Server™ reference architecture in Amazon^® Web Services on Linux and configure licensing in the cloud, use the MATLAB Web App Server admin portal to edit server settings, configure user access for web apps, and view server logs. (since R2025a)

For information on deploying the reference architecture on AWS^®, see MATLAB Web App Server on Amazon Web Services. For information on setting up your MATLAB Web App Server license for using in the cloud, see Configure MATLAB Web App Server License for Use on the Cloud.

Configure User Authentication Using Keycloak

Starting in R2025a, MATLAB Web App Server in AWS on Linux uses Keycloak as the default authentication identity provider to log in to the admin portal and the web apps home page. For more information on using Keycloak, see Configure Authentication for MATLAB Web App Server on AWS.

Caution

After you deploy MATLAB Web App Server, immediately log in to the Keycloak administration console and change the credentials for the keycloak-admin user.

The default Keycloak configuration includes three user accounts you can use to log in to the server home page.

matlab-webapps-user
matlab-webapps-author
matlab-webapps-admin

Each user belongs to one or more pre-configured groups, granting them specific permissions on the MATLAB Web App Server.

Group Name	Group Permissions	Group Members
MATLAB Web App Server Administrators	Access the server admin portal	`matlab-webapps-admin`
MATLAB Web App Server Authors	Access the server home page Upload, delete, and execute web apps in the `SampleApps` category	`matlab-webapps-author` `matlab-webapps-admin`
MATLAB Web App Server Users	Access the server home page Execute web apps in the `SampleApps` category	`matlab-webapps-user` `matlab-webapps-author` `matlab-webapps-admin`

For instance, since the matlab-webapps-admin user belongs to the MATLAB Web App Server Authors group, the user inherits the permissions to upload and delete apps in the SampleApps category, which contains web apps uploaded to the SampleApps folder on the server.

To add users to a group, use the Keycloak administration console. For example, to allow a user to access the admin portal, add the user to the MATLAB Web App Server Administrators group.

To allow an existing group to access additional resources on the MATLAB Web App Server, use the App Management/Access Control page of the admin portal. For example, you could assign all members of the MATLAB Web App Server Users group execute permissions for all apps in the root level folder.

You can find links to the admin portal and the Keycloak administration console in the AWS outputs of your deployed stack.

Connect and Log In to Admin Portal

Note

If the EC2 instance that hosts the server uses private IP addresses, you can connect to the server EC2 instance from an EC2 instance that belongs to the same VPC as the server EC2 instance.

In the AWS management console, open the Stack details for your stack and click the Outputs tab.

Look for the key named AdminPortalUrl and click the corresponding URL listed under value. This opens the admin portal Overview page.

The first time you access the admin portal, you can log in using the following information:

Username	`matlab-webapps-admin`
Password	`matlab-webapps-admin`

After logging in, you are prompted to change the password.

View Information About Server

To view information about the MATLAB Web App Server instance deployed on AWS, click Overview on the admin portal navigation menu. You can view the server URL, the time of the last server restart, and MATLAB Runtime versions installed on the server.

On the top right, the server status is displayed. Clicking the icons lets you start, restart, or shut down the server.

The admin portal overview page that displays the server URL, the time of the last server restart, and MATLAB Runtime versions installed on the server.

Edit Server Configuration

Edit the MATLAB Web App Server configuration properties by clicking Configuration on the navigation menu. After you update the properties, click Save to save your changes. You must restart the server to apply your changes.

You can modify the following configuration properties.

General

Property	Description
Network License host name	Host name of the Network License Manager.
Network License port	Port that the Network License Manager is on. The default port is 27000.

Server Logs

Property	Description
Logging level	Set the level of logging granularity. Select 'Minimal', 'Normal', or 'Verbose'.
Log Archive Max Size (MB)	Maximum size of all log files in megabytes (MB) in the log directory. Specify as a positive integer.
Log Rotation Size (MB)	Maximum size of a log file in megabytes (MB) before it will roll over into another file. Specify as a positive integer.

Session Settings

Property	Description
Show Footer	Specify whether to show app session footer and logs to specific users.
Full Screen Mode	Specify whether app sessions start in full-screen mode.

App Sessions

Property	Description
Maximum Sessions	The maximum number of sessions the MATLAB Web App Server can support. Use a positive integer, or enter `-1` to allocate 1 session per GB of available RAM.
App Session Idle Timeout (minutes)	Timeout in minutes before terminating a session when idle. Specify as a positive integer.
App Session Startup Timeout (seconds)	Timeout in seconds when starting a new session. Specify as a positive integer.

Customize MATLAB Web App Server Apps Home Page

In the Customization page, you can change the appearance of your MATLAB Web App Server apps home page. You can customize the following features:

Title, background color, font type, and font size of the banner in the apps home page.
Add custom logo images in the apps page header and browser tab.

The admin portal customization page that displays Example Company Web Apps Demo as the custom header text and a spiral logo.

Manage App Access Control, Secrets, and User Info

The App Management page allows you to set access control, secrets, and user info for specific apps or app categories. Click the Manage button next to an app or app category to manage its properties.

To control app access or utilize user info properties, you must enable user authentication on the MATLAB Web App Server. By default, authentication is administered through Keycloak. For more information, see Configure Authentication for MATLAB Web App Server on AWS.

Access Control

Allow specific users and groups access to apps or app categories on the App Management/Access Control tab. Access to apps and categories on the MATLAB Web App Server is limited to specific users and groups. Only a defined set of users and groups have access to these resources.

The default Keycloak configuration includes the groups MATLAB Web App Server Users, MATLAB Web App Server Authors, and MATLAB Web App Server Administrators. You can modify group membership and permissions in the Keycloak administration console. For more details, see Configure Authentication for MATLAB Web App Server on AWS.

You can add permissions for a user or group in the admin portal by clicking Add User and specifying the user or group ID. The user or group ID must correspond with a user or group as defined by your authentication provider. For instance, the default Keycloak configuration defines users by their email address. Then, you can allow Execute or Upload/Delete permissions for the app or app category.

Secrets

Create secrets on the App Management/Secrets tab to enable secure and flexible access to sensitive data. Each secret consists of a name, which is stored in plain text, and value, which is encrypted and stored in the MATLAB Web App Server vault.

To add a new secret to the app, click Create Secret. Enter the secret key name and a value for the secret. In your web app, a call to getSecret (MATLAB) with the secret key name returns the secret value you specified. For more information on creating and using secrets, see Handle Sensitive Information in Deployed Applications.

User Info

Allow an app access to user information properties on the App Management/User Info tab.

To allow a specific app to access a user info property, click Add Property next to the app name. You can select an existing property or enter a new property name and value.

To view, create, modify, or delete user info properties, navigate to the User Info page.

Manage User Info Properties

Note

To utilize user info properties, you must enable authentication on the server. By default, user authentication is administered through Keycloak. For more information, see Configure Authentication for MATLAB Web App Server on AWS.

View, create, modify, or delete user info properties on the User Info page. User info properties let you customize the behavior of a web app based on which user is logged in. For instance, you could access the user ID, display name, and email of the currently logged in user in your application code. For more examples, see Customize Web App Behavior Based on User.

Two properties exist by default.

WebAppsRole — Role of user, which is either author or user.
WebAppsDisplayName — User display name that appears on the web apps home page.

You can create additional user info properties that can be used by individual apps. To allow a specific app to access a user info property, navigate to the App Management page and click Manage next to the app name.

For example, you could create an app named SendMail that uses the user's email address. In the SendMail app code, you reference the email property using compiler.UserInfo (MATLAB Compiler). Then, in the admin portal, create a new user info property named email. The value must map to a claim returned from your identity provider that represents email; for example, mail. Finally, allow SendMail to access the property on the App Management page. When SendMail tries to access the email property, the server returns the claim mail.

Access Server and Launcher Logs

On the Server Logs and Launcher Logs pages, you can view, search, and download logs that contain information about the service that runs the server. The server generates multiple log files, each with a distinct purpose. Depending on the issue you encounter, you may need to review one or more of these log files. You can change log verbosity on the Configuration page.

Server Logs

You can access the following logs on the Server Logs page.

Log File Name	Purpose
`webapps_<timestamp>.log`	Log file for the service that runs the server.
`webapps_service_start.err`	Log file that captures errors when the service that runs the server fails to start.
`webapps_service_start.out`	Log file that captures standard output when the service that runs the server fails to start.

Launcher Logs

You can access the following logs on the Launcher Logs page.

Log File Name	Purpose
`webapps_launcher_service_start.err`	Log file that captures errors associated with starting the service that runs applications.
`webapps_launcher_service_start.out`	Log file that captures standard output when the service that runs applications fails to start.
`webapps_service_start.err`	Log file that captures errors when the service that runs the server fails to start.