What is a Host ID? How do I find my Host ID in order to activate my license?
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What is a Host ID? How do I find my Host ID in order to activate my license?
Accepted Answer
MathWorks Support Team
on 8 Jul 2026 at 0:00
Edited: MathWorks Support Team
on 8 Jul 2026 at 14:21
A Host ID is a unique identifier used to generate license files for MathWorks products.
For most installations, the recommended Host ID is the MAC address of a physical network adapter.
Refer to the following instructions to find a MAC address on your Operating System.
Windows
- Click on the Windows button and "R" key on your keyboard at the same time.
- A small "Run" window will appear. Edit the "Open" field and enter "cmd".
- Press "OK".
- The Windows Command Prompt will appear.
- Run the following command in the Windows Command Prompt,getmac /v
- Review the list of network adapters.
- Locate the desired adapter and copy the value shown in the Physical Address column. Example: 00-12-3A-45-6B-7D
Use a physical network adapter whenever possible. Avoid virtual adapters created by VPN, virtualization, or other software.
Linux
- Open your system's Terminal application.
- Run the following command.ip addr
- Locate the desired network adapter.
- Copy the value shown after link/ether. Example: 00:12:3a:45:6b:7d
Use a physical network adapter whenever possible. Avoid virtual adapters created by VPN, virtualization, or other software.
macOS
- Open Finder.
- Go to Applications > Utilities.
- Open Terminal.
- Run the following command,ifconfig
- Locate the desired network adapter.
- Copy the value shown after ether. Example: 00:12:3a:45:6b:7d
Use a physical network adapter whenever possible. Avoid virtual adapters created by VPN, virtualization, or other software.
If your environment requires a different Host ID type such as the IP Address or Volume Serial Number and you are unsure how to obtain it, reach out to MathWorks Installation Support.
2 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 11 May 2019
In the terminal app, execute
netstat -i
and see if it is showing an MAC addresses with 00:00:00:00:00:00 that might be contributing.
The primary MAC address that is used for IPv4 will sually show up on a line marked with '<Link#' . For example,
en0 1500 <Link#5> 48:61:79:69:6d:44 57105595 0 34859208 0 0
Here the MAC address used for IpV4 would be 48:61:79:69:6d:44 .
There will also be an entry showing the IP address for the link, such as
en0 1500 192.168.0 192.168.0.10 57105595 - 34859208 - -
If you see an interface that does not have any IP address entry, then that interface is not currently being used as your network interface.
You might see multiple interfaces with an IP address; for example my en1 interface is my wifi interface.
Walter Roberson
on 13 May 2019
Odd, it normally cannot get to that point without throwing a warning message about the ethernet not being found.
The only time in the last couple of years that I have seen Host ID 0 was while I was testing MATLAB in a Parallels virtual machine using Parallels 14; I was able to prove that the fault was Parallels 14 with Parallels 13 having worked.
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on 8 Jul 2026 at 14:21
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