Members of the Hillis, Bull, Canatella, Hofmann, and Chen Labs have access to storage space on the server files.ccbb.utexas.edu. While you are member of one or more labs you will have an account on this system. If you have not been given an account, please talk to the head of your lab and ask that they request one for you. Having your files on the server gives you a lot of flexibility. You will be able to access your files from any desktop or laptop computer, and not just your own. Also, your files will be available on any of our clusters. Finally by storing data on the file server, you will ensure that it goes on our backup tapes which means that for several months (until we have to reuse tapes) we will be able to restore files which you have accidentally removed, or have editing incorrectly. It also minimizes the risk of losing data due to hardware problems on your laptop. It's well worth the effort to develop work habits that ensure you keep your data safely stored on the file server.
Depending on how you use the server, you can store data on it using Windows file sharing, or by using the Secure File Transfer protocol.
Windows File Sharing
Desktops, and laptops will use Windows file sharing to access files. Your primary way to do this is to connect to one or more shares which have been setup for storage. If you are on a Mac, you can connect to a share by opening a finder window. Then go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Connect to Server...". Then enter the address
replacing SHARE with the name of a share that you are allowed to access. Please consult your lab head, or another lab member for the SHARE which you should be using. When prompted enter your user name, and password (note that the user name can be entered either by itself or in the form files\username). Once you are connected a disk will appear. Depending on which version of Mac OSX you have either a disk will appear on your desktop, or else it will appear in a Finder window. To disconnect from the server, first close any applications which are using files stored on the server. Then either drag the disk to the trash, or in the Finder window click the eject button.
If you are using a PC, then you should go to My Computer. Then go in the Tools menu, and select "Map Network Drive" (for XP; other versions of Windows should have similar functionality). Tell the computer to map the share
and then click the "OK" button. When asked, provide your user name, and type your password. As above you may provide your user name all by itself, or you may type files\username. This should place a new disk icon in your My Computer. When done, you can right click, and choose "Disconnect".
If you are accessing your files from another computer computer, then be sure to disconnect when done. Also, be sure not not have it save the password for future use.
If you wish to access your files from off campus, then you will need to connect to the UT VPN. The easiest way to do this is to click on the "Login" link on the VPN info page, and connect via the Web VPN service.
One you have mounted your share, then you can use it like you would any other disk on your computer. You can drag and drop files on it, and drag and drop files from it to your desktop. You can also work on files without even dragging them back to your desktop.
Besides your lab share everyone will have access to a home share. This will also be your home directory – the directory you are placed in when you access one of our clusters. This is also the directory the cluster will use to find your job scripts, and the data you are trying to process. It is also where it will place the results of your computation. To access your home share connect replace SHARE with your user name. Once this is done, you can easily copy input files from your lab share, edit your job scripts, and copy output files back to your lab share. The disks set aside for home share use are not nearly as big as those for the lab shares, so please be diligent about cleaning up your home share, and making sure job scripts, and data that you need to keep back to your lab share.
Secure File Transfer Protocol
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A CLUSTER ACCOUNT STOP READING NOW!!
Secure File Transfer Protocol (or SFTP) provides an encrypted connection which lets your transfer files back and forth between your computer. Using a SFTP client, you connect to files, and then you are able to tell the client which files that you want to transfer. Some clients commonly used are WinSCP (PC), Filezilla (PC, Linux, MacOSX), and Fugu (MacOSX). If you get one of these make sure you set it up to be use the SFTP, and not the SCP or FTP transfer protocols.
Once you connect to files you will be placed in your home directory. If you are storing data for a cluster run, then you are okay (eventually of course at some point that needs to be moved to a lab directory either using SFTP, or using Windows file sharing). If you need to store data into a lab directory, then there is a one to one mapping between a Windows share, and a directory in /share. For example, if you would normally store data in the Windows share \\files.ccbb.utexas.edu\FooLab then you would instruct your SFTP client to upload (or download) files into (or from) /share/FooLab on files.ccbb.utexas.edu.
Although some PC and Mac applications let you edit remote files using SFTP, this is mostly useful for transferring files. As such it is a bit less useful than using Windows file sharing. However, if you use SFTP you will not be required to use the VPN. Also, this does have the benefit of using the same path names that you will need to use to access your data on the cluster.
