At IU, how do I use HSI to access my MDSS account?

On this page:

• Introduction
• Accessing HSI
• HSI commands
• Using alternate authentication with HSI or HTAR

Introduction

The Hierarchical Storage Interface (HSI) application was created by Michael Gleicher, of Gleicher Enterprises, LLC, to conveniently access much of the functionality of HPSS. The HSI interface is similar to that of FTP. Its companion program, HTAR, can simplify aggregation of many files into one large file, which is the preferred method of storing things in HPSS.

Note: For information about other methods of accessing the MDSS, see At IU, how do I access the MDSS?

Accessing HSI

On Libra and the Research Database Complex at Indiana University, HSI is installed in /usr/local/bin (so it's in the default path). On Big Red and Quarry, you may need to add +hpss to the beginning of your .soft file and give the resoft command to make it available (you need do this only once).

To use HSI on your personal workstation, download a copy from the MDSS home page.

HSI commands

HSI commands will seem familiar to Unix and FTP users. A session might look like the following (% is the Unix shell prompt, and ? is the HSI prompt):

You can find general documentation for these utilities at the HPSS consortium's web site or locally. The HTAR documentation is in chapter 8 of the HSI manual.

Using alternate authentication with HSI or HTAR

By default, HSI and HTAR will prompt for login information. HSI and HTAR refer to this as the combo authentication method. In addition, you can authenticate using a Kerberos keytab (keytab method), existing Kerberos credentials (kerberos method), or TeraGrid credentials (gsi method), if these methods are built into the binary you are using.

To select an authentication method for HSI, use the command-line options, a .hsirc file in your home directory, or environment variables. The command-line options and .hsirc do not work for HTAR; the only way to set the authentication method for HTAR is to use the environment variables.

To set the authentication method, use one of the following:

• Use the -A method option for HSI.
• Add authmethod = method to the .hsirc file.
• Set the HPSS_AUTHMETHOD environment variable to the appropriate method.

Replace method with the name of the method: combo, keytab, kerberos, or gsi.

If you're using the keytab method, you must also specify the keytab file. Do this in one of the following ways:

• Set the keytab filename with the -k /path/to/mykeytab option for HSI.
• Add keytab = /path/to/mykeytab to the .hsirc file.
• Set the HPSS_KEYTAB_PATH environment variable to the path to the keytab.

If you're using the keytab method, you must also specify the login name. Do this in one of the following ways:

• Set the login name with the -l username option for HSI.
• Add principal = username in the .hsirc file.
• Set the HPSS_PRINCIPAL environment variable to the username.

The following examples show how to define the environment variables for the keytab method (for either HTAR or HSI):

• If you use csh or tcsh: setenv HPSS_PRINCIPAL username setenv HPSS_AUTH_METHOD keytab setenv HPSS_KEYTAB_PATH /home/username/mykeytab
• If you use ksh or bash: export HPSS_PRINCIPAL=username export HPSS_AUTH_METHOD=keytab export HPSS_KEYTAB_PATH=/home/username/mykeytab

Replace username with your username, and mykeytab with the name of your keytab file.

The following example shows how to set these options on the command line (HSI only):

The following example shows how to set these options in your .hsirc file (HSI only):

This document was developed with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 0503697 to the University of Chicago and subcontracted to Indiana University. Additional support was provided by IU through its participation in the TeraGrid, which is supported by the NSF under Grants No. 0833618, SCI451237, SCI535258, and SCI504075. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

Also see:

• What is a keytab, and how do I use one?