Use the IU Globus Web App to transfer data between your accounts on IU's research computing and storage systems

• Overview
• Access the IU Globus Web App
• Activate the source and destination endpoints
• Transfer files
• Add your personal computer as an endpoint
• Get help

Overview

You can use the IU Globus Web App to transfer data between your accounts on Indiana University's research supercomputers and research storage systems. You also can use it to transfer data between an IU research supercomputer and your personal computer, or use it to transfer data to and from other networked hosts, such as digital services on the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE).

For example, you can use the IU Globus Web App to:

• Transfer data from your personal computer to your Slate account for use with an application running on Big Red 3.
• Transfer output data from an application running on Carbonate to your archival storage space on the Scholarly Data Archive (SDA).
  Important:

  Before storing data on the SDA, make sure you understand the information in Types of sensitive institutional data appropriate for the Scholarly Data Archive at IU.
• Transfer your application's output data from your SDA account to your account on an XSEDE visualization system.

The IU Globus Web App is based on Globus Online, a high-performance GridFTP service designed to provide researchers a tool for secure data movement between networked hosts (endpoints). The IU Globus Web App automates many of the tasks associated with managing large data transfers, saving you time and delivering better performance than other transfer methods, such as SCP.

Access the IU Globus Web App

Activate the source and destination endpoints

To set up a data transfer in the IU Globus Web App, select and activate the source and destination endpoints.

1. From File Manager, click in the text field next to "Collection" and begin typing an endpoint name; for example, enter IU to automatically reveal a list of available IU endpoints.
2. Scroll through the list to find the desired endpoint; for example:

   IU resource	Endpoint name
   Scholarly Data Archive (SDA)	IU - Scholarly Data Archive
   DC2, Slate or Slate-Project	iu#hpfs

3. When you find the desired endpoint, click its name to activate it:
   • Activating the IU - Scholarly Data Archive endpoint places you in the home directory of your account on the SDA.
   • Activating the iu#hpfs endpoint may produce a "permission" denied" error at first. The error will resolve when you click in the "Path" field, enter the appropriate path, as follows, and press Enter or Return:
     • DC2 scratch: To activate your DC2 scratch space, enter the following path (replace username with your IU username):

       /N/dc2/scratch/username
       

     • DC2 project space: To activate your DC2 project space, enter the following path (replace project_name with the name of your project space):

       /N/dc2/projects/project_name
       

     • Slate: To activate your Slate account, enter the following path (replace username with the IU username associated with your Slate account):

       /N/slate/username
       

     • Slate-Project: To activate your Slate-Project space, enter the following path (replace project_name with the project name associated with your Slate-Project space):

       /N/project/project_name
       

   Note:

   • To use an IU system as an endpoint, you must have an account on that system. For eligibility and account creation information, see the Research system accounts (all campuses) section of Computing accounts at IU.
   • When activating an IU endpoint, you won't be prompted to log in; the IU Globus Web App automatically passes your IU username and passphrase to the endpoint.
4. Click in the Transfer or sync to... field, and then repeat the previous steps to find and activate your second endpoint.

With two endpoints activated, you can start transferring files between them.

Transfer files

To transfer files between endpoints:

1. Use the source endpoint's file browser to find and select one or more files and/or folders to transfer, and then click Transfer or Sync to....
2. To reveal optional transfer settings, near the bottom of the screen, click Transfer & Sync Options, and then:
   • Optionally, click in the text field next to "Label This Transfer" and enter a short text description, which will be displayed in the log of transfer activity.
   • Check the boxes to select preferred settings:
     • sync - only transfer new or changed files
     • delete files on destination that do not exist on source
     • preserve source file modification times
     • verify file integrity after transfer (This setting is selected by default.)
     • encrypt transfer (If you are transferring files containing PHI, make sure encrypt transfer is selected to ensure that your files remain encrypted during transit. If the IU - Scholarly Data Archive endpoint is activated, this setting will be selected and cannot be changed.)
3. Use the destination endpoint's file browser to select the destination directory for the selected files and/or folders.
4. To start the transfer, below the source file browser, click Start. Above the two endpoints, you should see a "Transfer request submitted successfully" message and a corresponding "Task id" number. You can click the task ID number to see an overview of your transfer and monitor its progress.

Add your personal computer as an endpoint

Get help