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This is as a Lab Notebook which describes how to solve a specific problem at a specific time. Please keep this in mind as you read and use the content. Please pay close attention to the date, version information and other details.

SFTP Mapping on HPCC file systems (lasted updated 2022-10-27)

SFTP Net Drive is the software which can map remote HPCC file systems on your local Windows computers via SFTP. (Mac OS is not supported.) Once connected, you can browse and work with files on HPCC as if they were on a hard drive of your local machine. In order words, they do not need to be downloaded and uploaded when users read or modify them using their local computers.

HPCC users can use the download site to get a free version of SFTP Net Drive. Once it is downloaded and executed, users can do its setup. In the main menu (below), you can choose your own Profile name and Drive Letter. Make sure the Server is set to http://rsync.hpcc.msu.edu Username and Password are the same as your HPCC login.

For more advanced setting, please click on the Advanced... button. Three setting menus: Connection, Protocol and Drive can be modified. For Connection, the value on Port has to be 22. A longer initiation time can be adjusted on Timeout. You can also set up reconnect times in case the connection is dropped and Send keep-alive to prevent disconnection.

For Protocol, you may just use the default setting:

For Drive, if you would like, you may set up a different Root folder to start with other than your home folder. You might want to click on Handle case-sensitive filenames since the HPCC file system is case-sensitive. If you would like to show hidden files, you can click on Show files started with dot.

Once all of them are set, you can click on Connect button in the main menu. If it is successfully connected, the Connect button will become Disconnect:

Now, open the file explorer and click on This PC. You should find the HPCC file system shown in the Network locations area with the Profile name and the Drive Letter of your input:

Mapping HPCC Drive with More Spaces

If you would like to do SFTP mapping with more than one space in HPCC, the better way is to set static links in the Root folder of your setting. For example, you want to map your home space and research space on your local Windows computer. You can set the Root folder to be your home folder as the setup above. Use a ssh client to connect to the HPCC or Web Site Access to HPCC to run a command line on a dev node:

[username@dev-intel18 ~]$ ln -s /mnt/research/<Research Name> <Research Name>

where a static link to your research space is set in your home folder. Once it is done, run ls command and the static link <Research Name> should be shown with the light blue color. To access the research space through your local computer, just click on the HPCC drive of your setting in the Network locations area as mentioned in the upper section. Look for the space link <Research Name> and click on it. You can now see the files in the research space. If you would like to map more spaces, such as your scratch spaces or other research spaces, just create more static links in your home folder by the same way.