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Accessing Allas

Gaining access

Allas access is based on CSC's customer projects. To be able to use Allas, you need to be a member of a CSC project that has the permission to use Allas. If you do not have a CSC account, you must first register as a CSC user and join or start a computing project for which Allas has been enabled. This can be done in the MyCSC user portal: https://my.csc.fi.

Once you have Allas enabled you can access it from any machine or server that is connected to internet. This can be a your laptop, supercomputer at CSC, virtual machine in cloud or enven your phone.

Accessing Allas from the web browser

At the moment CSC provides two web browser interfaces for Allas:

The OpenStack Horizon web interface in cPouta provides easy-to-use basic functions for data management in Allas:

SD Connect provides sensitive data oriented web interface for Allas. By default this interface encrypts the uploaded data so that it can be used in SD Desktop service. You can use SD Connect for non-sensitive data too, if you switch off the encryption.

Accessing Allas in the CSC computing environment and other Linux platforms

Puhti and Mahti servers at CSC support many different tools for using Allas, These include

  • a-tools for basic use: (Swift, optionally S3)
  • rclone providing some advanced functions:** (Swift, optionally S3)
  • swift python client that provides wide range of functionalities (Swift)
  • s3cmd an S3 client and persistent Allas connections:** (S3)

Note that the tools listed above utilize two different protocols: Swift and S3. Data uploaded using one protocol is not necessary compatible with another protocol.

The software listed above can be used in other Linux servers as well, e.g. a virtual machine running in cPouta or your own Linux-based laptop. In that case, you need to install the client software and configure the connection to Allas yourself. Instructions : allas-cli-utils

In Puhti and Mahti the Allas tools listed above are installed by CSC and provided through allas module. In order to use Allas in Puhti or Mahti, first load the Allas module: 

module load allas
Allas access for a specific project can then be enabled: 
allas-conf
or 
allas-conf project_name
The allas-conf command prompts for your CSC password (the same that you use to login to CSC servers). It lists your Allas projects and asks you to define a project (if not already defined as an argument). allas-conf generates an rclone configuration file for the Allas service and authenticates the connection to the selected project. You can only be connected to one Allas project at a time in one session. The project you are using in Allas does not need to match the project you are using in Puhti or Mahti, and you can switch to another project by running allas-conf again.

Authentication information is stored in the shell variables OS_AUTH_TOKEN and OS_STORAGE_URL and is valid for up to eight hours. However, you can refresh the authentication at any time my running allas-conf again. The environment variables are available only for that login session, so if you start another shell session, you need to authenticate again in there to access Allas.

Once Allas connection is congigured, you can start using Allas with the tools listed above.

Basic Allas operations with different tools.

Tool List objects in bucket buck_123 Upload file data1.txt to bucket buck_123 Download file data1.txt from bucket buck_123
a-commands a-list buck_123 a-put data1.txt -b buck_123 a-get buck_123/data1.txt.zst
rclone rclone ls allas:buck_123 rclone copy data1.txt allas:buck_123/ rclone copy allas:buck_123/data1.txt ./
Swift swift list buck_123 swift upload buck_123 data1.txt swift download buck_123 data1.txt
s3cmd* s3cmd ls s3://buck_123 s3cmd put data1.txt s3://buck_123/ s3cmd get s3://buck_123/data1.txt

*For s3cmd, open Allas connection with commandallas-conf -m s3cmd

Accessing Allas with Windows or Mac

In addition to the Web interfaces listed above, you can access Allas from you Windows or Mac computer with locally installed client software. For example following tools can be used:

  • Cyberduck provides easy to use graphical interface for moving data between local computer and Allas.
  • Rclone is an command line tool that provides very effective way to use Allas.
  • a-tools these Allas specific commands can be installed in Mac OSX machines but not to Windows

The list above is not complete or exclusive. Any tool that supports Swift or S3 protocols can in principle use Allas.

Copying files directly between object storages

Rclone can also be used to directly copy files from another object storage (e.g. Amazon S3, Google cloud, CREODIAS,...) to Allas. For this both credentials need to be stored in a Rclone configuration file in the users home directory (.config/rclone/rclone.conf). An example is shown below:

[s3allas]
type = s3
provider = Other
env_auth = false
access_key_id = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
secret_access_key = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
endpoint = a3s.fi
acl = private

[otherobjectstorage]
type = s3
provider = Other
env_auth = false
access_key_id = yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
secret_access_key = yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
endpoint = yourotherendpoint.com
acl = private
The configuration for Allas is added automatically when configuring Allas in s3 mode

source allas_conf --mode s3cmd .

After creating/updating this file, Rclone can be used to copy files

rclone copy otherobjectstorage:bucket-x/object-y s3allas:bucket-z/object-a

or list files from either Allas or the other object storage by using the respective name

rclone lsf otherobjectstorage:.

Other ways of accessing Allas

Last update: June 29, 2023