Data Storage and Transfer

After creating your HPC Account, your home directory will not be created until you log in for the first time. Without your home directory, you will not be able to transfer your data to HPC. If you are struggling and receiving errors, sign into your account either using the CLI through the bastion or logging into OnDemand and then try again.

If you are using something like SCP and are receiving errors, make sure your hostname is set to filexfer.hpc.arizona.edu (not hpc.arizona.edu).

Unfortunately, no. Backups are not made and anything deleted is permanently erased. It is impossible for us to recover it. To ensure your data are safe, we recommend:

• Make frequent backups, ideally in three places and two formats. Helpful information on making backups can be found on our page Transferring Data.
• Use rm and rm -r with caution as these commands cannot be undone! Consider using rm -i when removing files/directories. The -i flag will prompt you to manually confirm file removals to make really sure they can be deleted.
• You can open a support ticket to request assistance.  Files that are deleted may not have been removed from the storage array immediately (though this is not guaranteed), don't wait more than a few days.

Endpoint too busy: This is most commonly seen when users are transferring directories to Google Drive. This is because Google has user limits restricting the number of files that can be transferred per unit time. When many files are being transferred at once, that limit may be exceeded. Globus will automatically hold the transfer until the limit is reset at which point it will continue. One way to avoid this is to archive your work prior to the transfer (e.g. in .tar.gz form). Additionally, archiving will also speed up your transfers considerably, sometimes by orders of magnitude.

Fatal FTP Response, PATH_EXISTS: Globus is finicky about the destination endpoint. If you get this error, check to see whether duplicate files/directories exist at the destination. This can happen frequently with Google Drive as multiple files/directories can exist in the same location with the same name. If duplicates exist, try moving, removing, or renaming them and reinitiate the transfer.

In our last maintenance update on July 20^th, one of the changes was to ensure HIPAA compliance on the Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs). This change included the insertion of required text:

Authorized uses only. All activity may be monitored and reported.

This change breaks SCP activity. Not in all cases but frequently with WinSCP, Filezilla and from a terminal. Terminal activity will likely still work from Linux or MacOS.

The solution is to not use SCP (SCP is considered outdated, inflexible, and not readily fixed) and to use a more modern protocol like SFTP and rsync. Info on using SFTP:

• Putty supports SFTP with the “PSFTP” command
• For FileZilla, in the Toolbar, click on Edit and Settings, then click on SFTP
• For Cyberduck, choose SFTP in the dropdown for protocols.

Choose SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), and use filexfer.hpc.arizona.edu as the Server. May enter Username and Password, and unselect “Add to KeyChain”.

For Mac, Cyberduck can be used. For version 8.4.2, select Go then Disconnect before clicking on Quit Cyberduck.

The recent Cyberduck patch 8.4.4 has created problems with two-factor authentication which is required to access filexfer.hpc.arizona.edu. Adding a SSH Keys is suggested.

For Windows, WinSCP and FileZilla are recommended.