• What do I need to do to have access to the GIGA mass storage and cluster?
  • Requirements
  • Permissions
  • VPN
• How do I connect to the GIGA mass storage and cluster ?
  • SAMBA connection from a file browser
    • Windows
    • Mac OS X
    • Linux
  • SSH connection from a command-line terminal
    • WARNING: Before your first connection
    • For all systems (Windows, Mac or Linux)
      • To manage your files (move/copy/etc) or to download/upload large files from/to another server or computer
    • To perform analyses or calculations on your data
• Contacts

WARNING: This page is dedicated to GIGA members and their direct collaborators. If you are part of a team of the University of Liège who has a folder on the SEGI part of the mass storage to share data with a GIGA platform, please read this page for connection instructions.

What do I need to do to have access to the GIGA mass storage and cluster?

Requirements

To have access to the GIGA mass storage and cluster, you need

• to be registered as a GIGA member or as a collaborator of a GIGA team (see details below)
• to have read the mass storage and cluster documentation
• to be on the ULG or CHU network (wired or Wi-Fi) or to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.

Permissions

If you are a GIGA member, you should automatically have access to the mass storage and the cluster by following the procedure described below. If it's not the case, please check with the GIGA administration (admin.giga@uliege.be) that you have been added to the GIGA member database.

If you are a collaborator of a GIGA team and need access to the mass storage in the context of that collaboration, please ask the PI of the GIGA team you are collaborating with to contact the UDIMED/UDIGIGA.

In both cases, if you need access to a specific project folder on the mass storage, please ask the UDIMED/UDIGIGA.

VPN

The GIGA mass storage and cluster are protected by the University Firewall. To connect to these devices, your computer need to be recognised as part of the University or CHU network. For this reason, if you are not directly connected to one of these networks (ethernet or WIFI), you need to use the University VPN.

For more information about the university VPN installation and usage, see the VPN webpage of the SEGI website (click on the icone at the top right to change language if needed).

How do I connect to the GIGA mass storage and cluster ?

There are two different methods to connect to the mass storage.

• If you want to access data stored on the mass storage via your computer's file browser, to transfer small files from your computer to the mass storage, you need to connect using the SAMBA protocol.

• To manage large files stored on the mass storage or to analyse them from the GIGA High Performance Computing cluster, you need to connect from the command line terminal, using the SSH protocol.

Note: While you can work on small file using SAMBA, the mass storage is optimised for long term storage of data and not for script development. So when possible, you should develop your scripts on your computer and save only the final version on the mass storage.

SAMBA connection from a file browser

Connection to the mass storage server from a computer's file browser works through the SMB/SAMBA/CIFS protocol. This protocol is available on the majority of the operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux,...) and allows the sharing of resources (files) on local networks.

Windows

• In your file browser, go to “This PC”, "PC", "Computer" or “My Computer”

• Click on “Map Network Drive” in the menu bar at the top of the window, as highlighted in red below. If you don't see it, you may need to click first on the "Computeur" tab at the top.

  

• In the next window (see picture below)

  1. Specify a drive letter, for example Y: or Z:
  2. In “Folder”, enter the storage address followed by your ULiège ID. Example:\\massstorage.giga.priv\u123456
  3. Check the “Connect using different credentials” box and click on “Finish”

  

• A window appears asking for your ULiège ID and password.

  1. Enter the ID, preceded by “ULG\”. Example: ULG\u123456
  2. Enter your ULiège password and click OK

  

  WARNING: If the windows has an incorrect pre-encoded ID (in the picture below the user ID isn't preceded by "ULG"), first click on "Other choice" ("Autres choix" in french in the picture below).

  

• You are now connected to your home directory on the mass storage

Mac OS X

• In “Finder”, select “Go> Connect to Server”
• In the “Server Address”, enter “cifs://” followed by the storage address and your ULiège ID. Example: cifs://massstorage.giga.priv/u123456
• You will be asked for your ULiège ID and your password
• You are now connected to your home directory on the mass storage

Linux

• Depending on the Linux distribution, the connection method may vary slightly
• As a general rule, you will have to select “Connect to a server” in the window manager
• You will then have to enter the storage address followed by your ULiège ID. Example: smb://massstorage.giga.priv/u123456
• When prompted, select "Registered User" and enter your ULg username (ex. u123456), domain (ULG) and password.
• You are now connected to your home directory on the mass storage

SSH connection from a command-line terminal

WARNING: Before your first connection

For your first connection, you must log in from your computer's file browser via the SMB/SAMBA/CIFS protocol (see above) and wait at least 10 minutes before to connect by ssh. This need to be done before any ssh connection to the GIGA mass storage or cluster !!!!

Indeed, this first connection will trigger the creation of different links to shared project and resource folders in the user’s home directory. If the first connection is not done through SMB/SAMBA/CIFS but by ssh, the user’s home folder will be created on a different disk and won’t contain the required links. In this case, system administrators will need to be contacted to manually move the user’s home folder to the mass storage and to create the links.

For all systems (Windows, Mac or Linux)

Connection to the GIGA cluster and mass storage server from a computer's command-line terminal works through the SSH protocol. If you have already made a connection to the mass storage using the SMB/SAMBA/CIFS protocol (see warning above), you can connect to the GIGA cluster and mass storage via ssh.

Depending on what you want to do, you will establish a ssh connection either directly to the mass storage or to the cluster. In both cases, you will end up in your home directory and will have access to all your data.

To manage your files (move/copy/etc) or to download/upload large files from/to another server or computer

You can connect directly to the mass storage using the following procedure:

• In the terminal of your machine, enter

  ssh u123456@massstorage.giga.priv

• When prompted, enter you password

• You are now in your home directory on the mass storage.

Of note, you can also use the mass storage address (u123456@massstorage.giga.priv) to transfer larges files from your computer or from another server to the mass storage with scp or rsync.

WARNING: Don't perform any calculation or analysis on your data while connected directly to the mass storage. To analyse data, you must connect to the cluster as explained below.

To perform analyses or calculations on your data

You must connect to the cluster using the following procedure:

• In the terminal of your machine, enter

  ssh u123456@cluster.calc.priv

• When prompted, enter you password

• You are now in your home directory on the mass storage.

Contacts

If you have any question, please contact the UDIMED/UDIGIGA or the bioinformatics team as detailed here