Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) and Secure FTP (SFTP) are two utilities for transferring files between remote systems and the NCAR systems that CISL manages.
They are best suited for transferring small numbers of small files (for example, fewer than 1,000 files totaling less than 200 MB). For larger-scale transfers, we recommend using Globus.
You can make SCP and SFTP transfers between the GLADE storage system and a remote machine if the remote machine accepts incoming SSH sessions. If it doesn't, the transfer will hang or you will receive a message such as "connection refused," depending on the system's firewall settings.
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From an NCAR system
To make SCP and SFTP transfers from your GLADE file space to a remote system, log in to data-access.ucar.edu and execute the commands shown below.
Use SCP if you need to transfer a single file or if you want to transfer multiple files with a single command by using a wildcard or recursive option.
SCP example
To transfer multiple files with similar names or extensions, follow this example, in which supersystem.univ.edu is a fictitious remote system.
scp /glade/u/home/pparker/mydata/*.dat pparker@supersystem.univ.edu:/home/pparker
SFTP example
If you need to transfer many files from multiple directories to a remote machine, doing so in an SFTP session is likely to be more efficient for you than SCP.
Log in to data-access.ucar.edu, then start your transfer session with the sftp command followed by your login information for the remote system.
sftp pparker@supersystem.univ.edu
You will be asked to authenticate at this point.
Then, within the session, you can change between directories as needed and execute put commands to copy files to the remote machine. Use lcd to change local directories, and use cd to change directories on the remote system, as shown in this example.
sftp> lcd /glade/u/home/pparker/mydata sftp> put filename1 sftp> lcd /glade/scratch/pparker sftp> cd /home/mydata sftp> put filename2 sftp> quit
You can also transfer files from batch jobs running on an NCAR machine.
To an NCAR system
To transfer files from a remote system to your GLADE file space, log in to the remote system and reverse the procedures shown above.
For example:
scp /remotedir/*.dat pparker@data-access.ucar.edu:/glade/u/home/pparker/mydata
You will be asked to authenticate for each individual SCP command that you execute to transfer files to the NCAR system.