GridFTP Service

For large file transfers between different sites we generally recommend our UFTP Service. Another option is GridFTP, which is installed on our JUDAC system (as client and server) allowing transfers to different target sites and data centers where the service is also available.

There is some preliminary task to do if you have not used GridFTP before. You will need a personal X509 certificate in order to authenticate with GridFTP servers. If you do not have an X509 grid user certificate already, please go to our Grid registration authority or any Grid registration authority near you and request a certificate.

After you have received the signed certificate from the certificate authority, export it (in .p12 format) from your browser and save it in your $HOME on JUDAC. Keep the password of the exported keystore in mind. Execute the following commands:

$ mkdir ~/.globus
$ mv YourExportedKeystore.p12 .globus/usercred.p12
$ chmod 600 .globus/usercred.p12

Now you should be able to create a proxy certificate from the stored keystore and the selected password (if you set the name to usercred.p12) by the following command:

$ grid-proxy-init

The output of the command shows your DN. E.g. Your identity: /C=DE/O=GridGermany/OU=Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH/SN=Mustermann/GN=Hans/CN=Hans Mustermann

Before accessing a GridFTP server at your preferred target site (JSC, LRZ, HLRS, etc.), we need to register the DN (Distinguished Name) of your X509 certificate. To do this, go to JuDoor, click on your account, and then “Change contact data”. Enter your certificate DN in the appropriate text field and click on Save.

Your DN is automatically mapped to your account overnight so that you can use it to authenticate yourself at GridFTP the next day. If you have problems with this process, please send an email to ds-support@fz-juelich.de.

Examples

Pushing data from client (globus-url-copy) at JUDAC to a server at HLRS Hazelhen (replace the paths accordingly):

$ globus-url-copy -vb -p 4 \
    file:///p/home/jusers/username/JUDAC/1GB-file \
    gsiftp://gridftp-fr1.hww.de:2812/lustre/cray/ws8/ws/user-workspace

Pulling data from JUDAC server to some client at a different site:

$ globus-url-copy -vb -p 4 \
    gsiftp:///judacsrv.fz-juelich.de/p/home/jusers/username/JUDAC/sourceFile.zip \
    file:///tmp/targetFile.zip

Problems

Please contact ds-support@fz-juelich.de in case of any issues regarding GridFTP.