Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

GridFTP is a high-performance data transfer protocol based on FTP and optimized for high-bandwidth wide-area networks. More information on GridFTP may be found on the Globus site.

Prior to using GridFTP, it must be installed on both the client and server. Installation is independent of the authentication method chosen. GridFTP is currently available on each OLCF system and can be added to your environment using the globus module:

  module load globus

If your site does not already have GridFTP available, it can be downloaded from Globus. Download and installation information can be found on the Globus Toolkit Documentation site.

No setup is required if you will be using SSH for authentication.

If you are using a DOEGrid Certificate, you will need to follow the steps below:

Obtain a DOEGrid Certificate – Before using GridFTP each user must have a DOEGrid Certificate. The basic steps are listed below. Details may be found on the DOEGrid site.

1. Import DOEGrid Chain of Certificate Authorities
2. Request DOEGrid Certificate
3. Import DOEGrid Certificate
4. Export/Extract DOEGrid Certificate
5. Ensure appropriate permissions are set on usercert.pem and userkey.pem
   • chmod 644 $HOME/.globus/usercert.pem
   • chmod 600 $HOME/.globus/userkey.pem

Register the DOEGrid Certificate – Before using your DOEGrid Certificate on OLCF systems you must register your certificate with the OLCF. Once your DOEGrid Certificate has been extracted to $HOME/.globus/usercert.pem and $HOME/.globus/userkey.pem run the following:

  $ module load globus
  $ register_globus_creds

You will receive an email once your certificate has been successfully registered.

Files are transferred using the globus-url-copy command. The arguments to that command will differ based on your authentication method. If you have not done so already, load the globus module:

  module load globus

For SSH authentication, simply run the globus-url-copy command.

For example, while on an OLCF resource, you can transfer file1 in your OLCF User Work area to file2 on a remote system:

  globus-url-copy -tcp-bs 12M -bs 12M -p 4 -v -vb file:/tmp/work/$USER/file1 sshftp://user@remote.system/remote/dir/file2

From the OLCF, transfer file1 on a remote system to file2 in your User Work area:

  globus-url-copy -tcp-bs 12M -bs 12M -p 4 -v -vb sshftp://remote.system/remote/dir/file1 file:/tmp/work/$USER/file2

From remote system, transfer file1 on a remote system to file2 in your User Work area:

  globus-url-copy -tcp-bs 12M -bs 12M -p 4 -v -vb file:/remote/dir/file1 sshftp://userid@dtn01.ccs.ornl.gov/tmp/work/$USER/file2

When using DOEGrid Authentication, you must first generate a proxy certificate. Your DOEGrid Certificate must be registered for this to work. Run the command:

  myproxy-init -n

To generate a new certificate, then to login, run:

  myproxy-logon

Once you have generated the certificate, you can transfer files with globus-url-copy. For example, if you are connected to an OLCF system and want to transfer file1 in your OLCF User Home area to file2 on a remote system, use:

  globus-url-copy -tcp-bs 12M -bs 12M -p 4 gsiftp://dtn01.ccs.ornl.gov/$HOME/file1 gsiftp://remote.sys//tmp/shared/$USER/file2