The HLRS (Höchstleistungsrechenzentrum Stuttgart) has a tape archive system as
usual. The unusual thing is that one can only access it via an FTP connection.
Also it uses a special pftp_client which transfers file in a parallel fashion
for more bandwidth. Usability is horrible as one has to enter username and
password and then type GET and PUT commands for each file that one wants to
transfer.
Documentation can be found in these places:
- https://wickie.hlrs.de/platforms/index.php/HPSS_Introduction
- https://wickie.hlrs.de/platforms/index.php/HPSS_User_Access
This script is a wrapper for the FTP connection to allow doing actual work
instead of monkey work. Previously it had been implemented in Python 2 with the
pexpect library and the pftp_client, now it uses Python 3 and the ftplib
of the standard library and setting the “class of service” to the appropriate
number.
Only work with the start-hpss-agent program as that loads the needed modules
on Hazel Hen.
First you need to set it up with your username and password. For this call:
./start-hpss-agent setup
You will be promted to enter username and password.
To transfer files, use the put and get subcommands:
./start-hpss-agent put FILENAME
./start-hpss-agent get FILENAME
In order to get help on all the arguments, use one of the following:
./start-hpss-agent -h
./start-hpss-agent get -h
./start-hpss-agent put -h