NWfs Policies
What is it for?
NWfs is intended for storage of important data that has long-term intrinsic value or data that is too costly or difficult to reproduce. Although no restrictions are placed on the format of data archived, the archive is never to be used to store:
MSC News
- Call for White Papers on Scientific Computing
- EMSL introduces a new video about Chinook on EMSL's YouTube channel (script, .pdf, 9kb)
- Chinook - Living Life in the Fastlane [.pdf, 107kb]
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- Classified information
- Data for which the storage is regulated or required for regulatory compliance
- Data where human health and safety depend on the access and accuracy of the data.
The following uses are permitted only with prior approval of the Molecular Sciences Computing Operations Capability Steward:
- Storing of scratch files and intermediate results (only when such data is needed for ongoing research and the cost of recreating the data is prohibitive)
- Storing of data produced for or by non-EMSL work.
Who can use it?
Currently, NWfs is only available to staff and users of EMSL.
What happens if I ignore these policies?
Users who store data in violation of these policies may have the data removed and their archive access privileges suspended. Such users will be notified before any of their data is deleted.
Who else can see my data?
The data owner controls access to the data. By default, only the owner of the data will have any permissions for files and directories. The owner can grant access permissions to other users so that files can be shared among individuals, or within a work group. This access can include any combination of read, write, and delete permissions. Projects can also own data. In this case, project members share access to the project's data. As with any computer system, the administrators of the archive can always get at data on the system. This will be done only for error recovery or when requested by authorized staff members.
Permissions are initially established when the user account or the project account is established. If an account owner wishes to change those permissions or add or delete users to a project account, that owner should contact the NWfs Support Queue.
What happens to my data if I leave?
If users leave EMSL or projects within EMSL, any data they have placed in the archive is kept and can be transferred to the ownership of another staff member (such as a project manager, principal investigator, or scientist). The new owner then has complete control of the data and access controls. Even if a new owner is not immediately assigned, the data will not automatically be removed.
NWfs Access
Access to NWfs from inside the EMSL network is available in a variety of ways. If you need access to NWfs data from outside EMSL, you should contact the NWfs Support Queue.
Access from Chinook
NWfs is mounted as a filesystem on Chinook login nodes (NWFs access is not available from the compute nodes). Chinook users may access NWfs data directly at /nwfs/<username> using standard file and directory commands.
Access via CIFS
Workstation access to NWfs directories is possible via the CIFS (aka SMB) protocol via n4.emsl.pnl.gov. Authorized users on Windows, Macintosh, and some Linux workstations can use this service by connecting to \\n4.emsl.pnl.gov\nwfs\<username>. You may need to provide your EMSL username and network password to use this service.
Access via file transfer services
File transfer services (ftp, sftp, scp, rsync) are provided by nwfs.emsl.pnl.gov. You will need an EMSL account and SecureID token in order to use these NWfs services. If you do not have an account, you may request access to NWfs at http://iops.pnl.gov. If you need to obtain a SecureID token, see http://infosource.pnl.gov/Network/Access/secureid.htm.
Data in NWfs can be accessed by nearly any file transfer utility which uses one of the following protocols:
- FTP
- SFTP
- SCP
- GridFTP.
(See below for examples of client programs for various computing systems.)
To access your NWfs data directory, start your file transfer utility and configure it to connect to "nwfs.emsl.pnl.gov" with your nwfs username. Do not enter a password until you are ready to log in to NWfs. When you connect to NWfs, enter your SecureID PIN and the 6-digit number from the SecureID token.
Tips
- If you have large numbers of files to store, we strongly recommend that you use zip or tar to combine them into a small number of larger files.
- You do not need to use a file transfer program to access NWfs data if you are using a Chinook login node. Simply copy files to and from your /nwfs/<username> directory.
- If you are using a standard FTP, SFTP, or SCP client with NWfs, when you are prompted for a password, you should enter your SecureID PIN and 6-digit number instead.
- If you use an FTP client with NWfs, you should configure your FTP client program to use "passive" mode.
- Some FTP clients automatically attempt to log you in as a user named "anonymous." You should turn this feature off and instead log in with your EMSL username.
- Some FTP clients (particularly command line programs) do not fully log you in until you issue a command. You may find it helpful to do an "ls" command immediately after logging in so that your SecureID number does not go stale.
- Turn off any re-authentication options that your FTP client may have.
Example NWfs client programs
For Microsoft Windows users:
- FileZilla
- WinSCP
- WS_FTP.
For Unix and Linux users:
- ftp
- sftp
- scp
- lftp
- gftp
- uberftp.
For Macintosh users:
- fetch
- fugu.
NWfs Status
Service Level and Maintenance
NWfs is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for scheduled maintenance and unscheduled downtime. Scheduled downtime is expected to happen approximately quarterly.
NWfs is monitored around the clock, and when problems occur after hours an EMSL system administrator will evaluate whether repairs will need to made immediately or wait until normal work hours. If you become aware of an NWfs problem that is impeding your work after hours, call the EMSL emergency hotline at 509-371-6100.
Scheduled downtimes will be announced at least 5 days in advance. All planned outages, and unplanned outages longer than 15 minutes will be announced by e-mail and on the EMSL System Announcements page.
