Globus

Globus is a service that allows you to transfer files between “endpoints” (computers).

Login to the Globus

1. Go to https://www.globus.org/ and select log in.
2. Under use your existing organizational login, start typing “University of Massachusetts Medical School” and select the item from the dropdown list.
3. You will be redirected to a CILogon page:
   • Enter your short form username. This is the first five characters of your last name, followed by the first letter of your first name, and ends with a number if your email has one. For example, Ben.Kresge@umassmed.edu is kresgb.
   • Enter your umassmed.edu password.
4. You will be prompted to authenticate using 2FA (two-factor authentication).
5. On the next screen, you will see an information release prompt:
   • You can choose any option. I chose “Ask me again if information to be provided to this service changes.” but ANY should be fine.
6. Press accept to proceed.

After completing these steps, you should land on the main Globus screen titled file manager.

Download Globus endpoint software

Note

If you have already installed and set up Globus Connect Personal, you can skip to Step 4 by navigating to your existing installation directory (e.g., cd globusconnectpersonal-3.2.6).

1. Once you are logged into the server of your choice, run the following command to download Globus Connect Personal:

   wget https://downloads.globus.org/globus-connect-personal/linux/stable/globusconnectpersonal-latest.tgz

2. Extract the file using the following command:

   tar xzf globusconnectpersonal-latest.tgz

Create Globus endpoint

1. Navigate to the newly created directory. The directory name should follow the format globusconnectpersonal-x.y.z (e.g., globusconnectpersonal-3.2.6):

   cd globusconnectpersonal-3.2.6

2. Run the following command to set up Globus Connect Personal:

   ./globusconnectpersonal -setup --no-gui

3. You will be prompted to log in via a large URL starting with https://auth.globus.org. The prompt will wait for an authentication code:

   • Follow the link (usually CTRL/CMD + Left Mouse Click).
   • The site will ask for certain permissions. Click allow.
   • The site will display a native app authorization code. Copy this code.
   • Paste the code back into the shell prompt.

   Caution

   The code only lasts 10 minutes!

4. Next, the shell prompt will display:

   == starting endpoint setup
   
   Input a value for the Endpoint Name:

   • You can choose what you want to name the endpoint, but you will need to remember this name later when transferring files.
   • For example, if you are on z012, you might name it Ben-z012.

Start Globus endpoint service

1. After setup is complete, start the Globus Connect Personal service:

   ./globusconnectpersonal -start &

   This will run the service in the background.

   Note

   You can confiure whcih folders are accessible by using the —restrict-folders flag (e.g., --retrict-folders /home/user/data,/home/user/dev)

2. To verify the service is running, you can use:

   ./globusconnectpersonal -status

   We expect to see something like:

   Globus Online:   connected
   Transfer Status: idle

Transfer files

1. Return to the Globus web interface
   • If you are transfering file from a client device (such as a laptop), you will need to first install the Globus endpoint software on the client device here. Once you’ve installed the software for your client device’s operating system and see the collection appear in the Globus file manger web interface, you can proceed to the next step.
   
   
2. In the File Manager:
   • On the left panel, search for and select your source endpoint (where your files are currently located).
   • On the right panel, search for and select your destination endpoint (the one you created in Step 3).
   
   
3. Navigate to the desired directories:
   • In the source panel, browse to select the files/folders you want to transfer.
   • In the destination panel, you will only have access to your home directory on the zerver due to Globus Connect Personal’s permission restrictions (you can move files to their final location after the transfer is complete using the mv command).
   
   
4. Click the blue start button.
5. Monitor your transfer status in the “Activity” panel

Stopping the sendpoint service

When you’re done transferring files, you can stop the Globus Connect Personal service by running:

./globusconnect -stop