allas-usage.md

---

layout: default
title: Basic usage of Allas
parent: 7. Allas
grand_parent: Part 1
nav_order: 1
has_children: false
has_toc: false
permalink: /hands-on/allas/tutorial_allas-file-transfer.html

---

Basic usage of Allas

Accessing Allas via Allas web interface

1. Login to Allas web interface: https://allas.csc.fi

2. From the upper-left corner of the interface, select the CSC project you are using on this course.

3. Create a new bucket by pressing the +Create Bucket button.

   • Name it as <id>-<username>, in which <id> is the number of your project and <username> is your CSC username. Note that you cannot use a bucket name that already exists!

4. Open the created bucket by clicking it.

5. Upload one file from your computer into the bucket (any file should do, but prefer a file that you can open in Puhti, e.g. a text file). Upload process starts from the Upload button in the upper right corner of the interface.

💭 During the exercises, you can use this web interface to get another view to your buckets and objects in Allas.

Accessing Allas from Puhti command-line

Preparations (if not done already)

1. Login to puhti.csc.fi (open a login node shell if using the web interface)

2. In Puhti, check your environment with the command

   csc-workspaces
   

3. Move to the scratch directory of your project:

   cd /scratch/<project>   # replace <project> with your CSC project, e.g. project_2001234
   

4. Create your own subdirectory named as your username (tip! your username is automatically stored in the environment variable $USER):

   mkdir -p $USER
   cd $USER
   

Connecting to Allas

1. Open a connection to Allas with these commands:

   module load allas
   allas-conf 
   

   💡 It might take a while to run module load allas

2. If you have several projects with access to Allas available, select the one where you just created a bucket using the Allas web interface

3. Study what you have in Allas with a-commands and with rclone:

   • With a-commands:

     a-list
     a-list <id>-$USER             # replace <id> with your CSC project number, e.g. 2001234
     a-info <id>-$USER/<filename>  # replace <id> with your CSC project number, e.g. 2001234, and <filename> with the file you uploaded
     

   • With rclone:

     rclone lsd allas:
     rclone ls allas:<id>-$USER
     rclone lsl allas:<id>-$USER
     rclone lsf allas:<id>-$USER
     rclone cat allas:<id>-$USER/<filename>
     

4. Download to Puhti the file that you just uploaded from your local computer to Allas. This can be done in two ways:

   • With a-commands:

     a-get <id>-$USER/<filename>     # replace <id> with your CSC project number, e.g. 2001234, and <filename> with the file you uploaded
     

   • With rclone:

     rclone copy allas:<id>-$USER/<filename> ./    # replace <id> with your CSC project number, e.g. 2001234, and <filename> with the file you uploaded
     

5. Open, edit and rename the file so that you can distinguish it from the original one.

6. Upload the new file to Allas:

   • With a-commands:

     a-put -b <id>-$USER <newfilename>   # replace <id> and <newfilename> accordingly
     

     💭 Try running a-put -h to understand the command-line switch above and to find more information on options.

     💬 With larger text files it is good to include the option -c to enable zstdmt compression of the files.

   • With rclone:

     rclone copy <newfilename> allas:<id>_$USER/   # replace <newfilename> and <id> accordingly
     

7. Check that the file in Puhti indeed has a counterpart in Allas:

   a-list <id>-$USER <newfilename>   # replace <id> and <newfilename>
   

8. Locate the files you just uploaded to Allas in the Allas web interface (search for the bucket name)

Clean up

1. Delete the local file from Puhti:

   rm <filename>             # replace <filename>
   

2. Whenever you need your data again, you can download it from Allas

💭 If you can't find your file but remember the name, try a-find. Use a-find -h for help.

Extra: publish a file to the internet

💬 The a-commands include basic tools for publishing files to the internet. You might notice that the course slides use one of these! 🤓

‼️ Note: Using these commands makes your entire bucket public! Do not engage if you don't want that to happen. All files that you a-put in the bucket later will also be accessible from internet, since the bucket is accessible.

Option 1: a-publish

1. Select a file that has an appropriate content and publish it with the command:

   a-publish -b <id>-$USER <filename>   # replace <id> and <filename>
   

2. The command outputs a URL (public link). Copy it to your browser or send it to your friends 😎

Option 2: a-flip

💬 a-flip is meant for files that need to be published only temporarily, for example for a one-time share.

1. Select a file that has an appropriate content and publish it with the command:

   a-flip <filename>         # replace <filename>
   

2. The command outputs an URL (public link). Copy it to your browser or send it to your friends 😎

‼️ Note: a-flip takes just the file name, not the bucket name like many of the previous commands.