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Local Rclone configuration for Allas

Rclone can be installed in any operating system and thus it provides an effective way to use Allas from any computer. You can download a copy of Rclone to your own computer from the link below.

Once you have Rclone installed you still need to configure the connection to Allas. Rclone is a command-line application so both configuration and actual usage is normally done in a command line: Terminal in Mac and Linux, Command prompt or Powershell in Windows.

Configuring Allas connection in Mac and Linux (Swift and S3)

If you are using Rclone in a local Linux or Mac machine, you can download the allas_conf script to set up the connection to your Allas project.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CSCfi/allas-cli-utils/master/allas_conf
source allas_conf -u your-csc-username -p your-csc-project-name

Note that you should use the -u option to define your CSC username and -p to define the CSC project you want to use. For example:

source allas_conf -u kkayttaj -p project_2001234

The command above defines a connection that uses Swift protocol and is valid in the current terminal session for 8 hours. The Rclone remote site name is in this case allas. After configuration you can for example list your buckets in Allas with command:

rclone lsd allas:

If you want to use S3 protocol instead of Swift, add option -m S3 to the configuration command. 

source allas_conf -u kkayttaj -p project_2001234 -m S3

Note that in order to run the command above you must have OpenStack client installed in your local machine. After configuring S3 connection to Allas, you can use it through Rclone remote called s3allas:. For example:

rclone lsd s3allas:

S3 connection is active until you explicitly delete it with command:

source allas_conf -u csc-user-name -p csc-project-name --s3remove

Note

Remember to be careful and security-aware when configuring S3 connection to Allas. The S3 keys are stored in a readable format in your home directory and anyone who can read your keys can access Allas until the keys are expilicitly revoked from Allas. Removing the keys from your own computer is not enough to deactivate them.

Configuring Allas connection in Windows

In Windows machines you can't use allas_conf script. So for Windows some connection-specific variables need to be checked up in parallel from a Linux/Mac supporting allas_conf script. Easiest could be Puhti, if you use it otherwise. One option is also to use Windows Linux Subsystem and then the instructions above can be followed.

Configure the Allas connection with command:

rclone config

You can use this command also in other machines where allas_conf is not available. The command above launches a configuration process that you can use to define new Rclone connection. In Rclone these defined connections are called remotes.

Below we describe how to create Swift and S3 connections to Allas.

Configuring Swift connection in Windows

Start the process by opening PowerShell and executing command:

.\rclone.exe config

In the interactive configuration process, do following selections:

  1. Select n to create a New remote
  2. Name the remote as: allas
  3. From the list of storage protocols, select the number that defines: OpenStack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH)
  4. Select authentication option 2: Get swift credentials from environment vars.
  5. After that select the default blank setting for all the remaining settings until you are back in the starting menu of the configuration process.
  6. Finally, choose q to stop the configuration process.

In the case of Swift you need to do this configuration only once. In the configuration it is now defined that in case of allas, all data for the connection is read from environment variables.

If you have access to Puhti, then the easiest way to check the values of the variables needed is to open a terminal connection to it and activate there a connection to the Allas project you wish to use. Another option is to use a utility program allas-get-swift-token-win.zip. If you choose to use the utility program, you (or your local IT-support) may have to configure your anti-virus etc. software to allow running it.

If you use Puhti for setting Swift access variables, activate the Allas environment in Puhti with commands:

module load allas
allas-conf --show-powershell

When the configuration process in Puhti is ready, copy the last four lines, starting with $Env:, to the local PowerShell and execute them. Then test the Rclone connection with command:

  .\rclone.exe lsd allas:

Note that also in this case the connection will work only for the next 8 hours.

Configuring S3 connection in Windows

Note

Remember that you need to be careful and security-aware when configuring S3 connection to Allas. The S3 keys are stored in a readable format in your home directory and anyone who can read your keys can access Allas until the keys are expilicitly revoked from Allas. Removing the keys from your own computer is not enough to deactivate them.

To check your S3 keys, open a connection to Puhti (or some other machine that can run allas_conf tool). If you don't yet have S3 connection to your Allas project activated, open it with commands:

module load allas
allas-conf -m S3

This creates a local configuration file that we will later on use to check some values.

Then switch to your Windows Command Prompt and start the Rclone configuration process by executing command:

rclone config

And do following selections:

  1. Select n to create a New remote
  2. Name the remote as: s3allas
  3. From the list of storage protocols, select the number that defines: Amazon S3 Compliant Storage Providers including AWS, Alibaba, Ceph, Digital Ocean, Dreamhost, IBM COS, Minio, and Tencent COS
  4. Next you are asked to Choose your S3 provider. Select option that provides Any other S3 compatible provider
  5. Then select that you Enter AWS credentials in the next step
  6. Give the AWS access key. You can check this in Puhti with command: grep access_key $HOME/.s3cfg | cut -d " " -f3
  7. Give the AWS secret access key. You can check this in Puhti with command: grep secret_key $HOME/.s3cfg | cut -d " " -f3
  8. Region: 1
  9. Endpoint: a3s.fi
  10. Location constant: (blank, just press Enter)
  11. acl: 1
  12. Edit advanced config: n
  13. Remote config: y (yes, this is ok)
  14. q, quit config

After this you can access your Allas project using Rclone remote s3allas. For example:

rclone.exe lsd s3allas:

This connection stays active in your laptop until you delete it.

Last update: April 8, 2024