SDS Access

SDS@hd (Scientific Data Storage at Heidelberg) is a file server run by URZ for collaborative data.

To access our share, proceed as follows

Getting access

Joining the SDS share

• Go to the SDS@hd Management page.
• There, choose "Universität Heidelberg" and log in with your Uni ID. If you do not have a Uni ID, you can also use credentials from any other European research insitution within the eduGAIN network. This includes DKFZ, EMBL, Institut Pasteur and most others.
• Consent to the data transfer to access the actual SDS management page.
• Choose "Mitarbeit Speichervorhaben" ("join a storage project")
• Fill out the form:
  • Our Speichervorhaben (SV, storage project, i.e. share) has the "acronym" sd17l002
  • Ask Simon for the password for joining.

Setting the access password

• Go to the BW Services page.
• Log in again with your Uni ID (or alternative credentials).
• In the box "SDS@hd", choose "Registrieren", the fill out the form.
• Wait a minute or two.
• Go back to the page with the boxes. The box "SDS@hd" should now have the option "Dienstpasswort setzen" ("choose service password")
• Use it to set your password for accessing the storage.
• Take note of the "username for login" displayed on the Registry Info page.

Connecting to the share

For all the following, note:

• Your username is the username from the Registry Info page. For UHD, it is hd_ followed by you Uni ID (e.g. hd_xy123) .
• Your password is the one you have set in the previous step.

Access via web browser

• Use this link: https://lsdf02-webdav.urz.uni-heidelberg.de/

Access via SFTP (Linux or Mac)

• Use an SFTP client such as WinSCP (for Windows) or Cyberduck (for Mac).
• Initiate a connection with the following parameters:
  • Server: lsdf02-sshfs.urz.uni-heidelberg.de
  • Protocol: SFTP
  • Username and password: see above

With sshfs

sshfs allows you to mount the SDS shares within your home directory.

• Create a mount point: mkdir ~/sds
• Call sshfs: sshfs [email protected]: ~/sds

Remarks:

• I have some issues with losing connection. The options -o reconnect -o ServerAliveInterval=3 -o ServerAliveCountMax=2 -o [email protected] -o intr (right after the sshfs) may or may not help.
• If you disconnect your ethernet or WLAN and reconnect elsewhere (for example, when taking the laptop home), the open connection may cause Linux to hang. If that happens, kill sshfs.
• To unmount, use fusermount -u ~/sds
• On papagei, I have put a global script, called sds, to mount the SDS shares and one called sds_unmount to unmount them.

You need to be within the University network to access SDS. However, if you are not and don't want to use VPN, you can still connect by using papagei as jump host, as follows:

sshfs \
  -o ssh_command='ssh -J [email protected]' \
  [email protected]: ~/sds

(Replace hd_xy123 with your username.)

With SMB (Windows or Mac)

Using the "Connect to server" or "Map network drive" functions in Windows File Explorer or MacOS Finder, you can also connect to SDS:

• Share name: \\lsdf02.urz.uni-heidelberg.de\sd17l002
• Username: BWSERVICESAD\hd_xy123 (where hd_xy123 is your username)

With WebDAV / Rclone

These instructions describe how to access the SDS shares via WebDAV and use this to mirror directories to your local drive using a tool called Rclone.

On the clusters

On the Bioquant and curry clusters, the SDS shares are mounted at /mnt/sds-hd. To access them, you have to first get a "Kerberos ticket" by writing

kinit [email protected]

where hd_xy123 is your username. Use the service password. The ticket will be valid for about a day, and then you have to get a new one.

Organisation of our share

Our share is organized as follows

• In the directory u (for "users"), each of us can make a directory for themselves.
• In p (for "projects"), we put directories for projects that involve more than one of us.
• sw was meant for software but is defunct.
• heiarchive is a staging directory to collect files to be archived with HeiArchive.

Cost

The URZ charges us 0.25 ct per GB and month (i.e., about €30 per TB and year) (price of Feb 2023). We can ask for additional storage if needed.