Ubuntu Manpage: ECaccess Tools (ECTools) - The ECaccess Tools gives Member States (in the following "Member States" (MS)

NAME

       ECaccess Tools (ECTools) - The ECaccess Tools gives Member States (in the following "Member States" (MS)
       includes "Co-operating States") and other ECMWF users batch access to the ECMWF computing and archiving
       facilities for the management of files, file transfers and jobs. Access is available via the Internet as
       well as via RMDCN.

AUTHENTICATION

   ECaccess Certificate
       Using the ECaccess Tools requires a valid ECaccess Certificate.

       The ECaccess Certificate is a standard X509 digital Certificate saved on the user's computer as a file.
       It identifies a user to the ECaccess Gateway. The ECaccess Certification Authority (ECCA) signs each
       Certificate. Therefore, when a user provides his Certificate to the gateway, its signature is checked
       using the ECCA public key for verification.

       The ECaccess certificate is by default valid for 7 days for all services.

       The ECaccess Tools are also available at ECMWF. As you have already been validated to enter ECMWF, you
       will not need a Certificate when using these ECaccess shell commands localy.

   Creating a Certificate
       The ECaccess Certificate must be stored in the "$HOME/.eccert.crt" file and can be created with one of
       the following method (both methods requires an ECMWF user identifier and token PASSCODE):

       Using the "ecaccess-certificate-create" command:

       Please refer to the man page of the command for more details.

       Using the Web interface:

       Login to the Web server and in the menu click the "Get Certificate" option to download the new ECaccess
       Certificate.

ECACCESS FILE SYSTEM

       When accessing FILEs at ECMWF through the ECtools, the following domains are available:

          HOME: the $HOME directory (home:)
          SCRATCH: the $SCRATCH directory (scratch:)
          ECFS: the ECFS directory (ec:)
          ECTMP: the ECTMP directory (ectmp:)
          HOST: any server at ECMWF ({host-name}:)

   Path
       The format of the path is the following: "[domain:][/user-id/]path"

       If no user-id is specified then the current user-id is selected by default. The user-id parameter is not
       valid with the HOST domain.

       If no domain is specified then an absolute path will translate to an absolute path on the ecgate server
       and a relative path will translate to a path in the HOME directory of the current user.

   Exemples
          "bin/a.out"                           a.out file in the $HOME/bin directory of the current user
          "home:bin/a.out"                      a.out file in the $HOME/bin directory of the current user
          "/tmp/a.out"                          a.out file in the /tmp directory on ecgate
          "home:/xyz/bin/a.out"                 a.out file in the $HOME/bin directory of user xyz
          "ec:bin/a.out"                        a.out file in the ECFS bin directory of the current user
          "ec:/xyz/bin/a.out"                   a.out file in the ECFS bin directory of user xyz
          "c1a:/c1a/tmp/systems/xyz/a.out"      a.out file in the /c1a/tmp/systems/xyz/ directory of c1a

   Commands
       In the DESCRIPTION section you will find the FILEs commands which can be used to manage the files at
       ECMWF. Whenever a parameter or an option refer to an ECaccess File then the "[domain:][/user-id/]path"
       syntax apply.

ECTRANS

ECtrans refers to unattended file transfers initiated from ECMWF.

ECtrans allows transfering files between ECMWF and remote sites. Like the UNIX "rcp" command, ECtrans
requires no password to be specified on the command line for the remote host: the ECaccess gateway
performs the security checking. Unlike standard FTP, ECtrans is suitable for unattended file transfers in
scripts, cron jobs, etc., as it avoids the problems inherent in storing passwords in text files and
sending passwords across networks.

Even if you don't have a local gateway installed, you can benefit from ECtrans by using the ECMWF
ECaccess gateway. Please note that in this case the transfer is not as secured as when a Member State
ECaccess gateway is used.

Target location
Users who wish to transfer files between ECMWF and Member State servers need to declare one or more
remote Member State users (msuser association) for the storage/retrieval of the remote file. This can be
done through the ECaccess Web interface of the target gateway. For every "msuser" declaration, the
hostname and the login username and password need to be specified.

After the ECaccess gateway installation, the Member State ECaccess system administrator can customise the
access methods for file transfers. These will be displayed through the ECaccess Web interface. Several
schemes can be implemented, such as:

1 - The target directory for a particular destination is a sub-directory of a central directory
configured by the administrator, with the sub-directory name matching the msuser name. 2 - The target
directory for all file transfers to a given destination is a sub-directory of the msusers home directory.
The administrator configures the sub-directory name. 3 - The target directory for a given destination is
configurable by the user. The administrator determines whether or not the user is allowed to include ".."
in the directory path.

Target directories can be located on:

1 - Member State servers running a standard FTP service accessible from the ECaccess gateway. This is
known as a "genericFtp" destination and is the most convenient way of getting the files to the system you
want, under the specified user ID. 2 - The server running the ECaccess gateway. This is known as a
"genericFile" destination. All users will share in a common directory the files transferred using this
destination. 3 - Member State servers running a proprietary application. The administrator provides
ectrans with the implementation of the access protocol. The administrator can also use more complex rules
to define special target locations for ECMWF users, Member State users or groups of Member State users.
The command "ectinfo" described in the next section can be used to get the translated URL of a target
location, giving a Member State user identifier and a destination name (passwords are displayed as ***).

Commands
In the DESCRIPTION section you will find the ECtrans Association and Transfer Management commands which
can be used to manage the ECtrans Associations and associated Transfers.

EVENTS

       ECMWF maintains some notifications (events) which are linked to ECMWF's operational activity and offers
       the service for time-critical jobs. This service is also available to MS users who maintain their own
       notifications and can therefore create simple dependencies between different activities, at ECMWF and
       remote sites.

   Commands
       In the DESCRIPTION section you will find the Events Management commands which can be used to manage such
       Events.

DESCRIPTION