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Transfer Data with Standard Utilities

In these examples, suppose you want to transfer the file /home/cloudtmp/emem.mat to the folder /shared/persisted on the headnode of your cloud cluster. Instead of providing passwords, you use an SSH key identity file, which is the private key file you download from a cloud center cluster as described in Download SSH Key Identity File.

This section highlights only a few of the many file transfer utilities that are available.

SFTP

The sftp utility is a command-line interactive interface, similar to ftp, that lets you connect to a remote host, navigate its file system, and transfer files. The following example shows how to use sftp at a UNIX command prompt:

cd /home/cloudtmp
sftp -i /home/.ssh/your-key.pem \
  clouduser@ec2-67-202-5-207.compute-1.amazonaws.com:/shared/persisted
sftp> put emem.mat
sftp> ls
emem.mat
sftp> exit

To transfer folders instead of individual files, add the -r option for recursive copy. For more information about the sftp utility, use the following commands:

sftp -help
man sftp

SCP

The scp utility lets you access the remote host, and transfer the file, in a single command. This example shows the UNIX version of the command:

scp -i /home/.ssh/your-key.pem emem.mat \
  clouduser@ec2-67-202-5-207.compute-1.amazonaws.com:/shared/persisted

To transfer folders instead of individual files, add the -r option for recursive copy. For more information about the scp utility, use the following commands:

scp -help
man scp

FileZilla

FileZilla is a GUI utility which lets you connect to the cloud cluster head node and transfer files with an easy drag-and-drop technique. This example shows how to transfer the local file C:\cloudtmp\emem.mat to the folder /shared/persisted on your cloud cluster.

  1. Start FileZilla, and set its Local site to the folder you want to transfer your local file from (or to).

  2. To connect FileZilla to your cloud cluster file system, specify the host that is the head node of your cloud cluster. The user name is always clouduser. Use port 22 for SFTP connections.

  3. Do not provide a password, but instead provide your SSH key identity file under Edit > Settings. In the Select pane of the Settings dialog box, choose SFTP. In the Public Key Authentication pane, click Add keyfile. Navigate to the key file that you downloaded from the Cloud Center for this cluster. (Note: On Windows, the .pem format key file you download from Cloud Center is not directly compatible with FileZilla, but when you select that key file, FileZilla can automatically convert the format for you.) When the key file appears in the list, click OK to dismiss the Settings dialog box.

  4. When FileZilla is configured with the proper key file, click Quickconnect.

  5. After connecting, set the Remote site path to /shared/persisted.

  6. Now drag the file emem.mat from the local column to the remote column. That completes the transfer.

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