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

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