Start using Pixiu#

You can start using Pixiu once you have your Requesting Access and Creating a Bucket activated. To access a bucket located in Pixiu, you need to connect through a client application that supports the Amazon S3 protocol. There are many options on the market. We provide support for the solutions described here below. We recommend to use the VUB Pixiu Drive as it is the easiest solution.

In general for any client, you need the following info:

  • the hostname is pixiu.vub.be.

  • both path style and DNS style are supported.

  • both signature v2 and v4 are supported but preferably you use v4.

VUB Pixiu Drive#

VUB Pixiu Drive is a VUB branded version of Mountain Duck. It includes a license and a custom profile to connect to Pixiu. Once it is installed and configured, a link to your Pixiu resources will appear in the file browser of your system.

Download#

  1. Go to VUB Softweb

  2. Scroll down the page until you see VUB Pixiu Drive and click on it.

    ../../../_images/image2.jpg

    Note

    Alternatively, you can find VUB Pixiu Drive also in the Company Portal App on your desktop and directly install it from there.

  3. The description page of VUB Pixiu Drive will open. Read it and under Instructions, click on VUB - Sharepoint to download it.

    ../../../_images/image3.jpg

  4. Once the download page opens, pick the file corresponding to the operating system in your computer:

    • MS Windows: download the file with the .msi extension

    • Apple macOS: download the file with the .pkg extension

    ../../../_images/image4.jpg

Installation#

  • Download the VUB Pixiu Drive for macOs from VUB Softweb

  • Open the VUB Pixiu Drive pkg file by double clicking

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_macOs_1.png

  • Click Continue

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_macOs_2.png

  • Click Install

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_macOs_3.png

  • You will need to use Touch ID or provide your password

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_macOs_4.png

  • Your VUB Pixiu Drive client is now installed! You can close the installer.

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_macOs_5.png

  • Move the installer to the Trash

  • Download the VUB Pixiu Drive for Windows from VUB Softweb

  • Open the VUB Pixiu Drive msi file by double clicking

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_windows_1.png

  • Click Yes to install

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_installer_windows_2.png

  • The VUB Pixiu Drive client is now being installed. There is no notification after the installation.

  • You can now open the VUB Pixiu Drive client

Configuring the client#

This will guide you through the configuration of the VUB Pixiu Drive client.

  • Open the VUB Pixiu Drive client from Applications, a VUB icon will appear in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen.

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_macOs_1.png

    Note

    If you have a lot of icons it is possible that the VUB Pixiu Drive icon is hidden, try changing to an app with less menu items at the top (like Firefox)

  • Click on the VUB icon in the Menu Bar and then on Open Connection

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_macOs_2.png

  • Complete the profile and add your Access Key and Secret Access Key

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_macOs_3.png

  • Click Connect

    Note

    Make sure you are on campus or connected through the VPN of VUB, otherwise it is not possible to connect to Pixiu.

  • Optional You can add the secret to your keychain when prompted

  • The VUB Pixiu Drive will now have mounted a new location in Finder

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_macOs_4.png

  • Your client is now configured, you can see all the buckets in your account.

  • Open the VUB Pixiu Drive client from the start menu, a VUB icon will appear in the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen.

  • If you have a lot of icons it is possible that the VUB Pixiu Drive icon is hidden, click on the little arrow to show all the icons

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_windows_1.png

  • Click on the VUB icon in the Task Bar and then on Open Connection

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_windows_2.png

  • Complete the profile and add your Access Key and Secret Access Key

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_windows_3.png

  • Click Connect

    Note

    Make sure you are on campus or connected through the VPN of VUB, otherwise it is not possible to connect to Pixiu.

  • The VUB Pixiu Drive will now have mounted a new drive location in windows explorer

    ../../../_images/vub_pixiu_drive_config_windows_4.png

  • Your client is now configured, you can see all the buckets in your account.

Cyberduck#

The Cyberduck installer is a custom version of Cyberduck. It includes a license and a custom profile to connect to Pixiu.

Download#

  1. We provide a custom installer of Cyberduck on VUB Softweb

  2. Click on Cyberduck

    ../../../_images/image5.jpg

    Note

    Alternatively, you can find Cyberduck also in the Company Portal App on your desktop and directly install it from there.

  3. The description page of Cyberduck will open. Read it and under Instructions, click on VUB - Sharepoint to download it.

    ../../../_images/image6.jpg

  4. Once the download page opens, pick the file corresponding to the operating system in your computer:

    • MS Windows: download the file with the .msi extension

    • Apple macOS: download the file with the .pkg extension

    ../../../_images/image7.jpg

Installation#

  • Download Cyberduck from VUB Softweb

  • Open the Cyberduck pkg file by right clicking on the installer and selecting open

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_macOs_0.png
    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_macOs_1.png

  • Click Continue

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_macOs_2.png

  • Click Install

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_macOs_3.png

  • You will need to use Touch ID or provide your password

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_macOs_4.png

  • Your Cyberduck client is now installed! You can close the installer.

  • Download Cyberduck from VUB Softweb

  • Open the Cyberduck msi file by double clicking

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_windows_1.png

  • Click Yes to install (the publisher is unknown because we made modifications to the installer ourselves)

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_installer_windows_2.png

  • The Cyberduck client is now being installed. There is no notification after the installation.

  • You can now open the Cyberduck client

Configuring the client#

This will guide you through the configuration of the custom Cyberduck client.

  • Open the Cyberduck client from Applications

  • Click Open when asked if you want to open an app that has been downloaded from the internet

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_1.png

  • Click Open Connection

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_2.png

  • Click on the protocol list

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_3.png

  • Select VUB Pixiu at the bottom of the list (you may need to scroll down)

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_4.png

  • Complete the profile and add your Access Key and Secret Access Key

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_5.png

  • Click Connect

    Note

    Make sure you are on campus or connected through the VPN of VUB, otherwise it is not possible to connect to Pixiu.

  • Optional You can add the secret to your keychain when prompted

  • Your client is now configured, you can see all the buckets in your account.

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_macOs_6.png

  • Open the Cyberduck client from the start menu

  • The first time you open the client, it might take some time to start up

  • Click Open Connection

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_windows_1.png

  • Click on the protocol list

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_windows_2.png

  • Select VUB Pixiu at the bottom of the list (you may need to scroll down)

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_windows_3.png

  • Complete the profile and add your Access Key and Secret Access Key

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_windows_4.png

  • Click Connect

    Note

    Make sure you are on campus or connected through the VPN of VUB, otherwise it is not possible to connect to Pixiu.

  • Your client is now configured, you can see all the buckets in your account.

    ../../../_images/cyberduck_config_windows_5.png

S3cmd#

S3cmd is commandline tool to access S3 buckets. It is written in Python and can be used under Linux, Windows, Mac, … It is installed on Hydra for direct interaction between our HPC cluster and the Pixiu storage.

Installation#

As S3cmd is a multiplatform tool, the prefered installation may differ depending on your platform. The overview can be found at s3tools/s3cmd

But the most general and simple method is to use pip:

pip install s3cmd

Configuration#

The configuration settings of s3cmd have to be set in its configuration file. By default, it is located at ~/.s3cfg. The following configuration file contains the minimum settings needed by s3cmd to connect to Pixiu:

Example configuration file for S3cmd#
 [default]
 access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
 secret_key = YOUR_SECRET_KEY
 host_base = pixiu.vub.be
 host_bucket = %(bucket)s.pixiu.vub.be

If you are using S3cmd on Hydra, we recommend to add the following lines to increase the (upload) speed:

multipart_chunk_size_mb = 256

Usage#

View all your buckets, run:

s3cmd ls s3://

View a specific bucket:

s3cmd ls s3://mybucket/sub_directory/

Download a file:

s3cmd get s3://mybucket/file.txt

Upload a file:

s3cmd put file.txt s3://mybucket
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