.. _data_access:

Data access
===========

This section  describes how to access each user's data storage directory remotely to upload or download files.
The storage is made avaiable using Simple Storage Service (S3) standard storage interface. 

The documentation below shows how to access the storage using the command line tool.
See :ref:`s3_winscp` for instructions on using WinSCP as user interface (only on Windows).

`CyberDuck <https://cyberduck.io>`_ can also be used in OSX (using the Generic S3 HTTPS profile).


Install the Minio client
````````````````````````

In order to access the storage we need a dedicated command line
tool (in the same way we need e.g. the sftp executable to connect to a FTP server).
In our case we need to download the `MinIO Client <https://min.io/download>`_. The instructions vary
depending on the OS but the result is that you should have an ``mc`` excutable in your path.

Configure the IMAXT server
``````````````````````````

In order to access the data in the IMAXT server configure access typing:

.. code-block::

   mc alias set ioa https://imaxt.ast.cam.ac.uk:9000 username password

where `username` and `password` are your archive credentials. ``ioa`` is the alias to the server,
and can be anything you like that can be easily remembered.

Access the data
```````````````

The MinIO client `quickstart guide <https://docs.min.io/docs/minio-client-quickstart-guide.html>`_ lists all 
available commands. They resemble the typical Linux commands to operate with files.

In order to list the contents of the repository:

.. code-block::

    mc ls ioa

Copy data to your data storage:

.. code-block::

    mc cp image.tif ioa/eglez
    
Copy data to the **shared** data storage in the ``imaxt`` bucket:

.. code-block::

    mc cp image.tif ioa/imaxt/eglez

Copy data from your data storage to the local disk:

.. code-block::

    mc cp ioa/eglez/image.tif .