CRSP clients

Depending on your laptop there are a few clients that can be installed.

Please note that RCIC does not provide Windows OS or macOS support for the campus. If there is an operating system related issue, RCIC will refer you to you get support to address your systems issue first before installing CRSP Desktop.

For issues with clients please see CRSP Troubleshooting

CRSP Desktop App for macOS 

The CRSP Desktop for macOS is a licensed and branded version of the generic Mountain Duck link:https://mountainduck.io/[Mountain Duck] product. product. It allows you to map one or more CRSP drives or file paths to a folder on your Mac.

System Requirements

Supported Operating System

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Monterey / Mojave /

Catalina / Big Sur / Ventura

Intel or ARM (Apple Silicon) Processor

8 GB of memory

1 GB of disk space

Download Desktop App 

Important

You must either be on the campus network or connected to the UCI campus VPN to download the installers.

Important

UCI pays a per-seat license for CRSP Desktop. Please do not share your downloaded copy of CRSP Desktop Installer with anyone.

Important

If you have a different (previous or newer) version of the CRSP Desktop (or Mountain Duck), you need to uninstall it.

Download Step 1:: Using your choice of the web browser login to the CRSP File Browser * using your UCNetID and passwordd, follow with DUO authentication:

Figure 1: Login using your UCI credentials
Download Step 2:: After a successful authentication in the CRSP File Browser window under Files tab click on the software:

Figure 2: CRSP web browser top level
Download Step 3:: After software opens click on the CRSP-Desktop folder. Select CRSP-Desktop-Mac.zip (this means click on a little square icon left of the file name, it will become checked) and then click Download to download the file. Note, the menu with Download will appear only after you select the file:

Figure 3: Select file to download
Download Step 4:: You may see a pop-ip window asking to allow the download, click Allow:

Figure 4: Confirm download

Install Desktop App 

Install Step 1:

Find the downloaded file, depending on your Mac configuration, the file is in your Downloads folder or in your Desktop:

downloaded crsp desktop app — Figure 5: Downloaded CRSP Desktop app

Install Step 2:

Double-click on the downloaded file name to launch the installation. You will see a confirmation window, click Open:

confirm opening download app — Figure 6: Confirm opening of CRSP Desktop app

Congratulations! CRSP Desktop is now installed in your system!

Add New Shares 

You are not limited to just a single, mapped, space. To create a new share, click Open Connection to create a new template and edit it following the directions above.

The following figure shows 3 configured shares:

multiple shares — Figure 12: Multiple Shares confgured

CRSP Desktop App for Windows 

The CRSP Desktop for Windows is a licensed and branded version of the generic Mountain Duck link:https://mountainduck.io/[Mountain Duck] product. product. It allows you to map one or more CRSP drives or file paths to a folder on your PC.

System Requirements

Supported Operating System

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Windows Windows 8 / Windows 10 / Windows 11

Pentium Class Processor

4 GB of memory (8 GB recommended)

1 GB of disk space

Download Desktop App 

Important

You must either be on the campus network or connected to the UCI campus VPN to download the installers.

Important

UCI pays a per-seat license for CRSP Desktop. Please do not share your downloaded copy of CRSP Desktop Installer with anyone.

Important

If you have a different (previous or newer) version of the CRSP Desktop (or Mountain Duck), you need to uninstall it.

Download Step 1:: Using your choice of the web browser login to the CRSP File Browser * using your UCNetID and passwordd, follow with DUO authentication:

Figure 1: Login using your UCI credentials
Download Step 2:: After a successful authentication in the CRSP File Browser window under Files tab click on the software:

Figure 2: CRSP web browser top level
Download Step 3:: After software opens click on the CRSP-Desktop folder. Select CRSP-Desktop-Windows.exe (this means click on a little square icon left of the file name, it will become checked) and then click Download to download the file. Note, the menu with Download will appear only after you select the file:

Figure 3: Select file to download

Install Desktop App 

Install Step 1

By default, the file is downloaded in your Downloads folder. Find the downloaded file, double-click on it to launch the installation. This installation includes the licensed version of CRSP Desktop.

Install Step 2

In the opened window click Install to Install the CRSP Desktop on your laptop.

install downloaded app — Figure 4: Install the CRSP Desktop.

Install Step 3

After a successful installation, follow the instructions and click Restart to restart your computer:

restart computer — Figure 5: Restart your computer

Congratulations! CRSP Desktop is now installed in your system!

Add New Shares 

You are not limited to just a single, mapped, space. To create a new share, click Open Connection to create a new template and edit it following the directions above.

Here is an example with multiple connections configured and active:

multiple lab shares — Figure 11: Multiple Lab Shares

Configuring CRSP Annex 

Configuring CRSP Desktop to access data on CRSP ANNEX is very similar to configuring CRSP. However, instead of using the CRSP Lab as the connection type under panteater bookmark, you should instead select the SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol). Once you have done that, you can then:

Select the Server as crsp-annex.crsp.uci.edu

Select the path as /dfs3b/crsp/lab/<pi>

Recommend that you change the Nickname to something like: CRSP ANNEX <pi>

The following figure shows this set up for a particular user (ppapadop) and a particular pi (npw)

Web based File Browser 

A simple, easy to use File Browser is platform independent and is compatible with most web browsers.

Please note that File Browser is suitable only for lightweight use. We provide CRSP Desktop App for macOS and CRSP Desktop App for Windows for moderate to heavy use.

Important

Your system must be updated with the latest version of Google Chrome, or Firefox or Safari

Important

You must be registered and setup with UCI DUO

Logging in 

Using your choice of the web browser, login on https://access.crsp.uci.edu/myfiles

You will see a standard UCI Webauth login screen and will be prompted for UCINETID and password, followed by the prompts for DUO authentication:

standard webauth login — Figure 1: Standard Webauth Login

Once logged in, you will be presented with the CRSP top level screen. You can follow the links to your Lab areas (shared) or HOME area (private). The file browser will only show you folders for which you have access:

top level file browser — Figure 2: Top level File Browser

Important

We recommend that you do most work on CRSP in your lab area. Lab areas are flexible for sharing.

You can be granted access to multiple Lab areas, but only you will have access to your HOME area. HOME area is mainly used for files associated with the account, it is completely private area.

Navigating File Browser 

The File Browser is fairly easy to navigate, with some very basic sets of functions.

Create files or directories: Click on New dropdown button, select Text file or Folder. Refer to the screenshot below:

Figure 3: Create a new file or folder
Move files or directories: Select the file or folder, click on Move, and in a popup dialog box fill in the name of destination folder. Refer to the screenshot below:

Figure 4: Move file or folder
Delete files or directories: To delete one or more files or folders, select files or folders and click on the icon:trash[role=”red”] to delete selected files or/and folders. Refer to the screenshot below:

Figure 5: Delete file or folder
Upload/download files or directories: Files and folders could be uploaded using drag-n-drop capability in the file browser dashboard. Simply drag any file from your computer, an Upload button appears in the dashboard inline with the file name. Press Upload button, your file/folder will be uploaded via the file browser. Refer to the screenshot below:

Figure 6: Upload file/folder via drag-n-drop
In-browser file editing: To use this feature just click on the file, a text editor will open in a new browser tab. After completing edits, to save the edited file, select File Save. Refer to the screenshot below:

Figure 7: In-browser File Editing

Linux SSHFS 

This page illustrates how use sshfs on Linux laptops for accessing CRSP. Sshfs will Map CRSP Lab Share as a folder on your laptop.

Install sshfs 

On your laptop you will need super user (sudo) rights to install sshfs.

For CentOS based laptop

$ yum -y install sshfs

For Ubuntu/Debian based systems

$ apt-get -y install sshfs

Mount CRSP shares 

Important

You must either be on the campus network or connected to the UCI campus VPN to use sshfs.

In this example there are two variables:

username - Your UCNetID

labname - The UCNetID of the CRSP lab owner:

It is our UCNetID if you own CRSP Lab

It is the UCNetID of your adviser, If you are a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher

From your desktop or laptop, execute the following command replacing username and labname with the appropriate UCNetIDs:

$ cd ~
$ mkdir crsp_mount
$ sshfs -o ssh_command='ssh -A -X -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no' \
        -o idmap=user username@access.crsp.uci.edu:/mmfs1/crsp/lab/labname \
        ~/crsp_mount

As a result, sshfs mounts CRSP Lab share under ~/crsp_mount directory. Use any name of your choice in place of crsp_mount.

Sshfs will not automatically map all your remote UID and GID from all of your CRSP groups into your local Linux system. Note in the command above the use of -o idmap=user option. This will only present your primary UID/GID from the remote CRSP system to your local system.

As the campus does not have a centralized directory service to manage every systems, options on how to keep your local system and CRSP accounts synced are very limited.

Unmount CRSP shares 

To unmount the share that was mounted in the above example:

$ fusermount -u ~/crsp_mount

Using sshfs 

Examples of sshfs use:

Copy a file from your local system to your sshfs mounted drive

$ cp ~/dir1/file.tar.gz ~/crsp_mount/share/

Recursively copy a directory from local system to mounted CRSP share using rsync

$ rsync -rltv ~/dir1 ~/crsp_mount/share/

Access from HPC3 

On HPC3, CRSP shares are mounted in /share/crsp:

[user@login-x:~]$ ls /share/crsp
home  HOME-SNAPSHOTS  lab  LAB-SNAPSHOTS

home:: HOME area for all users accounts
HOME-SNAPSHOTS:: read-only access for HOME area snapshots
lab:: Lab area for all users accounts
LAB-SNAPSHOTS:: read-only access for LAB area snapshots

CRSP HOME 

User CRSP HOME area is /share/crsp/home/ucinetid:

it is a placeholder for login related files
it is not the same as your cluster account’s $HOME
Do not store anything in your CRSP HOME

File /share/crsp/home/ucinetid/quotas.txt in your CRSP HOME area provides information about quotas. Please see Quotas for details.

CRSP LAB 

LAB area is your primary storage area and is in /share/crsp/lab/ucinetid or any other LAB directories you have access for.

If you are a PI and it’s your lab

USERNAME

LABNAME

Mounted location

Who has read/write access

your

UCINetID

your

UCINetID

/share/crsp/lab/LABNAME

you can create any directories and files

/share/crsp/lab/LABNAME/USERNAME

your personal space

If you are added to a PI lab e.g., you are a student/postdoc in the lab

USERNAME

LABNAME

Mounted location

Who has read/write access

your

UCINetID

your PI

UCINetID

/share/crsp/lab/LABNAME/USERNAME

you and PI

/share/crsp/lab/LABNAME/share

all lab members

The following example shows the directory structure and permissions (# by) for a PI panteater who has a lab and added 2 students:

[user@login-x:~]$ ls -ld /share/crsp/lab/panteater
drwxr-x--T 3 panteater panteater    512 Mar  6 15:58 /share/crsp/lab/panteater

[user@login-x:~]$ ls -l /share/crsp/lab/panteater
drwx--S--- 2 panteater panteater_lab       2048 Jul 12 10:22 panteater # by PI
drwxrws--- 2 student1  panteater_lab        512 Apr 29 10:27 student1  # by student1/PI
drwxrws--- 2 student2  panteater_lab        512 Apr 29 10:27 student2  # by student2/PI
drwxrws--T 4 panteater panteater_lab_share  512 Nov  2  2020 share     # by all in lab

Moving data to CRSP 

Please see Data transfer for in-depth commands examples.

For example, to recursively copy your mydir/ directory from DFS6 to your LAB share on CRSP:

[user@login-x:~]$ rsync -rv /dfs6/pub/paneater/mydir /share/crsp/lab/panteater/