Using scp at NERSC

Secure Copy (scp) is used to securely transfer files between two hosts using the Secure Shell (ssh) protocol.

!!! tip Scp is suggested for smaller files (<~10GB), otherwise use Globus.

To transfer files into/out of NERSC using scp, you need an ssh client. On Linux/Unix and MacOS these should be installed by default, but on Windows you will need a GUI tool such as WinSCP.

Usage

Get a file from Data Transfer Node

shell scp user_name@dtn01.nersc.gov:/remote/path/myfile.txt /local/path

Send a file to Data Transfer Node

shell scp /local/path/myfile.txt user_name@dtn01.nersc.gov:/remote/path

Use a pre-existing ssh key (like one made by sshproxy)

shell scp -i ~/.ssh/nersc user_name@dtn01.nersc.gov:/remote/path/myfile.txt /local/path

Using tar+ssh

When you want to transfer many small files in a directory, we recommend Globus. If you don’t wish to use Globus, you can consider using ssh piped with tar.

Send a directory to Data Transfer Node:

shell tar cz /loca/path/dirname | ssh user_name@dtn01.nersc.gov tar zxv -C /remote/path

Get a directory from Data Transfer Node:

shell ssh user_name@dtn01.nersc.gov tar cz /remote/path/dirname | tar zxv -C /local/path