Frequently Asked Questions¶

When to follow the course¶

When should I follow this course?¶

When you want to transfer files.

When should I consider to not follow this course?¶

These are the reasons to consider to not follow this course:

Reason 1: you want to learn advanced things¶

When you have done your first file transfers and expect to learn new and more advanced things.

In this case, the course will go too slow for you.

However, you will probably be put to work by the teachers to help out other learners. If you like to test your own knowledge by teaching others, you will likely thrive in the course.

When you have social anxiety.

In this case, the course will be too social for you.

However, in this course, it is perfectly OK to give a wrong answer or to say 'I do not know'. This is what a former learner had to say on this:

You are welcome to try and leave anytime you want. The course material is made for self-study too, with videos for all exercises. Do fill in the evaluation when you leave early :-)

Prerequisites¶

Why are there so many prerequisites?¶

Because of constraints.

While planning the course, we started out with two hour to teach about login and filesystem navigation, and four hours to do actual fle transfer.

When the constraint was added that the course must be maximally three hours, it meant that we would teach what the course is about in the minority of the time. As teachers, we accepted this at first, and would only teach FileZilla and rsync.

However, then another constraint was added: there should be more file transfer tools discussed.

Instead of lecturing (we should not [Hattie, 2023]), we decided to add prerequisites instead

What are the prerequisites for following this course?¶

See prerequisites.

How can I check if I have registered?¶

You should have gotten a welcome email within a couple of days.

When it doubt, register another time :-)

How to find the course's Zoom room?¶

Want to see this in a video?

Watch the YouTube video NAISS File Transfer course: How to find the course's Zoom room?

Here is how to find the course's Zoom room. In total, these steps may take 2 days at minimum, due to multiple waiting steps:

Step 1: Register at SUPR.

After doing so, it may take one evening before you are registered. You will get an email when being registered.

Step 2: After registration, on SUPR, ask for membership of the course project NAISS 2025/22-717

After doing so, it may take some days being granted membership. You will get an email when being granted access.

Step 3: After having been granted membership on SUPR, activate your user accounts on Dardel and Tetralith. Tetralith is the HPC cluster that is recommended for this course.

After doing so, it may take some hours before your user account is activated. You will get an email when being granted access.

Step 4: Log in to your HPC cluster. Tetralith is the HPC cluster that is recommended for this course.
Step 5: On your HPC cluster, find the URL of the Zoom room

HPC cluster	Path to folder
Dardel	`/cfs/klemming/projects/supr/transfer_course/zoom_url.txt`
Tetralith	`/proj/transfer_course/zoom_url.txt`

How can I check if I have a NAISS account?¶

When you can login at https://supr.naiss.se/.

How does that look like?

It should look similar to this:

A user that logged into SUPR

This depends on the HPC cluster you are using.

How does that look like on UPPMAX's Rackham?

For UPPMAX's Rackham, it look similar to this:

Logged into Rackham

Follow the instructions of your favorite HPC center or the UPPMAX instruction

Below is an overview with documentation and videos. For beginners: use the bold login method.

HPC cluster	Login method	Documentation	YouTube video
Alvis	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Alvis	Website	Documentation	YouTube video
Bianca	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Bianca	Website	Documentation	YouTube video
COSMOS	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
COSMOS	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Dardel	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
Dardel	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Kebnekaise	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
Kebnekaise	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Kebnekaise	Website	Documentation	YouTube video
LUMI	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Pelle	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Pelle	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
Pelle	Website	Documentation	YouTube video
Rackham	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
Rackham	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video
Rackham	Website	Documentation	YouTube video
Tetralith	Local ThinLinc client	Documentation	YouTube video
Tetralith	SSH	Documentation	YouTube video

Probably: yes

Using a website: yes
Using a local ThinLinc client: yes

How to install MobaXterm?¶

This is for Windows users only.

Install MobaXterm from the MobaXterm website.

How to check that I've installed MobaXterm?¶

Run it. If it shows up, you've installed MobaXterm.

I cannot install MobaXterm on my Windows computer

Use the Command prompt. Use it by typing cmd in the Windows Search window.

How to install rsync?¶

This is for Linux and Mac users only.

For Linux, in a terminal, run:

sudo apt install rsync

For Mac, in a terminal, run:

brew rsync

Windows¶

Try rsync from MobaXterm.
If you haven't got MobaXterm, type cmd in the Windows Search window and start Windows Command Prompt.
- Try rsync from here.

Still doesn't work?

According to this post, for Windows 11, in a terminal, run:

pacman -S rsync

How to check that I've installed `rsync`?¶

In a terminal, type:

rsync --version

If you see the rsync version displayed, you've installed rsync.

How does that look like?

Your output will look similar to this:

richel@richel-N141CU:~$ rsync --version
rsync  version 3.2.7  protocol version 31
Copyright (C) 1996-2022 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.
Web site: https://rsync.samba.org/
Capabilities:
    64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
    socketpairs, symlinks, symtimes, hardlinks, hardlink-specials,
    hardlink-symlinks, IPv6, atimes, batchfiles, inplace, append, ACLs,
    xattrs, optional secluded-args, iconv, prealloc, stop-at, no crtimes
Optimizations:
    SIMD-roll, no asm-roll, openssl-crypto, no asm-MD5
Checksum list:
    xxh128 xxh3 xxh64 (xxhash) md5 md4 sha1 none
Compress list:
    zstd lz4 zlibx zlib none
Daemon auth list:
    sha512 sha256 sha1 md5 md4

rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  See the GNU
General Public Licence for details.

How to install FileZilla?¶

Under Ubuntu, you can can use the Ubuntu App Center.

How does the Ubuntu App Center look like?

Here:

FileZilla in the Ubuntu App Center

For non-Ubuntu users, search the web, download and install.

Where can I find it?

The FileZilla website can be found at https://filezilla-project.org/.

Clicking on 'Download FileZilla client' takes you to the FileZilla download page at https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client.

Download the file, maybe unzip it and run the installer

How to check that I've installed FileZilla?¶

Run it. If it shows up, you've installed FileZilla.

What if I cannot install FileZilla?¶

Here is a decision tree which program to install:

flowchart TD

  can_use_filezilla[Can you use FileZilla?]
  can_install_filezilla[Can you install FileZilla?]
  have_windows[Do you have Windows?]
  can_use_winscp[Can you use WinSCP?]
  can_install_winscp[Can you install WinSCP?]

  can_use_filezilla --> |No| can_install_filezilla
  can_install_filezilla --> |No| have_windows
  have_windows --> |No| cli_tool
  can_use_winscp --> |No| can_install_winscp
  can_install_winscp --> |No| cli_tool

  can_use_filezilla --> |Yes| filezilla
  can_install_filezilla --> |Yes| filezilla
  have_windows --> |Yes| can_use_winscp
  can_use_winscp --> |Yes| winscp
  can_install_winscp --> |Yes| winscp


  subgraph graphical_tools[Graphical tools]
  filezilla[Use FileZilla]
  winscp[Use WinSCP]
  end

  subgraph command_line_tools[Command-line tools]
  cli_tool[Use a command-line tool]
  end

So, if you can install WinSCP, see how to install WinSCP. Else, you will have to pick your favorite command-line tool, following the decision tree here:

flowchart TD

  practice_scp[Do you want to practice scp more?]
  can_install_rsync[Can you install rsync?]

  practice_scp --> |Yes| scp
  practice_scp --> |No| can_install_rsync

  can_install_rsync --> |Yes| rsync
  can_install_rsync --> |No| sftp

  scp
  rsync
  sftp

So:

if you want to practice scp more, go the session about scp
if you can install rsync (i.e. you can install software and you do not have the Windows operating system), see how to install rsync, then go the session about rsync
else, go the session about sftp

Which HPC clusters have FileZilla installed?¶

HPC Cluster	Has FileZilla installed?
Alvis	Yes
Berzelius	Unknown, as this is not a NAISS cluster
Bianca	No
COSMOS	No
Dardel	No
Kebnekaise	Unknown, as this is not a NAISS cluster
LUMI	No
Pelle	No
Rackham	Yes
Tetralith	No
Vera	Unknown, as this is not a NAISS cluster

How to install WinSCP?¶

WinSCP is a secure file transfer tool that works under Windows.

WinSCP

How to check that I've installed WinSCP?¶

Run it. If it shows up, you've installed WinSCP.

Which HPC clusters have WinSCP installed?¶

None! All covered clusters are Linux machines!

How can I check if I have a good Zoom setup?¶

You are in a room where you can talk
You talk into a (standalone or headset) microphone
Others can clearly hear you when you talk
Others can see you
You can hear others clearly when they talk

How can I get a good Zoom setup?¶

Find/schedule/book a room where you can talk
Buy a simple headset

What if I don't have a good Zoom setup? Is that OK?¶

No.

You will feel left out, as the course in highly interactive. It would be weird to the other learners.

Teaching¶

Why is the course learner-centered?¶

Because that is good teaching.

This course defines good teaching as 'evidence-based methods to let learners acquire new skills and the monitoring of this acquisition'. This means that it should be observed that learners need more/less to time to practice and following the schedule based on that. Learner-centered teaching has an effect size from 0.36 [Hattie ranking] or 0.64/0.70 [Cornelius-White, 2007][Hattie, 2012].

Website¶

Why is the repository owner `UPPMAX` instead of NAISS?¶

Because NAISS does not have a GitHub owner page yet.

References¶

[Cornelius-White, 2007] Cornelius-White, Jeffrey. "Learner-centered teacher-student relationships are effective: A meta-analysis." Review of educational research 77.1 (2007): 113-143.
[Hattie, 2023] Hattie, John. Visible learning: The sequel: A synthesis of over 2,100 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge, 2023. The effect size of lecturing can be found on page 363, which has an effect size of -0.26 with a robustness index of 4 out of 5 and is based on 3 meta analyses using 273 studies using 27,296 people, measuring for 614 effects with a standard error of 0.08. One example open access study is [Knight & Wood, 2005].
[Hattie ranking] The Hattie Ranking
[Knight & Wood, 2005] Knight, Jennifer K., and William B. Wood. "Teaching more by lecturing less." Cell biology education 4.4 (2005): 298-310. paper