FAQ

General Frequently Asked Questions

How do I obtain an HPSS account?

NCCS users are automatically given an HPSS account. The user’s login name for HPSS is the same as for all other NCCS systems. Authorization to HPSS is by means of the user’s SecurID token issued by the NCCS.

How do I access HPSS?

Users may access HPSS from any NCCS high-performance computing (HPC) system with the Hierarchical Storage Interface (HSI) utility.

What is HSI?

The HSI utility allows automatic authentication and provides a user-friendly command line and interactive interface to HPSS.

What is the best way to transfer a large number of small files?
What is the optimal transfer size?

HPSS performance is greatly improved when the transfer size is between 1 and 10 GB. For that reason, users with large numbers of relatively small files should combine those files into one or a few 1 GB to 10 GB files and then transfer the larger files. The files can be combined with tar on the HPC system, or they can be created on the fly with a command similar to tar cvf some_dir -|hsi put - : somedir.tar. This command will tar all files in the some_dir subdirectory into a file named somedir.tar on HPSS. HPSS also supports the htar command.

Can I use HSI in batch scripts?
Can HSI be set up so that I don’t have to enter my passcode?

Yes, we can set your account so that you do not need to enter a passcode to use HSI. This allows you to use HSI in batch scripts. Please note that if this is set up, anyone who gains access to your account will have access to all of your files on HPSS because a passcode isn’t required. If you would like to set this up, please contact the User Assistance Center.

Can I run HSI from my workstation?

Because HSI is a third-party package, clients may be available for your system; however, the NCCS currently supports access to HPSS only through HSI clients on the HPC systems.