Mod:Hunt Research Group/hpc Directory on desktop
Mounting your HPC directories on your Mac Desktop
Use the supplied Mac functionality
has not worked for me!
Click on a finder window.
Click the "Go" heading at the top of your screen
Select the last item "connect to server"
If you username is zx616 then in the server address put smb://rds.imperial.ac.uk/RDS/user/zx616
click the "+" to add this to your list of favourite servers
click the "connect" button
From inside the college
follow the instructions in the "Accessing data from your personal computer" section link
You can use the command line interface to mount the disk
create a file in your bin directory, for example "load_cx1"
inside this file have:
#!/bin/bash # sshfs username@login.cx1.hpc.ic.ac.uk:/rds/general/user/username/home ~/Mount/cx1 -o volname=cx1
replace username with your login create a directory in your home directory called Mount/cx1 this will connect your cx1 directory to the directory "Mount/cx1" when this works the directory image changes to a little "disk" symbol
run the command from a terminal as "load_cx1"
if you get errors related to cannot find the server etc, set-up a public-private key pair, then try again
You can also try 3rd party software the following is mostly historical
Each drive/connection you mount creates a persistant connection between your computer and the HPC login server. And if you open too many connections, this could cause a lot of unhappy people in HPC if you forget to unmount these connections.
To unmount your drive, simply right click on the desktop icon and "Eject" the virtual drive.
One option is MountainDuck but I have found it unstable and it hangs a lot (really I mean all the time) https://mountainduck.io
Another option is OSXFUSE from http://osxfuse.github.io
- When you install check “MacFuse Compatibility Layer” otherwise it will not work
Using OSXFUSE if your OS is post-Sierra
The security options are much tighter and unfortunately MacFusion (see below) will not work
Download and install the SSHFS module (available from the FUSE for OS X page).
Create a folder on your Mac to use as a mount point, since I'm going to mount a directory from the computer XX, I've made a directory called XX
mkdir /User/Tricia/Mount/XX"
Then type something like the following
sshfs tricia@XX.ch.ic.ac.uk:/Users/tricia/Work ~/Mount/XX
where the command is very like ssh
- tricia is my login account
- XX.ch.ic.ac.uk is the remote computers name
- "/Users/tricia/Work" is the directory I want to mount from the remote computer
- a simple "/" mounts the whole disk!
- ~/Mount/XX is the path to the directory I just made, this is where the directory will be mounted
What will appear is a directory replacing XX with "OSXFUSE Volume 0 (sshfs)"
You can unmount the disk by using "command E" ie eject disk
If you get connect errors, set up a public-private key pair and try again.
Using OSXFUSE if your OS is pre-Sierra
download MacFusion from http://macfusionapp.org
Using Macfusion:
1. Open Macfusion.app (in your ~/Applications folder)
2. To add a connection, click on the "+" button on the bottom left and select "SSHFS"
3. Enter the information required for your login
4. Keep the remaining settings as their default
5. Macfusion will mount each connection as a virtual drive. To change the name of the mounted drive, select the "Macfusion" tab and enter your desired name into "Volume Name:"
6. Click OK and you should see your newly added connection in the main window. Select the "Mount" option to mount your drive.
7. On your first attempt to mount the drive, MacFusion will ask for permission to access your password. Click "Always Allow" to avoid seeing this popup on subsequent connections.
8. When the drive is successfully mounted, it should turn green with the option to unmount it.
9. You can access your drive via the icon on your desktop.
