Using WTS from a unix machine (& other useful cross-platform hints)



[Using WTS from a unix machine] [Accessing the geography unix system via WTS] [Java-based login to wts] [Copying files between the geography system and the College system]


Using WTS from a unix machine

The first time you want to use wts from a unix machine, you will need to type:
machine% wts-setup

After that, you should just need to type:

machine% wts &



And a window like this should appear:


The first time you do this, under the 'Tools' menu, select 'Settings'. Another window should then pop up:



Where there is a menu that says 'Preferences', select 'Drive Mapping'.

Select a drive that you do not use on wts (e.g. A: here), type in the name of your home directory (e.g. /home/zfcaxyz) and check the box to the right & click on the Apply buttoni, then the OK button:



This means that when you run wts, drive A: (or whatever you decide to use) will give you access to /home/zcfaxyz (or whatever you specified).

You can now start up wts:

Select 'Cluster WTS' on the original window (double click) and a wts window should appear for you to log into.



The Drive you have 'mapped' (A: here) should appear on 'My Computer'. This allows you one way to transfer files between the Geography UNIX system and your WTS account. It is not a good idea for large files, but will work fine for documents etc.

Some alternatives

Accessing the geography unix system via WTS

If you are on a wts computer you can access the unix computers in geography using some software called 'Exceed'. You have access to that from cluster WTS. The first time you use it, you will probably need to do:

Start->Programs->software E-L->Setup Exceed

Follow the instructions shown.
You should now have access to some exceed programs via:

Start->Programs->Exceed


The first time you do this, you cvan use the 'Client Wizard' to connect to the geography system. Simply follow the instructions.
You will want to enter the name of one of the geography machines as 'Host' (e.g. lyon.geog.ucl.ac.uk or berlin.geog.ucl.ac.uk - but dont all choose the same machine!) & set the 'Host Type' to SUN (NB ... remember to include the .geog.ucl.ac.uk part - I forgot it in this illustration!!).



On the next screen, set the 'method' as RLOGIN:



Defaults on the next ...



Then your geography login and password on the next one...



You should probably click the 'RUN' button to test the setup. Otherwise (or afterwards) 'Next' your way through to the end.

You should see a link that shows something like:



When you click on this, a terminal on berlin (or wherever else you specified) will appear & you can work pretty much as if you were sat on one of the unix machines directly.

If this doesn't appear to work (i.e. nothing happens or it compains about some fault) the most likely explanation is that display permissions aren't set correctly. To fix this, click on the Xconfig program under Exceed then double click on Security. The best way to sort this is to add the name of the machine you want to log onto into the 'host access control list'. Click the 'edit' button for the file 'xhost.txt' and put the name of the machine you want at the bottom of the list. Save the file and quit the editor. Click OK on the 'security' box & close any Exceed session that might be running. When you click on your xterm icon again, it should start up fine. If you still have problems, double check all the settings. One other thing you could try would be to remove host access control (on the Security box, select 'disabled' (any host access). This is not normally a good idea as it will allow anyone to pop up unix X windows on your desktop, but if it temporarily solves the problem use it & ask the help desk to sort it out better with you.

Java-based login to wts

If you are using a java-enabled browser (from anywhere in the world) you can log into your wts account by going to:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/wts/java and clicking on an appropriate button. This should ask you whether you want to do 'drive mapping' (or the equivalent of). Note that if you are on a computer in another place than the unix lab, the 'mapped' drive will be one local to the computer you are on. There are additional notes on http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/wts/java concerning how to download and set using WTS from home or elsewhere (should you not want to use the java client).

Copying files between the geography system and the College system (wts to you)

From wts: Under Start->Programs->Software S-Z->SSH Secure Shell, you should find a windows program called 'Secure File Transfer Client'. If you run this, you can enter the name of one of the geography Department unix machines (and your username on that system) into the box:




Click the 'Connect' button, then 'Yes' if you are asked a question. Then enter your (geography) password. This should then give you access through a visual browser to files on your geography unix computer. You can simply drag and drop them on the wts machine.

A similar alternative available to you includes WinSCP.

Alternatively, you may simply be able to type:

sftp://ucfaxyz@lyon.geog.ucl.ac.uk
into a browser for it to start an ftp session for you.

From the Geography unix machinesThe UCL system includes not only PCs running WTS but various other computers as well. One of these you have access to is called socrates (socrates.ucl.ac.uk to give it its full address). This is a unix computer, the filestore for which is available to you as the R: drive on wts.

You can directly log into this computer, or, more usefully here, use the sftp software to directly copy files from your (geography) unix account to your ucl unix account (i.e. to the R: drive as you see it from wts).

To achieve this, in a window on the geography computers, type:


machine% cd ~/Data
Change directory into wherever you want to send files from or to.

machine% sftp socrates.ucl.ac.uk

[N.B. if your username is different on the two systems, you will need to type sftp ucfaxyz@socrates.ucl.ac.uk]

You may be asked a question 'Are you sure ...' to which you should answer yes.

You will then be prompted for your password (your WTS password!!) and an sftp prompt should appear:

sftp>

You should then change directory to where you want to copy the files from/to on socrates (you can use several standard unix commands to navigate, e.g. rm, ls, pwd, cd, mkdir - to run commands such as ls on the 'original' machine, put an exclamation mark before the command (e.g. !ls)):

mkdir newStuff

cd newStuff
You can now copy files between the two computers using the command 'put' and 'get', e.g.:
put /data/rsu_raid_0/plewis/x.dat /nfs/fs-f/UM0042/Uucfa6/ucfalew/newStuff/x.dat
will copy the file /data/rsu_raid_0/plewis/x.dat on the geography system to /nfs/fs-f/UM0042/Uucfa6/ucfalew/newStuff/x.dat on the ucl system. Normally, you will have cd'd into the directory you are interested on on both computers, so you can simply type:

put x.dat

You 'get' files from socrates to the geography computer using 'get'. If you want to copy multiple files, use mput or mget with wildcards as appropriate.

Type 'quit' or 'exit' to leave the sftp session.