ECFS is ECMWF's File Storage system. ECFS is a file oriented client-server application, providing facilities to archive and retrieve files between your local workstation or server and the Data Handling System (DHS), which is based on HPSS (High Performance Storage System). The system is non-transparent: you must issue explicit commands to store files into ECFS, or to retrieve them back into local (client) storage.

ECFS files are stored in domains. Currently two domains are available to users.

The domain names shown above (ec:, ectmp:) are used in the various ECFS commands to indicate which domain you are working with.

Note that, as an alternative, the ectmp: domain can be referenced by ec:/TMP. Thus ectmp:/uid/newdir and ec:/TMP/uid/newdir are equivalent:

Files copied into ECFS are first stored on disk within ECFS and then on to magnetic tape. When a file is retrieved from ECFS it is first copied from tape on to cache disk within ECFS, then to the client system. Thus multiple retrieves of the same file will require only one read from tape, all subsequent copies being satisfied from the disk cache.

ECFS supports the transport of files between various clients and the ECFS storage system. However, the transport of files between clients is not supported.

ECFS is available on AIX, Linux and other platforms, and supports C- , Korn- and bash-shell environments.

Files transferred between a client and ECFS storage can be up to 32 GB in size.

If an ECFS command fails due to a recoverable error (HPSS down, network problems, etc.), the ECFS client will retry the command until it succeeds.

ECaccess allows users to transfer files between their remote host and an ECFS domain at ECMWF.

ECFS commands

The Unix style of file interface has been adopted by ECFS:

• files are mapped to a Unix-compatible directory tree
• either absolute and relative pathnames can be used
• there is a current ECFS working directory, analogous to the Unix current working directory $PWD
• limited wildcard support is provided.

In ECFS the well-known Unix file management commands simply become:

els, erm, ermdir, emkdir, ecd, epwd, echmod, echgrp, ecp, emv (and emove), ecat, etest, etouch and eumask.

In addition the following ECFS commands are available:

ecfsdir, ecfs_status

All available ECFS commands are described in more detail in the relevant man pages:

ecat - Copy files between a domain and STDIN/STDOUT

ecd - Change the current ECFS working directory

ecfs_status - Get status on ECFS usage

ecfsdir - Archive or retrieve a complete UNIX directory as one ECFS file

echgrp - Change the group ownership of an ECFS file or directory

echmod - Change the permissions of a ECFS file or directory

ecp - Copy files across ECFS domains, including UNIX

els - List ECFS files

emkdir - Create empty ECFS directories

emove - Rename files or directories within an ECFS domain

emv - Move files across ECFS domains, including UNIX

epwd - Display the current ECFS working directory for the relevant domain

ermdir - Remove empty ECFS directories

erm - Remove ECFS files

etest - Check file types and compare file attributes

etouch - Change file timestamps

eumask - Change the current ECFS umask

Backup support

By default files saved in ECFS will not have a backup copy created.

If you want to protect essential data (that cannot easily be regenerated should the primary copy become unreadable) by creating a backup copy, you have to specify the option -b on the ecp and emv commands!

The existence of backup copies will be indicated by the first character of the els -l output:

- for files with no secondary copy;
b for files with a secondary copy.

e.g.

 br--r----- 1 uid group 510 Nov 19 2012 essential_data
 -r--r----- 1 uid group 510 Nov 19 2012 unimportant_data

NOTE: Files are removed from ECFS with a soft-delete: files will still be kept for some time (currently 30 days) during which it will be possible, on request, to un-delete any file that was removed/deleted by mistake. After that period any removal will become permanent, irrespective of the existence of backup copies.

Archive usage monitoring

The ecfs_status command will give you the most recent status on ECFS usage for your default project account.

To get an overview on your ECFS usage, you can also refer to the audit files ec:ecfs_audit and/or ectmp:ecfs_audit.tmp which are created once per month and contain a complete list of your files in each ECFS domain.

Using ECFS in scripts

All ECFS commands specifying a single operation return the value 0 if successful, and an error code > 0 otherwise. However, as with Unix, ECFS commands may specify a number of operations, either due to multiple arguments or to wildcard expressions. In such cases, ECFS will always attempt to carry out all operations, even if some intervening operations are not successful. If all such operations for a command are successful, the return code will be 0; if some of the operations are not successful, the return code will be 1; if fatal errors are incurred, the entire command is discontinued, and the error number > 1 is returned with an explanatory message.

Error handling

The following techniques are suggested for trapping ECFS error codes when running batch scripts in the Korn shell environment:

Set a trap for the entire script:

trap " echo ECFS call exited with RC= \$? " ERR

or catch any errors on each call:

set +e
ecp nofile ec:
RC=$?
set -e
if [ $RC -gt 0 ]
  then
  echo " ECFS call exited with RC= $RC"
fi

DOs and DON'Ts

• ECFS is most efficient at handling a small number of large files. Thus DO tar and compress (or gzip) many small files into one large file when archiving (say) a directory or use the ecfsdir command.
  DON'T archive many small files separately.
• DON'T copy in/out the same files frequently.
• If you wish to archive files for a short period only (less than 90 days) DO store them in the ectmp: domain. Then they will be automatically deleted after 90 days without any further action from you.

• Check the existence of a local copy before getting the ECFS version of a file:

  #!/bin/ksh if [ ! -r $SCRATCH/myfile ] then ecp ec:myfile $SCRATCH/. fi

  #!/bin/csh if ( ! -r $SCRATCH/myfile ) then ecp ec:myfile $SCRATCH/. endif

• If it is required to store a large number ( > 5000) of files into ECFS then DO contact User Support in advance to discuss the most efficient way to store/retrieve this large number.