Synchronize Data Between Your Campus and ACCESS

Some research projects — particularly those with team members at multiple campuses — need to maintain copies of the project's data on a campus system and on an ACCESS system. You can automate this synchronization using Globus.

Perform an initial transfer between your campus and ACCESS

To synchronize data between your campus and ACCESS, you first need to transfer data between your project's campus data storage and your project's ACCESS data storage. Follow the instructions for transferring data with Globus, and make a copy of your project's data on your ACCESS storage (or on your campus storage, depending on where the data starts). Once you have a copy in both places, you're ready to set up synchronization.

Determine the synchronization direction(s)

  • If new data is produced only in one place and you need it to automatically appear in the other, you'll need synchronization in one direction only.
  • If new data is produced both on campus and on ACCESS, you'll need bi-directional synchronization: two repeating tasks, one in each direction.

Set up synchronization

Login to the Globus web app and locate the data source and the destination. (The source is where new data will appear; the destination is where the new data will be copied to.)

Setting up synchronization between campus and ACCESS storage in the Globus web app.
Figure 15. Setting up synchronization between campus and ACCESS. In this example, the folder “sequencer-data” will be synchronized from campus storage to ACCESS storage.

After selecting the source, destination, and folder to synchronize, click Transfer & Timer Options between the two Start buttons. Always check the “sync” box. If you don't, every file will be transferred every time the task runs, even if it's already on the destination.

Setting synchronization options to use file modification time.
Figure 16. Setting synchronization options to use file modification time.

Set options to transfer new files and files with a newer modification time on the source system, and to copy the modification time along with the file's contents. You can also set an option to terminate the transfer if a quota error is detected on the destination.

Setting options to repeat the synchronization every two hours until a specified end date.
Figure 17. Setting options to repeat the synchronization every two hours until a specified end date.

When you're finished setting options, click the Start button. Globus will confirm the timer task was submitted.

Globus confirming that the timer task was submitted successfully.
Figure 18. After clicking Start, Globus confirms that the timer task was submitted successfully.

For bi-directional synchronization, click the other Start button (the one with the arrow in the other direction) to create a second task with source and destination swapped.

Monitor synchronization

Your synchronization task will run according to the schedule you set. You'll receive an email notification each time the task runs. You can also view the task history in the Globus web app by clicking the Activity icon.

Clicking Activity to see recent Globus activity, including repeating synchronization tasks.
Figure 19. Click Activity to see recent Globus activity, including repeating synchronization tasks.
Viewing timers using the Timers tab on the Activity page.
Figure 20. View any timers you've created using the Timers tab on the Activity page.
The details page showing everything about a repeating task, including synchronization options.
Figure 21. The details page shows everything about a repeating task, including synchronization options.
The Timer Log tab displaying a list of each time the task has run.
Figure 22. The Timer Log tab displays a list of each time the task has run. Click “view task” to see details of a run.

Conclusion

It's easy to maintain a synchronized copy of your project's data in two or more locations. This can enable collaboration with research partners, facilitate automated data processing, or gather data from sources at multiple campuses. Once set up, the synchronization will happen automatically until your repeating schedule ends or you cancel the task.