Transfer Tool User Guide
2026-Jun - in development
Overview
The eResearch Transfer Tool provides a web-based frontend that can both generate archives and their metadata of research data, and transfer these directly between eResearch storage systems
It is available at https://transfer.erc.monash.edu/
The aim with the Transfer Tool is to allow you to move data between any two servers (SSH/SFTP servers) without having to transfer it via your computer and without having to use the command line.
Setup
The Transfer Tool copies data via SFTP, using SSH certificates. In order to use the tool, the user's account must trust the issuing certificate authority, and on some systems this will require adding an explicit line to their authorized_keys file
Usage
If you click the Login button things should be self explanatory: You'll see two panes, and each pane has a dropdown menu to select a server. After you select a server you can click on files and directories, click their tickbox to select and click the archive or copy buttons. You can also do all the other things you would expect to do (alter file permissions, create or delete directories etc)
The archive button will prompt you to enter information about the directory you are archiving (title description etc) and will create a .tar.bz2 archive file on the remote server. It will keep a copy of that information along with a list of all the files and their sizes outside of the archive so you can see what's in an archive without actually opening the archive.
The copy button will simply copy the directory verbatim, no extra metadata.
Once you've started an archive or a copy you can safely close your computer and walk away. Everything will continue in the background.
eResearch recommend that if you are putting data onto RDS Vault because you are no longer actively working on it that you use the archive option. Conversely if you are transferring data to the M3 HPC for processing that you use the copy option.
All feedback on functionality or change to the UX is welcome.