Cloud hosting & file transfer

Do-it-yourself

From the NeCTAR website you can read guides, support documentation and log in to the dashboard.

By selecting 'Victoria University' as your organisation you can log in using your VU AD username (starting with 'e' or 's') and password. If you have trouble logging in, see the Australian Access Federation (AAF) page.

You can contact the eResearch team to help you consider and apply for a project allocation.

Use the VU allocation

To use the VU research development allocation, please contact the eResearch team.

NeCTAR does not provide file storage or sharing as a desktop service, but it does provide storage for servers that you can use with sufficient IT knowledge.

For a Dropbox-like service, see Cloudstor+. For secure longterm storage or sharing files with VU staff and students we recommend using the VU R: drive.

However, the NeCTAR cloud has been used to collect data and create web-based collaboration environments.

Using the NeCTAR cloud yourself (do-it-yourself option) requires intermediate to expert IT system administration knowledge. If that's not for you then please contact the eResearch team to discuss further. Otherwise, here are a few tips:

• Generally speaking, you use images or snapshots to launch/start an instance (a running virtual machine) under a given project allocation. By default everyone has a 2 CPU allocation, a personal play space in which to run a server for up to 3 months.
• Use the NeCTAR Image Catalogue to determine what image to start with and if there are special instructions. NeCTAR supports Linux operating almost exclusively and only some Linux variants are guaranteed long term support.
• Make sure you've created a Security Group or changed the default to allow external access to the correct ports (e.g. 22 for SSH, 80 for HTTP) before launching any instances. This is like a network level firewall.
• Make sure you've imported an SSH public key or created an SSH key pair and saved it before launching any instances. You won't get a chance to set a root password, you must use SSH keys to access the instance once started.
• When launching an image remember to select your security group and your security key in the options.
• You'll need to use SSH and your private key to log in to the newly created server instance. Install and configure new packages at will using the command line.
• Server packages and data are not stored unless you take a Snapshot. Double check that all Snapshots complete. Terminating an instance generally results in loss of the operating system, package configurations and data.
• However, NeCTAR now supports persistent disk storage using volumes. An instance can be launched from a volume if it contains a boot disk or copy of a bootable image. Alternatively, a volume can be attached to a running instance as an extra disk. You can also snapshot a volume.
• Many problems on NeCTAR seem to result in your mounted disk going read-only. Performing a hard reboot on your instance will fix this problem.
• Server IP addresses on NeCTAR are randomly allocated for each new instance, so try not to hardcode these in applications or the operating system. If you require a host/server name, you'll need to use a separate DNS service or contact the eResearch team to discuss a VU domain.
• Rebooting an Image will preserve the current IP and the current disk state, so try hard rebooting first, not stopping and starting over.

From your browser you compose a short email message to one or more people and upload one large file. People are sent an email with a link to the file for access. The limitations are:

• 1 file at once (but you can zip)
• size up to 100GB
• up to 100 recipients
• files accessible for 20 days only
• older browsers sometimes have a 2GB limit (seems to work well with Firefox).

For more information see the AARNet website.

By selecting 'Victoria University' as your organisation you can log in using your VU username (starting with 'e' or 's') and password. If you have trouble logging in see the Australian Access Federation (AAF) page.

To receive a file via CloudStor the recipient simply clicks on the link provided in the email they receive.

Anyone can receive files. By default, only Australian university staff or students can send files, as we are all a part of the Australian Access Federation (AAF). If you need other collaborators to send you files (international, industry, non-university contacts), then speak with the eResearch team. We can provide them with a collaborator AAF account.

Depending on your network speed, uploading large files can take a long time. Some older browsers can get stuck with very large files. If you need to share many files frequently, or for longer periods of time, you should try either VU's R: Drive for internal sharing, or Cloudstor+ for external sharing.

To discuss your needs further, please speak with the eResearch team.