Uploading Data with Mediaflux

Because Mediaflux supports a lot of protocols there are a lot of possible ways to upload and download your data.  Generally speaking you can either use a dedicated, secure Mediaflux HTTPS client (which provide the best data integrity guarantees) or you can use a more generic protocol such as sFTP with a third-party client or SMB to mount as a network drive.

Users can either be authenticated, or non-authenticated:

1. Authenticated: Those who have their own accounts (local or via the Australian Access Federation) and who can log in to Mediaflux.
2. Non-authenticated: Those who don't have accounts - here the users gains access via (usually temporary) secure tokens provisioned by somebody else. Of course, this mechanism can also work for users who have their own accounts as well - they just don't need those accounts in this instance.

Authenticated Users

This means you have an account and can log in directly to Mediaflux.  We recommend Mediaflux Explorer (HTTPS Protocol) for new users or small amounts of data and the Unimelb command-line clients for more advanced users and larger amounts of data.  The details on how to login with various protocols and interfaces are found in the List of all access methods.

Clients From Arcitecta

These clients are provided by Arcitecata, the vendor of Mediaflux.  They use the HTTPS protocol which provides the best data integrity guarantees.

• Mediaflux Explorer (HTTPS Protocol) - Java Interactive Drag-and-drop GUI application.  Recommended for new users.
• Desktop (Browser, HTTPS Protocol) - Despite its name, this is a web-based GUI for Mediaflux.
• aterm Graphical Terminal - Java command-line terminal application. Advanced users only.

See also the Data Mover capability (an HTTPS Java tool)

• Speciality for instrument data uploads
• Generic large-scale upload and downloads

Clients from Research Computing Services, University of Melbourne

These clients are provided by Research Computing Services at the University of Melbourne.  They use the HTTPS protocol and therefore provide all of the same data guarantees as the other HTTPS based clients.

• command-line upload client - Efficient, restartable, synchronisable upload client
• command-line checking client - Efficient client that checks the local file system against assets in Mediaflux

Third-Party Clients

We currently support the sFTP protocol with the client of your choice e.g. FileZilla, WinSCP, CyberDuck, or command-line clients.  See:

• Secure FTP
• Rclone - cloud transfers

Mounting as a network drive

You can mount your project as a mapped network drive.

• SMB (Network File Share) - macOS Finder, Windows Explorer and Linux File managers

Non-Authenticated Users

We use secure tokens to authenticate upload clients to Mediaflux. These are generally for instrument facilities and will be deployed as part of a process to deploy Mediaflux with that instrument.