Using Aspera high-speed transfer

Using the console

If you add objects by using the console in a supported region, you are prompted with an option to install the Aspera Connect client. This browser plug-in provides Aspera high-speed transfer to upload files or folders.

Using the Aspera Transfer SDK

1. Download the Aspera Transfer SDK from the IBM API Hub. The SDK is a collection of binaries (command line utilities and a daemon to listen for transfer requests), configuration files, and language specific connectors.
2. Install the grpc dependencies from the appropriate package manager (pip, maven, gem, etc).
3. Launch the daemon and import the relevant programming language connector files to your project.
4. Instantiate an Aspera client by passing it the local port used by the daemon.
5. Create a transfer_spec containing all the information needed for the transfer:
   1. icos information:
      1. API key
      2. Service instance ID
      3. Target endpoint
      4. Bucket name
      5. Transfer direction
      6. Remote host (you find this by sending a GET request to a bucket with a ?faspConnectionInfo query parameter)
      7. Assets for transfer (basically a set of file paths)
6. Pass the transfer specification and configuration info to a transfer request.

The following is an example using Python:

import random
import string

import grpc
import json
import os.path

from urllib3.connectionpool import xrange

import transfer_pb2 as transfer_manager
import transfer_pb2_grpc as transfer_manager_grpc


def run():
    # create a connection to the transfer manager daemon
    client = transfer_manager_grpc.TransferServiceStub(
        grpc.insecure_channel('localhost:55002'))

    # create file
    file_path = generate_source_file()

    # create transfer spec
    transfer_spec = {
        "session_initiation": {
            "icos": {
                "api_key": os.environ.get('IBMCLOUD_API_KEY'),
                "bucket": os.environ.get('IBMCLOUD_BUCKET'),
                "ibm_service_instance_id": os.environ.get('IBMCLOUD_COS_INSTANCE'),
                "ibm_service_endpoint": os.environ.get('IBMCLOUD_COS_ENDPOINT')
            }
        },
        "direction": "send",
        "remote_host": "https://ats-sl-dal.aspera.io:443",
        "title": "strategic",
        "assets": {
            "destination_root": "/aspera/file",
            "paths": [
                {
                    "source": file_path
                }
            ]
        }
    }
    transfer_spec = json.dumps(transfer_spec)

    # create a transfer request
    transfer_request = transfer_manager.TransferRequest(
        transferType=transfer_manager.FILE_REGULAR,
        config=transfer_manager.TransferConfig(),
        transferSpec=transfer_spec)

    # send start transfer request to transfer manager daemon
    transfer_response = client.StartTransfer(transfer_request)
    transfer_id = transfer_response.transferId
    print("transfer started with id {0}".format(transfer_id))

    # monitor transfer status
    for transfer_info in client.MonitorTransfers(
            transfer_manager.RegistrationRequest(
                filters=[transfer_manager.RegistrationFilter(
                    transferId=[transfer_id]
                )])):
        print("transfer info {0}".format(transfer_info))

        # check transfer status in response, and exit if it's done
        status = transfer_info.status
        if status == transfer_manager.FAILED or status == transfer_manager.COMPLETED:
            print("finished {0}".format(status))
            break


def generate_source_file(name='file'):
    with open(name, 'w') as file:
        # file.write('Hello World!')
        file.write(''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_lowercase) for i in xrange(10 ** 10)))
    return os.path.abspath(name)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    run()