How to transfer data between Latch Data and Pods

To transfer data between Latch Data and Pods, you can use the latch cp command.

latch cp SOURCE_PATH DESTINATION_PATH

From Latch Data to Pods

First, select the file on Latch Data that you want to copy. After selecting, you will see a file path displayed on the sidebar. Copy the path.

Navigate back to your Latch Pod and type the following in your Pod terminal:

latch cp latch:///BASESPACE_IMPORTS/projects pod_projects

Here, we are copying the folder projects on Latch Data to a folder called pod_projects inside Pod.

Important: When copying from Latch Data, make sure that you prefix the file or folder path with latch://. The prefix tells the Latch CLI that the source destination of the file is on Latch. Without the prefix, Latch will assume that the source file is on your Pod, and you may get a “File not found” error.

From Pods to Latch Data

To transfer data from your Pod to Latch, you can type

latch cp pod_projects latch:///BASESPACE_IMPORTS/projects

which will copy the pod_projects folder on Pod to the BASESPACE_IMPORTS/projects folder on Latch.

How to transfer data between Pods and Your Local Computer

Using the UI

From Pod to Local Computer

Using the Jupyter Lab or RStudio UI, only files can be directly exported from Pod. If you have a folder, you have to first zip it before exporting.

To download data in Jupyter Lab, simply right-click on the file or compressed folder you can to export, and click Download.

In RStudio, you can toggle the file or compressed folder you want to export. Then, click More and choose Export.

From Local Computer to Pod

Currently, only files can be uploaded directly using the UI. If you have a folder, you must compress it first before uploading.

In JupyterLab, you can drag and drop your file and compressed folder directly onto the filesystem on Pod.

In RStudio, there is no current way to drag and drop into the server’s filesystem. Because RStudio and JupyterLab both share the same filesystem on Pod, we recommend that you upload the data via JupyterLab for it to be displayed in Pod.

Using the CLI

Latch Data serves as the intermediary for data transfer when moving data between Pod and your local computer.

For example, to copy data from local to Pod, you can use latch cp to first copy data from local to Latch Data, and use latch cp again to copy data from Latch Data to Pods.

Similarly, you can use latch cp to first copy data from Pod to Latch Data, and use latch cp to copy data from Latch Data to your local computer.

Using SFTP Since Latch Pod is a remote server that allows for SSH access, you can use SFTP to connect and securely transfer data between your local computer and Pod.

First, let’s test the SSH command. Click on the Pod you want to access, and copy the SSH end point on the right sidebar.

Open up a terminal on your local computer, and paste in the SSH command.

If that works, exit out by typing:

exit  b

f that does not work, visit our Troubleshooting section for solutions.

Once you have tested that the SSH connection is working properly, you can establish an SFTP session by replacing the ssh in the SSH endpoint above with sftp. For example, if you have the following SSH command:

ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=30 -o ServerAliveCountMax=5 -J root@a1fd7b5d7b5824b46b8671207e1124b6-610912349.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com root@172.20.227.129

You can establish by SFTP connection by typing:

sftp -o ServerAliveInterval=30 -o ServerAliveCountMax=5 -J root@a1fd7b5d7b5824b46b8671207e1124b6-610912349.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com root@172.20.227.129

The command will connect you to the remote system and your prompt will change to an SFTP prompt.

All SFTP commands you would use in any remote SFTP session would work the exact same way in Pods. To view a complete guide on how to use SFTP commands, please visit the documentation by DigitalOcean here.

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