While joining XSEDE was as easy as signing up to any other website, and the system with a Campus Champion works really well, transferring files to and from your desktop and the compute resource (here stampede.tacc) is a bit trickier.
As an XSEDE user you can't transfer files directly to the compute resource via sftp.
I first tried the XSEDEFileManager.jar XUP application, and while it connected fine to stampede, it wouldn't allow the transfer of any files. Maybe it has to do with me using openjdk, maybe not.
I then tried the browser version of XUP, but it wouldn't even allow me to connect to a compute resource.
I then tried Globus Online, which is a service for transferring large data files which is managed by the University of Chicago.
1.The first step is to sign up for Globus Online. You'll get a confirmation email, click a link and you're up and running.
2. Follow this: https://support.globus.org/entries/23881557-Globus-Connect-Personal-for-Linux.
Install the desktop client so that you can set up your desktop as an endpoint. That involves several steps:
A. make sure you have tcl/tk installed. On Debian
sudo apt-get install tk tcl tcllib
B. make sure that you have ssh keys
ls ~/.ssh/id*
There should be a file/files called id_rsa and/or id_dsa as well as the same files with .pub endings.
If you don't, then generate ssh keys using
ssh-keygen
C. Log on to globus online and go to manage endpoints, click on "add Globus Connect Personal".
Enter a name for the system, e.g. Beryllium
A setup key will be generated -- you'll need this to set up the desktop client.
Click on the Linux link to download the linux client (globusconnect-latest.tgz)
D. In e.g. your ~/Downloads, do
tar xvf globusconnect-latest.tgz cd globusconnectpersonal-2.0.2/ sudo mv globusconnectpersonal-2.0.2 /usr/local/bin /usr/local/bin/globusconnectpersonal-2.0.2/globusconnectpersonal
Enter the code. You can then reload the end point manager window and the status should be changed to ready.
3. Next you'll go to 'Transfer Files' on the Globus Online website. Pick the right endpoints and transfer away!
