What is WinSCP?

WinSCP (Windows Secure Copy) is a free and open-source SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and SCP client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager and file synchronization functionality. For secure transfers, it uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports the SCP protocol in addition to SFTP.

WinSCP is available to all managed Deakin Desktop (Windows) environments.  You will just need to select it from the Software Center to install.

For more info see the WinSCP wikipedia page

How do I access RDS file share collections via WinSCP?

A pre-requisite for this is an SSH key pair.  If you don't have one, please read the "Interactive access to Research Data Store (RDS) file storage" knowledge base article.

1. Start the WinSCP application and specify the site details:
   
   
   1. File protocol: SFTP
      
      
   2. Host name: rds-storage.deakin.edu.au
      
      
   3. Port number: 22 (the default here)
      
      
   4. User name: your Deakin username
      
      
   5. Password: leave this blank
      
      
      
      
2. Now for the advanced settings, select "Advanced..."
   
   
   1. (optional) Under Environment -> Directories, specify the RDS folder that you would like to open each time you access the rds-storage server
      For example - for example  '/RDS/<RDS activity system name>' or the more full '/stage/rds-share/<RDS activity system name>'
      
      
      
      
   2. Under SSH -> Authentication specify the private SSH key file for your SSH key pair
      
      
      
      
   3. Select OK on this "Advanced Site Settings" dialog box.
      
      
3. Select Save for the Session you have created
   
   
4. Select Login to login to the rds-storage server, you will be prompted with a dialog box like this to key in your SSH passphrase
   
   
   
   
5. Once you have keyed in your SSH passphrase, select OK, you will be logged into the rds-storage server, ready to transfer files. 

Transferring files/data

1. On the left is the data on your local computer, on the right is the server that you have connected to.
    
   If you have specified a remote directory in the Advanced Site Settings tab of the Sessions login dialog, then the remote path will be shown.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the files you wish to transfer, in the above example we will be transferring from local to remote.  Drag those selected files to the remove side of the window.
   Once you let go you will be prompted with an Upload dialog box like this:
   
   
   
   Select OK to confirm the upload.
   
   
3. Depending on your network speed and/or the size of the files you are transferring, you might see a dialog box showing the transfers, or it may pop up and disappear really quickly.  Once it has completed, it should look like this:
   
   
   
   
4. To disconnect from the session, select Disconnect from the Session menu or use the Shift+Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut.
   
   

If you keep WinSCP open for a while with no file transfers underway, you may find that the remote server has disconnected.