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Workbench File System Explorer Configuration

Before you start

Goal

  • Configure Altair SLC Hub to show file system and shortcuts in Altair Analytics Workbench filesystem explorer.

Note

  • This only applies to Linux. This functionality is not available when the Altair SLC Hub server runs on a Windows machine.

Prerequisites

Configuration

The Altair SLC Hub configuration that defined which parts of the filesystem are made available over the WebDAV server is [etc directory]/config.d/webdav.yaml. To modify these settings, create a copy of the file and save it with a lexicographically greater name such as [etc directory]/config.d/webdav_custom.yaml.

The configuration file that defines the list of directory shortcuts that are visible in the Altair Analytics Workbench File Explorer is [etc directory]/config.d/workbench.yaml. To modify these settings, create a copy of the file and save it with a lexicographically greater name such as [etc directory]/config.d/workbench_custom.yaml. Alternatively, per-link session shortcut directories can be set within an execution profile.

The key fields to configure are rootPaths in webdav_custom.yaml, which is the list of paths to make accessible, and directoryShortcuts in workbench_custom.yaml which is the list of directory shortcuts to show in the Altair Analytics Workbench File Explorer.

Example

The following shows how to configure the WebDAV server and the directory shortcuts in Altair Analytics Workbench.

In this example, there are two shared file systems mounted into the Altair SLC Hub server node and worker nodes, one at /home and one at /fileShare, and the Altair SLC Hub administrator would like to make those available to users of Altair Analytics Workbench.

First create a configuration file [etc directory]/config.d/webdav_custom.yaml with the following content: 

webdav:
  rootPaths:
    - /home
    - /fileShare

This defines the fact that those two root paths are then made available via WebDAV. Notice how the complete /home directory is made available.

Then to configure the Altair Analytics Workbench Filesystem Explorer to display directory shortcuts for /fileShare and for the users relevant home directory, create a file [etc directory]/config.d/workbench.yaml with the content: 

workbench:
  directoryShortcuts:
    - name: Root
      path: /
    - name: Home
      path: /home/${userId}

Note that although the Root shortcut is defined as /, only the subdirectories that have also been defined in rootPaths in the webdav configuration file will be available to the Workbench File Explorer. The / in this context refers to the root of the set of paths exposed by the WebDAV server and not the root of the filesystem of the machine on which the Altair SLC Hub is running. In this example, /home and /fileShare would be available under Root, but not, for example /etc.

After making the changes to the configuration, restart Altair SLC Hub by running the following command with suitable permissions: 

hubctl service restart

Verify

Verify access to the file system

To verify, launch Altair Analytics Workbench and establish a connection to the Hub. Open the File Explorer view, if this is not open, click Window, click Show View and then click File Explorer. There should be a Hub element in the tree and the configured directory shortcuts should be available. Check that files can now be read or modified in this view.