This page contains the instructions relevant for the party that wishes to provide data in SANE, a role we shall further refer to as the 'data provider'. The data provider is the only party that can upload data, give access to the data, and release output results. 

1. Accept SANE Collaboration invite

The researcher has been given the task to initiate the request of a SANE collaboration (see Requesting a SANE project). This is done intentionally for two reasons: 1) alleviate the effort from the data provider, 2) make sure funding is available through the researcher (the data providers should not need to have their own budget) Once these steps are completed, you will receive an invitation to the SANE Collaboration, which you should accept.

2. Invite researcher(s)

Once you are in the SANE Collaboration, you (the data provider) will be appointed the administrator role. It is up to you to invite researchers that have rights to access the data in this SANE Collaboration. Exact instructions on adding researchers to the Collaboration can be found here: Invite admins and members to a collaboration

3. Invite data provider(s)

As a data provider you might want to add more data provider to the project. The first step for this is to invite them as Collaboration admin as shown in:  Invite admins and members to a collaboration , but with the extra step of inviting them to certain groups in the Collaboration to give them the correct role in the Research Cloud environment. The groups that need to be selected for data providers are: src_co_admin and src_co_developer.

4. Prepare the upload environment

  1. Go to the SURF Research Cloud portal and log in
  2. Click on the "Networks (advanced)" tab and then click on the "+" button to create a new internal network
    1. Select the Collaboration from step 1 ("Starting a Collaboration")
    2. Select in the Cloud Provider tab: "SURF HPC Cloud Network"
    3. Give the network a name (e.g. SANE network) and finish the wizard
  3. Go to "Profile" → Expand the tile of the Collaboration from step 1
    1. Click on the "Secrets" tab
    2. Click on the "+" button to add a Secret with the name "SANE_SMBPW" and a random value
    3. Click on the "+" button to add a Secret with the name "SANE_SMBUSER" and a random value (the username must comply with the standards imposed by POSIX and Ubuntu as outlined here)
    4. Go back to the homepage
  4. Click on the "Create new" button in the 'Create new storage' tile
    1. Select the Collaboration from step 1 ("Starting a Collaboration")
    2. Select in the Cloud Provider tab: "SURF HPC Cloud volume"
    3. Select a flavour that is large enough to store the sensitive data (and any generated output results of the research)
    4. Give the volume a name (e.g. SANE volume) and finish the wizard
  5. Click on the "Create new" button in the 'Create new workspace' tile
    1. Search and select the "SANE Data server" catalog item
    2. In the "Options" tab select the storage and internal network you created in the previous two steps
    3. Finish the wizard
  6. (Optional) If you want to upload data using ResearchDrive you need to connect your Research Drive account before starting the "SANE linux data owner portal"
    1. https://servicedesk.surf.nl/wiki/display/WIKI/Connect+Research+Drive
  7. Click on the "Create new" button in the 'Create new workspace' tile
    1. Search and select the "SANE linux data owner portal" catalog item
    2. Finish the wizard

5. Upload the sensitive data

  1. From the Research Cloud portal, log into the data owner portal. There are three options: 
    • Use the "Access" button in a browser with TOTP
    • Copy the IP address to any Remote Desktop client
    • Use a terminal to login with SSH
  2. Use the data owner portal to copy data (the sensitive data and potentially data from the researcher itself that the data provider accepted) to the data server


The data is now made available in the SANE data server, which can be attached to the SANE analysis environments (either Tinker or Blind) by the researcher. The researcher will namely connect their analysis environment to the private network that was created in step 3. The researchers can now follow the Researcher instructions. Go ahead and notify the researcher that the data is ready to be analysed.

6. Review output results

The researcher (in the case of Tinker SANE) or the script (in the case of Blind SANE) will place its output results in the folder located at the directory /results  and will inform the data provider of that outside of the SANE system (e.g. via e-mail). The data provider uses the SANE linux data owner portal to review these output results. The data provider can download approved output data using the same procedure as to upload data, and send them to the researcher outside of SANE (e.g. via e-mail). 


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