How to Mount Eodata on Windows Virtual Machine on Creodias Hosting

Creodias cloud contains eodata, which is a repository of Earth observation data. In this article you will learn how to access it from a virtual machine running Windows in the cloud.

You will need to manually configure mounting on other Windows virtual machines. Two ways of achieving this objective are also described in this article.

Prerequisites

No. 1 Account

You need a Creodias hosting account with access to the Horizon interface: https://horizon.cloudferro.com/auth/login/?next=/.

No. 2 Virtual machine with Windows

Use article How to create new Linux VM in OpenStack Dashboard Horizon on Creodias as the basic blueprint for creation of an instance.

Apply the following changes to the procedure in that article:

For Source, use a Windows image.

For Networks, be sure to add two networks, one starting with cloud_ and the other starting with eodata_.

If you do not want to access your instance outside of the Horizon dashboard, you may omit the following from the workflow described in that article:

• creation of a floating IP,
• using the allow_ping_ssh_icmp_rdp security group as well as
• the instructions regarding the SSH connection.

The instructions regarding SSH connection from that article do not apply to Windows VMs. Virtual machines with Windows are typically controlled using RDP. If you choose this method, you might want to consider using bastion host forwarding for extra security: Connecting to a Windows VM via RDP through a Linux bastion host port forwarding on Creodias.

Accessing eodata on virtual machines with automatic eodata mounting

Virtual machines with Windows on the Creodias cloud created using images published on and after the 20th of December 2022 have mounting of the eodata repository already configured.

The following software is used for that purpose:

• Rclone
• WinFSP
• NSSM

Click on https://horizon.cloudferro.com/auth/login/?next=/ and login to your virtual machine via web console using an Internet browser. You can also use RDP or other options to login.

Go to This PC window. The eodata repository should be mounted there with drive letter Y in the Devices and drives section:

Double-click it. You should now see the contents of eodata repository:

You might recognize folder names such as Landsat-5 or Sentinel-2 as the names of actual satellites from which the images are gathered.

You can now copy the resources to the hard drive of your VM or open them using your processing software. If you are using the latter option, please make sure that your software does not try to save its results to the eodata repository since you do not have write permissions there.

Accessing eodata on virtual machines without automatic eodata mounting

We will cover the following methods of mounting the eodata repository manually:

• Using open source software. In this method, tools such as Rclone, WinFSP and NSSM will be deployed.
• Using Air Live Drive. Here, the free version of this proprietary piece of software will be utilized.

Accessing eodata with open source software

Mounting eodata this way is a relatively long process, but done only once. In the end, eodata will be automatically mounted to your Windows VM. You will be able to access it from This PC window.

Due to the software used in this workflow, the limitations of the free version of Air Live Drive such as maximum of three drives or one drive per cloud do not apply here.

Mounting eodata

Open the Start menu on your Windows virtual machine and start the search by typing

powershell

Your start menu should now look similar to this:

Right-click the Windows PowerShell entry and choose Run as administrator.

Type your administrator password if prompted.

PowerShell should appear:

Use the following commands to

• create the directory in which Rclone will be stored and
• navigate to it.

  mkdir C:\rclone; cd C:\rclone
  

Without closing PowerShell, open a web browser on your virtual machine. Navigate to the following website:

 https://rclone.org/downloads

It should contain the table with links to its different versions:

Download the version of Rclone for the Intel/AMD - 64 Bit platform (for Windows operating system).

A zip archive should be downloaded. In the Microsoft Edge browser it should look like this:

Enter that zip archive, it should contain one directory. Double-click to enter it. Its content should look like this:

Copy the content of that directory to the C:\\rclone folder which you previously created using PowerShell.

Return to your Internet browser. Navigate to the following website:

https://winfsp.dev/rel/

Click Download WinFsp Installer:

Run the downloaded installer. The installation process will be similar to installation of other Windows programs. Its step called Custom Setup, however, will require you to make a choice:

Leave the default values intact to install only the Core section and click Next.

Once you have installed it, return to your PowerShell window.

Now, start the configuration process of Rclone:

.\rclone.exe config

First, you will see the following question:

   No remotes found,makea new one?
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q>

Answer with n. You will be asked to provide the name for your remote:

   Enter namefornew remote.
name>

Answer with EODATA and press Enter.

You will be asked for the type of storage: Storage>. You will get a numbered list of different options. Find the option which starts with Amazon S3 Compliant Storage Providers and answer with its number. As of writing of this article it is 5.

You will then be asked which provider you wish to choose:

provider>

You will receive a numbered list of available providers.

Find the option on that list which says Any other S3 compatible provider. Answer the question you received with the number next to it. As of writing this article it is 24, but in your case it may vary.

The next question is as follows:

env_auth>

Do not type anything and simply press Enter.

Answer the question access_key_id with CLOUDFERRO.

The next question will be for secret_access_key. Answer it with PUBLIC.

Answer the question about the endpoint as follows:

http://data.cloudferro.com

Do not provide answers to questions regarding location constraint and ACL - in both cases simply press Enter. You will then get the following question:

Edit advanced config?
y) Yes
n) No (default)
y/n>

Answer with n. The summary of the options provided by you will appear. The last question will be as follows:

Keep this"EODATA"remote?
y) Yes this is OK (default)
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d>

Answer with y.

You should now get the following menu:

Answer with q to quit the configuration program.

You can now test the connection to the eodata repository. Execute the following command:

.\rclone.exe lsd EODATA:DIAS

You should see something similar to this:

To test whether mounting works, execute the command below. If you don’t want the EODATA repository mounted under the Y drive letter, feel free to modify that command accordingly.

.\rclone.exe mount --read-only EODATA:DIAS Y:

You should get the following message:

The service rclone has been started.

Navigate to the This PC window. The EODATA repository should be mounted there:
 

Its content should look like this:

Configuring automatic mounting of eodata

You have successfully mounted the eodata repository on your Windows virtual machine. However, after rebooting your virtual machine, you will need to mount it again using Rclone. To prevent this, you can configure its automatic mounting.

If the previous instance of PowerShell is still running, close it. This should cause the eodata repository to disappear from your This PC window. If that has not happened, refresh that window (right-click and choose Refresh).

Open the Internet browser on your Windows virtual machine. Navigate to https://nssm.cc/download

Click the link in the Latest relase section:

A zip file should be downloaded. It should contain one folder. The content of that folder should look like this:

Navigate to win64 folder. It should have one executable file called nssm:

Copy that file to C:\rclone

Start PowerShell and execute the following command to enter the folder with rclone:

cd C:\rclone

Execute the following command:

.\nssm.exe install EODATA C:\rclone\rclone.exe mount --read-only EODATA:DIAS Y:

You should get the following confirmation:

Service "EODATA" installed successfully!

After that, execute the command below. In it, replace admin_password with the password to your Administrator account on your virtual machine.

.\nssm.exe set EODATA ObjectName .\Administrator "admin_password"

The following confirmation should appear:

The "Log on as a service" right was granted to account .\Administrator.
Set parameter "ObjectName" for service "EODATA".

Start the service:

.\nssm.exe start EODATA

You should get the following message:

EODATA: START: The operation completed successfully.

Now the eodata repository should always be mounted, even after rebooting your virtual machine. To test it, you can reboot your machine and check whether the eodata repository is still in the This PC window.

You can now copy the resources to the hard drive of your VM or open them using your processing software. If you are using the latter option, please make sure that your software does not try to save its results to the eodata repository since you do not have write permissions there.

Accessing eodata with Air Live Drive

Air Live Drive is a proprietary piece of software. Its free version should be sufficient for accessing the eodata repository. In comparison to the previous method, its configuration is performed using the graphical user interface.

Log in to your virtual machine.

Download Air Live Drive

On your virtual machine navigate to https://www.airlivedrive.com/en/download/ using the Internet browser.

Click DOWNLOAD:

Install Air Live Drive

Execute the downloaded installer and install the program.

Mount eodata

After installing and running the program, its window should appear:

Click Add Cloud Disk. You should see the following window:

Click S3.

The form used to enter the access data should appear:

In the text field REST endpoint type the following:

http://data.cloudferro.com

In the text field REST endpoint type the following:

http://data.cloudferro.com

Type CLOUDFERRO in the Access Key ID text field.

Type PUBLIC in the Secret Access Key text field.

Select the check box Connecto to a specific bucket.

In the text field Bucket: type DIAS.

Your form should now look like this:

Click OK.

The eodata repository should now be visible in the Air Live Drive window:

Click the gear icon to the right of the Connect button. The following window should appear:

Select Mount as read only.

Click Close.

Click Connect. You should now see the window with the content of the eodata repository:

This repository should also be visible in the This PC window:

You can now copy the resources to the hard drive of your VM or open them using your processing software. If you are using the latter option, please make sure that your software does not try to save its results to the eodata repository since you do not have write permissions there.