Basic tokens

A basic token is created from an access key ID and secret, which authorizes a transfer user access to a specific area of a storage and authenticates that user to the storage. Basic tokens are less restrictive than transfer tokens. They can be used to transfer with any Aspera server that supports access keys (except forIBM Aspera on Cloud).

  1. Create an access key for the storage and retrieve its ID and secret, as described in Access key authentication.
  2. Create a basic token by encoding the access_key_id:secret in base64.
    Windows does not have a native base64 encoder. These instructions require you to download base64.exe, a free utility. The infile in the command is a text file that contains the text string of access_key_id:secret.
    > base64.exe infile outfile

    The basic token in the outfile looks similar to the following output:

    ZGlEZXVGTGNwRzlJWWRzdnhqMFNDcTRtT29oTkpUS3ZwNVEyblJXakRnSUE6YXNwZXJh

    Open the file and delete any line breaks so that the token text is one continuous string.

  3. Set the basic token as an environment variable by running the following command:
    > set ASPERA_SCP_TOKEN="Basic token_string"

    You can also specify the basic token on the command line by using the -W "Basic token_string".

  4. Transfer content.

    To upload a file, use the following syntax:

    > ascp -i path/to/private_key_file -d source_path username@hostname:destination_path 

    Where the path to the private key file is:

    • C:\Program Files\Aspera\Enterprise Server\var\aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa

    The destination_path can be / to indicate the top of the access key storage, or /path to indicate a subdirectory.

    For example,
    > ascp  -i C:\Program Files\Aspera\Enterprise Server\var\aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa -d testfile03 xfer@10.0.3.4/tmp