Using Rclone to connect to OneDrive from ARC


There is often a need to transfer data sets onto HPC for processing. This article shows how to connect directly to OneDrive from ARC using Rclone.

When transferring large data sets from external sources, it is useful to be able to connect directly to the external sources from ARC to transfer the data sets more efficiently. You can do this using a tool called Rclone which is installed on both ARC 3 and 4. You need to configure a remote shell connection with X11 forwarding before you can use it. This article shows you how to set up a remote connection to OneDrive and how to browse and transfer files once you have a remote connection set up.

Adding a new OneDrive remote to Rclone

Start Rclone in configuration mode:

 $ rclone config

Rclone will display its configuration menu. Choose the New remote option by entering n and pressing Enter:

$ rclone config
No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n

Next enter the name you want to use for the new remote connection (I use onedrive here but you can choose whatever you want):

name> onedrive

After pressing Enter, a list of supported storage types is shown. You should select the Microsoft OneDrive option (currently 19 but may change in the future):

Type of storage to configure.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / A stackable unification remote, which can appear to merge the contents of several remotes
   \ "union"
 2 / Alias for a existing remote
   \ "alias"
 3 / Amazon Drive
   \ "amazon cloud drive"
 4 / Amazon S3 Compliant Storage Provider (AWS, Alibaba, Ceph, Digital Ocean, Dreamhost, IBM COS, Minio, etc)
   \ "s3"
 5 / Backblaze B2
   \ "b2"
 6 / Box
   \ "box"
 7 / Cache a remote
   \ "cache"
 8 / Dropbox
   \ "dropbox"
 9 / Encrypt/Decrypt a remote
   \ "crypt"
10 / FTP Connection
   \ "ftp"
11 / Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)
   \ "google cloud storage"
12 / Google Drive
   \ "drive"
13 / Hubic
   \ "hubic"
14 / JottaCloud
   \ "jottacloud"
15 / Koofr
   \ "koofr"
16 / Local Disk
   \ "local"
17 / Mega
   \ "mega"
18 / Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
   \ "azureblob"
19 / Microsoft OneDrive
   \ "onedrive"
20 / OpenDrive
   \ "opendrive"
21 / Openstack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH)
   \ "swift"
22 / Pcloud
   \ "pcloud"
23 / QingCloud Object Storage
   \ "qingstor"
24 / SSH/SFTP Connection
   \ "sftp"
25 / Webdav
   \ "webdav"
26 / Yandex Disk
   \ "yandex"
27 / http Connection
   \ "http"
Storage> 19

For the next 2 steps, just accept the defaults by pressing Enter twice:

** See help for onedrive backend at: https://rclone.org/onedrive/ **

Microsoft App Client Id
Leave blank normally.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
client_id>
Microsoft App Client Secret
Leave blank normally.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
client_secret>

Unless you need to edit the advanced configuration, choose n

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

Choose y to auto config:

Remote config
Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine
y) Yes
n) No
y/n>

A new remote Firefox window should appear on your local machine after some time (up to a few minutes), asking you to sign in to your Microsoft account. Use <username>@leeds.ac.uk:

You will then be taken to the University Sign in page:

Once you've authorised access to your OneDrive you can close the browser window and go back to the Rclone configuration interface. Now enter your account type (1 for the university OneDrive Business accounts):

If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code
Choose a number from below, or type in an existing value
 1 / OneDrive Personal or Business
   \ "onedrive"
 2 / Root Sharepoint site
   \ "sharepoint"
 3 / Type in driveID
   \ "driveid"
 4 / Type in SiteID
   \ "siteid"
 5 / Search a Sharepoint site
   \ "search"
Your choice> 1

Then pick the drive to use. YOu'll probably only be shown one so pick 0:

Found 1 drives, please select the one you want to use:
0: OneDrive (business) id=b!MGKmGPBYpUiy2O_SW3nOnWBvZUtBKjpIlZdW32xCnkCTXxII3LCbRYYJ-VSAWKuR
Chose drive to use:> 0

Confirm your choice:

Found drive 'root' of type 'business', URL: https://leeds365-my.sharepoint.com/personal/issokc_leeds_ac_uk/Documents
Is that okay?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y

Then confirm creation of the remote:

--------------------
[onedrive]
type = onedrive
token = {"access_token": <token information>}
drive_id = <drive id>
drive_type = business
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

Now quit Rclone configuration by pressing q

Current remotes:

Name                 Type
====                 ====
onedrive             onedrive

e) Edit existing remote
n) New remote
d) Delete remote
r) Rename remote
c) Copy remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
e/n/d/r/c/s/q> q

Using Rclone

Once you've set up the remote drive, you don't need to do it again. To list files from OneDrive (list files in [directory] if given):

$ rclone ls onedrive:[directory]

To copy file <file> from directory [directory] in OneDrive to your current local directory:

$ rclone copy onedrive:[path]/<file> .

To copy a directory from OneDrive to your current local directory:

$ rclone copy onedrive:<path> .

To copy your entire /nobackup directory to OneDrive:

$ rclone copy /nobackup/<username> onedrive:ARC4-nobackup

To browse the files on your OneDrive using an interactive viewer. Use the arrow keys to navigate (up and down move through the list, right enters a directory, left moves up a directory):

$ rclone ncdu onedrive:
rclone ncdu v1.47.0 - use the arrow keys to navigate, press ? for help
-- onedrive: ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  3.515G [##########] /ansoft
 29.992M [          ] /ARC4-nobackup
 24.652M [          ]  ubuntu.simg
 12.293M [          ]  SPuRS.mdb
 10.877M [          ] /Apps
  6.977M [          ] /Microsoft Teams Chat Files
  6.925M [          ] /FacultyofEngineering
  4.205M [          ] /srds
  1.074M [          ] /SIS
510.584k [          ] /OfficeDesign
250.469k [          ] /RSECon2019
173.565k [          ] /GDPR
 99.808k [          ] /Admin
 55.359k [          ] /AppDev
 29.371k [          ] /Computing Website
 18.120k [          ] /fengsrv1
 13.299k [          ] /Research Computing
 12.548k [          ]  Document1.docx
 11.941k [          ]  Document.docx
  8.503k [          ] /Azure
       0 [          ] /Attachments
Total usage: 3.611G, Objects: 853

Get help on rclone:

$ rclone help
Usage:
  rclone [flags]
  rclone [command]

Available Commands:
  about           Get quota information from the remote.
  authorize       Remote authorization.
  cachestats      Print cache stats for a remote
  cat             Concatenates any files and sends them to stdout.
  check           Checks the files in the source and destination match.
  cleanup         Clean up the remote if possible
  config          Enter an interactive configuration session.
  copy            Copy files from source to dest, skipping already copied
  copyto          Copy files from source to dest, skipping already copied
  copyurl         Copy url content to dest.
  cryptcheck      Cryptcheck checks the integrity of a crypted remote.
  cryptdecode     Cryptdecode returns unencrypted file names.
  dbhashsum       Produces a Dropbox hash file for all the objects in the path.
  dedupe          Interactively find duplicate files and delete/rename them.
  delete          Remove the contents of path.
  deletefile      Remove a single file from remote.
  genautocomplete Output completion script for a given shell.
  gendocs         Output markdown docs for rclone to the directory supplied.
  hashsum         Produces an hashsum file for all the objects in the path.
  help            Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.
  link            Generate public link to file/folder.
  listremotes     List all the remotes in the config file.
  ls              List the objects in the path with size and path.
  lsd             List all directories/containers/buckets in the path.
  lsf             List directories and objects in remote:path formatted for parsi
  lsjson          List directories and objects in the path in JSON format.
  lsl             List the objects in path with modification time, size and path.
  md5sum          Produces an md5sum file for all the objects in the path.
  mkdir           Make the path if it doesn't already exist.
  mount           Mount the remote as file system on a mountpoint.
  move            Move files from source to dest.
  moveto          Move file or directory from source to dest.
  ncdu            Explore a remote with a text based user interface.
  obscure         Obscure password for use in the rclone.conf
  purge           Remove the path and all of its contents.
  rc              Run a command against a running rclone.
  rcat            Copies standard input to file on remote.
  rcd             Run rclone listening to remote control commands only.
  rmdir           Remove the path if empty.
  rmdirs          Remove empty directories under the path.
  serve           Serve a remote over a protocol.
  settier         Changes storage class/tier of objects in remote.
  sha1sum         Produces an sha1sum file for all the objects in the path.
  size            Prints the total size and number of objects in remote:path.
  sync            Make source and dest identical, modifying destination only.
  touch           Create new file or change file modification time.
  tree            List the contents of the remote in a tree like fashion.
  version         Show the version number.

Use "rclone [command] --help" for more information about a command.
Use "rclone help flags" for to see the global flags.
Use "rclone help backends" for a list of supported services.

Using shared folders

If you want to access a folder that has been shared with you on one drive you can add the folder to "My Files" in the OneDrive web interface and it will then be available through your rclone connection:

Go to your OneDrive home page and click on Shared

Find the folder you want to access and click on the three dots to the right

Click on "Add shortcut to My files"

The shared folder will now appear in My files and also in your rclone connection.