Having defined the data release, you are ready to transmit your data products to ESO for which a dedicated FTP server has been installed. You may use any FTP client of your choice that supports secure authentication (TLS), see below for a list of compatible clients. Normal FTP does not work! You may consider the powerful and free FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) as FTP client, which provides a graphical user interface and supports abort/resume functionality among other useful features, or the command-line client lftp (http://lftp.yar.ru/), which comes with many Linux distributions by default.

First, connect to the FTP server at

phase3ftp.eso.org

and login with your ESO User Portal credentials.

Then, change to the directory

/<Phase 3 programme>/<Data collection name>/batch_<Data release number>

For example, for the VISTA Hemisphere Survey with

Programme Name: VHS

Data Collection Name: SGP

Data Release: #1

the complete path would read

/VHS/SGP/batch_1

Thereafter, you can start transferring your set of products. Since FITS checksums are employed to safeguard the data transfer against transmission errors, it is essential that you properly update the respective checksum keywords beforehand. For non-FITS format ancillary files there is a special mechanism in place to catch possible transmission errors employing their MD5 hashes. You have the option to specify the MD5 hash using the dedicated keyword ASSOMi in the science file defining the data set. Then, the Phase 3 validator detects any data inconsistency before the files will be archived.

 The directory and the data deposited therein are visible and accessible just for you as the programme owner and for your delegates. In the course of preparing the data release you can modify files on the FTP server as needed, including file removal.

As a data provider you also control the data flow in time. You may transfer the files for a data release in one go or you may accumulate them on the FTP server over a period of time before you close the release. This flexibility allows adapting the submission process to the particular needs due to data processing and verification activities of each programme.

If no more data is being added, the data will be kept on the FTP server for a period of three months unless the release is closed before.

The ESO Phase 3 infrastructure uses Pure-FTPd, which was reported to be fully compatible with the following clients with the SSL/TLS encryption layer turned on (taken from the documentation of Pure-FTPd):

CoreFTP Lite (Windows)

URL: http://www.coreftp.com/

SSL/TLS perfectly works when "AUTH TLS" is enabled. CoreFTP Lite has some neat features like IPv6 support, remote file searching, .htaccess editing, queueing, bandwidth control, etc.

CoreFTP Lite is free both for personnal and business use, but people who want to register in order to get the enhanced (non-"lite") version and commercial support can get a special discount for Pure-FTPd users, through this secret link: http://www.2checkout.com/cgi-bin/ccbuyers/purchase.2c?sid=62821&product_id=9&quantity=1

SmartFTP (Windows)

URL: http://www.smartftp.com/

An excellent client with IPv6 support, port range limitation and other useful features (!= bloat). And it's free for personal, educational and non-commercial use. And it detects Pure-FTPd :)

SSL/TLS perfectly works when the "FTP over SSL (explicit)" protocol is selected and when the data connection mode (Tools->Settings->SSL) is set to "clear data connection" while the AUTH mode (also in Tools->Settings->SSL) is set to "TLS".

IglooFTP Pro (Windows, Linux)

URL: http://www.iglooftp.com/

SSL/TLS is automatically detected and works when Preferences->Security->Encrypt is set to "Commands [if possible], Transfers [if possible]".

FlashFXP (Windows)

URL: http://www.flashfxp.com/

SSL/TLS works. In the "Quick connect" dialog box, pick the "SSL" tab and:

 - enable Auth TLS

 - disable Secure File Listing

 - disable Secure File Transfers

SDI FTP (Windows)

URL: http://www.sdisw.com/

SSL/TLS works. In the "Connection" tab, just pick "SSL Support: TLSv1".

LFTP (Unix, MacOS X)

URL: http://lftp.yar.ru/

SSL/TLS is automatically detected and works out of the box.

RBrowser (MacOS X)

URL: http://www.rbrowser.com/

A cute graphical client for MacOS that was reported to work by Jason Rust and Robert Vasvari.

Glub Tech Secure FTP Client (at least Unix, MacOS X and Windows)

URL: http://secureftp.glub.com/

SSL/TLS is automatically detected and works out of the box.

FileZilla (Windows, OSX, Linux)

URL: http://filezilla-project.org/

SSL/TLS works. In the "Site details" dialog box, pick "FTP over TLS (explicit encryption)" as the "Servertype". Reported by Philip Hallstrom.

Cyberduck (OSX)

URL: http://cyberduck.ch/

SSL/TLS works out of the box.