Accessing off-Campus Datasets (Network Address Translation)

Files and data can be downloaded to the CSF, DPSF, etc., from Web/HTTP and FTP sites by using the Web proxy. However, some applications cannot use the Web-proxy, for example those that access off-site SQL databases.

To address this issue, we have introduced a “lower level” proxy service, more accurately, a network address translation service. This allows users to access off-campus databases and other sources of data from the login nodes of the CSF, DPSF, etc., and also from compute nodes (i.e., as part of a running batch job).

Users who wish to use this service should contact the Research Infrastructure Team at

Current Translations

Users of systems such as the CSF and iCSF should use the address:

nataas.itservices.manchester.ac.uk

with a specific port to access the external server as shown below.

Please note that the address

ensembldb.ensembl.org

resolves to

ensembldb.ebi.ac.uk

but it has previously resolved to the sanger address. More databases are now provided by the ebi address. Hence if you are currently using ensembldb.ensembl.org from your desktop, you should use port 5306 from the CSF when going through the NAT proxy.

Please see the Ensembl website for further information on their Public MySQL databases.