Adding New BASTA Grids (Project Owners)

This guide is for project owners who manage BASTA grids in production.

Why this process exists

The Nectar production instance has a small system disk (~30 GB).
Grid files must be stored on the attached data volume, not on the main server disk.

Before you start

  • You have SSH access to the production host.

  • You have Django admin credentials for BASTA-Web.

  • You know the mounted path for the attached grid volume (ask another project owner if unsure).

Step 1: Connect to the production server

SSH into the Nectar production host.

ssh ubuntu@basta-web.cloud.edu.au

If DNS is unavailable, use the host IP:

ssh ubuntu@136.186.108.251

Step 2: Upload or download the grid onto the attached volume

Choose one method:

  1. Upload from your local machine using scp.

  2. Download directly on the server using the BASTA download CLI.

The target path must be on the attached volume (example from production style path):

/mnt/grid_data/dust_maps/bayestar/<grid-file>.hdf5

Option A: scp from local machine

Run from your local machine:

scp /local/path/<grid-file>.hdf5 ubuntu@basta-web.cloud.edu.au:/mnt/grid_data/dust_maps/bayestar/

IP fallback:

scp /local/path/<grid-file>.hdf5 ubuntu@136.186.108.251:/mnt/grid_data/dust_maps/bayestar/

Option B: BASTA download CLI on the server

Run on the production server:

BASTAdownload <grid-identifier> --output /mnt/grid_data/dust_maps/

Step 3: Confirm the file exists at the final path

On the production server:

ls -lh /mnt/grid_data/dust_maps/<grid>/<grid-file>.hdf5

Copy the full absolute path. You will paste this into Django admin.

Step 4: Add the grid record in Django admin

  1. Sign in to BASTA-Web admin with your project-owner credentials:

    • https://basta-web.cloud.edu.au/admin/

  2. Open Grid models.

  3. Click Add Grid model.

  4. Fill in the required fields:

    • name: human-readable grid name.

    • file_path: full absolute path on the attached volume (from Step 3).

    • grid_type: Isochrone or Stellar tracks.

    • default: only set this if this should become the default for that grid type.

  5. Save.

Step 5: Sanity check in the web app

Create a quick test run in BASTA-Web and verify the new grid appears and runs.

Common issues

  • Grid path is on the main disk: move the file to the attached volume and update file_path.

  • File not found when running BASTA: check for typos and confirm read permissions for the Django/worker user.

  • Wrong grid selected by default: edit the grid and update the default toggle.

Notes for project owners

  • Do not store admin passwords in this repository.

  • Hostname/IP and URL are acceptable to document for project owners; keep credentials, SSH keys, and secrets out of docs.

  • If paths or hostnames change, update this page.