Manually importing large datasets

When you need to manual import

The PANDA web interface may fail when you attempt to upload very large datasets. The exact size at which the uploads will fail depends on the specifics of your server (RAM size, in particular), but anything larger than 100MB may be a problem.

If you experience problems uploading large files, this document describes an alternative way of uploading them that bypasses the web interface. This method is much less convenient, but should be accessible for intermediate to advanced PANDA operators.

Uploading a file to your server

Manually importing files is a two-step process. First you must upload them to your server, then you can execute the import process.

Uploading files your server requires using a command-line program called scp. This program allows you to send a file to your server over SSH. It may help to quickly review the SSH documentation now. If you are on Mac/Linux, scp comes preinstalled. On Windows it comes as part of Putty. In either case, the command to upload your file will look like:

scp -i /path/to/my/ec2_key.pem /path/to/my/dataset.csv ubuntu@my_server_domain_name.com:/tmp/

Executing the manual import

Once your file has finished copying to your PANDA server, you will need to SSH in to execute the manual import process. Refer to the SSH documentation for instructions on how to SSH in. Once you’re at the command line on your server, execute the following commands to import your file:

sudo mv /tmp/dataset.csv /var/lib/panda/uploads/
sudo chown panda:panda /var/lib/panda/uploads/dataset.csv
cd /opt/panda
sudo -u panda -E python manage.py manual_import dataset.csv user@email.com

Note

sudo mv will not prompt you before overwriting another file of the same name. You may wish to verify that you do not have another upload with the same name by running sudo ls /var/lib/panda/uploads/.

In the example dataset.csv is the name of the file you uploaded (not including the path) and user@email.com is the login of the user you want the to “own” the dataset.

Once this script returns your file will be importing via the normal process and you can review it’s progress via the web interface. The dataset name and description will be set to the system defaults and should be updated in the web interface. From this point forward the dataset should be indistinguishable from one uploaded via the normal process.

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