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ascp suddenly fails with failed to authenticate – worked before with same setup

  • 1.  ascp suddenly fails with failed to authenticate – worked before with same setup

    Posted 24 days ago

    Hi Community,
    I have been using ascp to download SRA data from EBI without any issues until recently. Starting from March 2026, the same command began failing with an authentication error.

    Command that worked before (March 2026):
        ascp -Q -l 300m -P 33001 -k 1 -i /path/to/asperaweb_id_dsa.openssh era-fasp@fasp.sra.ebi.ac.uk:/vol1/fastq/SRR165/002/SRR1658702/SRR1658702_2.fastq.gz /target/dir

    Current error:
        ascp: failed to authenticate, exiting.
        Session Stop  (Error: failed to authenticate)

    What I have confirmed:
        The private key file (asperaweb_id_dsa.openssh) has not changed.
        ascp version is 4.0.0.
        I tried installing the latest Aspera Connect, but it fails due to low GLIBC version on the server.

    My question:
    Is there any way to resolve this authentication issue without upgrading ascp or system libraries? For example, can I force the client to use older encryption protocols or adjust settings to restore compatibility with EBI servers?

    Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

    Best regards,



    ------------------------------
    zhilin wang
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: ascp suddenly fails with failed to authenticate – worked before with same setup

    Posted 24 days ago
    Edited by Laurent Martin 24 days ago

    Hi,

    It seems you have asked the same question twice.

    As answered before, refer to this previous post with the answer inside:
    https://community.ibm.com/community/user/question/ena-aspera-download-fails-with-repeated-password-prompt

    Basically DSA keys are now deprecated, and RSA key shall be used instead.

    The shortest approach is to do this:

    1- Install Ruby 3.2+, refer to: https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/

    2- Once Ruby is installed: install the ascli: gem install aspera-cli

    Alternatively to 1 and 2, if you can't install Ruby, you may try the ascli executable directly in the release: 

    https://github.com/IBM/aspera-cli/releases/tag/v4.25.3

    Take the tar.gz

    3- install the ascp SDK: ascli conf ascp install

    This downloads and install ascp in $HOME/.aspera/sdk

    4- check ascp location: ascli conf ascp info

    That also generates the private keys in $HOME/.aspera/sdk

    Then configure like this (optional, but convenient):

    ascli conf preset update era --url=ssh://fasp.sra.ebi.ac.uk:33001 --username=era-fasp --ssh-keys=~/.aspera/sdk/aspera_bypass_rsa.pem

    ascli conf preset set default server era

    Then transfer like this:

    ascli server download /vol1/fastq/SRR165/002/SRR1658702/SRR1658702_2.fastq.gz --ts.target_rate_kbps=300000 --to-folder=./target/dir

    If you prefer to use ascp as before, then just use the key: ~/.aspera/sdk/aspera_bypass_rsa.peminstead of DSA one.



    ------------------------------
    Laurent Martin
    ------------------------------



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