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At IU, how do I map or mount my RFS account to my workstation?

Note: To keep pace with the growing needs of Indiana University researchers, Research File System (RFS) storage will be migrating in the near future from OpenAFS to a new technology from DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN), based on the General Parallel File System (GPFS). For more, see Information about upcoming changes to the Research File System at IU.

Samba servers act as a gateway between Research File System (RFS) servers at Indiana University and your workstation, and provide a fast and easily configured way of accessing your RFS files and folders. See the appropriate section below for instructions on mapping or mounting your RFS account to your workstation.

On this page:

Windows

Note: If you are running a Windows computer that is not joined to Indiana University's ADS domain, in order to connect to RFS via the Samba interface you may need to run a tool that disables LM/NTLMv1. See What is the tool that disables LM/NTLMv1, and where can I get it?

The Samba interface allows you to access your RFS files and folders as if they resided on a drive on your workstation. Before you can access your RFS folder directly, you need to configure your computer as follows:

  1. Right-click My Computer and select Map Network Drive... .

  2. In the "Folder:" field, type the path for your RFS account: \\rfs.iu.edu\username

    Replace username with your username and click Finish.

  3. You will be prompted to enter a username and password. Add ADS\ to your username to indicate the ADS domain: ADS\username

    Your RFS folder will be mapped to a drive on the workstation.

Mac OS X

You must have Mac OS X 10.1 or later to mount your RFS space using SMB, the sharing protocol used in Windows. To access your RFS account using Samba:

  1. In the Finder, from the Go menu, select Connect to Server... .

  2. In the Connect to Server window, in the "Address:" field, type: smb://rfs.iu.edu/username

    Replace username with your username. Click Connect.

  3. You will be asked to authenticate. In the Workgroup/Domain field, type ADS . Type your username and password in the appropriate boxes.

  4. Click OK. Your RFS folder will be mounted on the desktop shortly.

Linux

To establish file system access to the RFS from Linux via Samba, use the following method, replacing netid with your IU Network ID username; you will be prompted for your password:

  • Mount RFS as root on the local machine, as follows: # mkdir /rfs # mount.cifs //rfs.iu.edu/netid /rfs -o user="netid",uid="localuserid",sec=ntlmv2,domain=ads

    Note that the localuserid is a username or UID of a non-root user on the machine that will need permission to view the RFS account. The uid=localuserid may be omitted if the local account has the same UID as your Network ID. Another option, gid=localgid , will likewise map the RFS group ID to a group ID on your machine.

    If you do not have root access on your local machine and mount.cifs does not work without root access, contact your system administrator.

Shared files and projects

At IU, you can access shared files in another user's RFS space if the other user has set up permissions for you to access the files according to the steps in At IU, how do I share my RFS data with other users using an AFS client? You can connect via Samba to the afs-home space by using the appropriate path for your operating system:

  • Windows: \\rfs.iu.edu\afs-home
  • Macintosh: smb://rfs.iu.edu/afs-home

This places you in the top-level view of the RFS, where you should see the directories a through z. To access the correct RFS space, descend the RFS tree by clicking in succession the first two letters of the appropriate username. For example, to access the RFS space of myuser, first click m and then click y, and then locate and click myuser in the list of usernames beginning with "my".

Projects are a special category of accounts created for users whose work involves collaborative long-term research. To connect to the projects space via Samba, use the appropriate path for your operating system:

  • Windows: \\rfs.iu.edu\projects
  • Macintosh: smb://rfs.iu.edu/projects
  • Linux: $ mount.cifs //rfs.iu.edu/projects mountpoint -o user="netid",uid="localuserid",sec=ntlmv2,domain=ads Password: $ mount.cifs //rfs.iu.edu/afs-home mountpoint -o user="netid",uid="localuserid",sec=ntlmv2,domain=ads Password:

    Replace netid with your Network ID username, localuserid with a username or UID to map to on your machine, and mountpoint with the name of an empty directory where you wish to mount the projects or afs-home directories.

Once you are connected, you will see a list of folders (or just a single folder if you have only one project) with project names you have chosen. Navigate to the appropriate folder to access your files.

For more, see In RFS, what are projects?

Note: If you are away from campus and connect through an outside Internet service provider (ISP), Samba access will work only if you maintain a VPN connection to the IU network.

This is document arxp in domain all.
Last modified on February 19, 2013.

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