Map or mount a Slate file system on your personal workstation

On this page:

Before you begin
About work with sensitive data
Instructions
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
Get help

Before you begin

Although SMB access to Slate and Slate-Scratch is automatically enabled for all users, Slate-Project allocations are not. Before a Slate-Project space can be mounted as a drive on personal workstations, the project owner must request SMB gateway access for that space. To do so, contact the UITS High Performance File Systems (HPFS) group using the Research Technologies contact form; from the "Choose an area to direct your question to" drop-down, select High performance storage.

About work with sensitive data

This UITS system or service meets certain requirements established in the HIPAA Security Rule thereby enabling its use for work involving data that contain protected health information (PHI). However, using this system or service does not fulfill your legal responsibilities for protecting the privacy and security of data that contain PHI. You may use this system or service for work involving data that contain PHI only if you institute additional administrative, physical, and technical safeguards that complement those UITS already has in place.

Although PHI is classified as Critical data, other types of institutional data classified as Critical are not permitted on Research Technologies systems. For help determining which institutional data elements classified as Critical are considered PHI, see About protected health information (PHI) data elements in the classifications of institutional data.

Note:

In accordance with standards for access control mandated by the HIPAA Security Rule, you are not permitted to access data containing protected health information (PHI) using a group (or departmental) account. To ensure accountability and maintain appropriate levels of access control, all users must use an individual login for all work involving PHI.

At Indiana University, never store files containing sensitive institutional data, especially protected health information (PHI) regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), on your desktop workstation, laptop, USB flash drive, tablet, smartphone, or other mobile device unless the files are properly encrypted on the device, and your senior executive officer or the IU Institutional Review Board (IRB) has given prior written approval. Because PHI must remain encrypted at rest, make sure you are using full-disk encryption on any device that has research data containing PHI on it. If you are not sure, ask your department or school local UITS support person for help.

If you have questions about securing HIPAA-regulated research data at IU, email securemyresearch@iu.edu. SecureMyResearch provides self-service resources and one-on-one consulting to help IU researchers, faculty, and staff meet cybersecurity and compliance requirements for processing, storing, and sharing regulated and unregulated research data; for more, see About SecureMyResearch. To learn more about properly ensuring the safe handling of PHI on UITS systems, see the UITS IT Training video Securing HIPAA Workflows on UITS Systems. To learn about division of responsibilities for securing PHI, see Shared responsibility model for securing PHI on UITS systems.

For more, see Your legal responsibilities for protecting data containing protected health information (PHI) when using UITS Research Technologies systems and services.

Instructions

Follow the instructions below for your Windows, macOS, or Linux workstation. If your workstation is located off campus, you first must connect to the IU VPN.

Windows

Press Win-e, and then, in the left column of the resulting window, right-click Computer or This PC.
Select Map network drive.
In the "Path" or "Folder" field, enter the following, depending on the resource you want to access:
- Slate:
```
\\slate-smb.uits.iu.edu\slate
```
- Slate-Project:
```
\\slate-project-smb.uits.iu.edu\project_name
```
  Replace project_name with the project name associated with the Slate-Project space you are accessing.
- Slate-Scratch:
```
\\slate-scratch-smb.uits.iu.edu\scratch
```
To configure the connection to use your IU credentials, make sure Connect using different credentials is selected, and then click OK or Finish.
When prompted, enter the appropriate IU username and the corresponding passphrase.

macOS

In the Finder, from the Go menu, select Connect to Server, and then, in the "Server Address" field, enter the following, depending on the resource you want to access:
- Slate:
```
smb://slate-smb.uits.iu.edu/slate
```
- Slate-Project:
```
smb://slate-project-smb.uits.iu.edu/project_name
```
  Replace project_name with the project name associated with the Slate-Project space you are accessing.
- Slate-Scratch:
```
smb://slate-scratch-smb.uits.iu.edu/scratch
```
Click Connect.
In the window that appears, choose Registered user.
In the "User name" field, enter your IU username; in the "Password" field, enter your IU passphrase.

Linux

Log in as root, or use the su command to change to the root user, and then create an empty mountpoint directory (for example, /mnt/my_dir).
Mount the new directory:
- Slate: To mount your Slate space, use the following command (replace /mnt/my_dir with the name of the local mountpoint directory you created, net_id with your IU username, and local_user with the name of the local user account that should be granted access to your Slate directory space):
```
mount.cifs //slate-smb.uits.iu.edu/slate /mnt/my_dir -o username=net_id,uid=local_user,domainauto
```
- Slate-Project: To mount your Slate-Project space, use the following command (replace project_name with the project name associated with the Slate-Project space you are accessing, /mnt/my_dir with the name of the local mountpoint directory you created, net_id with your IU username, and local_user with the name of the local user account that should be granted access to your Slate-Project space):
```
mount.cifs //slate-project-smb.uits.iu.edu/project_name /mnt/my_dir -o username=net_id,uid=local_user,domainauto
```
- Slate-Scratch: To mount your Slate-Scratch space, use the following command (replace /mnt/my_dir with the name of the local mountpoint directory you created, net_id with your IU username, and local_user with the name of the local user account that should be granted access to your Slate-Scratch space):
```
mount.cifs //slate-scratch-smb.uits.iu.edu/scratch /mnt/my_dir -o username=net_id,uid=local_user,domainauto
```
When prompted, enter your IU passphrase.

Note:

If you use a graphical user interface for your desktop environment, you can mount your Slate, Slate-Project, or Slate-Scratch space as you would any other remote drive; for path examples, see the macOS instructions above.

Get help

Slate, Slate-Project, and Slate-Scratch are managed by the UITS High Performance File Systems (HPFS) team. If you need help or have questions, contact HPFS using the Research Technologies contact form; from the "Choose an area to direct your question to" drop-down, select High performance storage.