Psychology

PPLS File Services

A file service provides disk space not on your local computer but available across the network for you to save documents and data. Your quota of file space is secure and regularly backed-up. File services to PPLS are provided by two server computers: lion (managed by PPLS) and hsskhyber (managed by IS-CHSS). The following is a description of how to connect to these services from your computer.

Set up an account

To set up an account on any of the servers above please contact: Mr Cedric Macmartin (LEL and Psychology staff and postgraduates)

Once you have been set up with an account on the server you will be able to access your files using your university Universal Username (UUN) and the login password you use for University PC logins, this is also known as your Active Directory (AD) password.

Note: When connecting to lion from your own computer it is important that your computer's time is accurate to within a few minutes otherwise the login may fail.

Connecting to the PPLS file server lion

Mapping drives from a PC

(The following methods using lion as an example will apply to mapping drives for access to the other servers in a similar fashion).

There are two main methods to map your data on lion to a drive letter on your your PC. Both require that your choose a vacant drive letter that you can use later when referring to your lion data.

Method 1 - using the map drive menu

Open a file browser window such as 'My Computer' or 'My Documents' and go to the Tools Menu at the top of the window, from there select "Map network Drive" In the resulting popup window enter the following information:

Drive: This is the drive letter you wish to refer to, i.e. L: or some other letter, if you are not sure use the selection menu which will present you with a list of available drive letters.

Folder: This is the location and name of your data on lion, it should contain lion's address followed by your UUN in the following format:

Reconnect at Login: Put a tick in this box if you wish the data to be automatically mapped to the chosen drive letter whenever you log onto the computer.

Different user name: If you are logged onto your PC with a different username than your UUN, such as when connecting from a non University Active Directory machine, then select this and enter your UUN and password in the pop form. Precede the UUN with ED\ to show that you want to use your ED domain password i.e. ED\s0000001

Method 2 - using the net use command

If your prefer to use the command line or you wish to put a command in a script to map the drive then you can use the net use command.

From within the Run menu, a cmd window or a script enter the command:

If you are logged on to a university AD machine then you can omit the /user:ED\<UUN> part which specifies your lion login name. If you don't want the drive to be automatically mapped whenever you log on to the computer then omit the /persistent:yes part

Accessing the data without mapping a drive.

If you are logged onto a University Active Directory machine then you can open a file browser window containing your data by specifying the location of the data on the Run menu, this method does not work reliably from a non Active Directory machine.

Go to the Windows Start>Run window and type in

You can if you wish make a shortcut from the browser window containing your lion data and leave it on your desktop so that it is available whenever you select the shortcut.

Connecting to lion from a Mac

To access your account from a Mac use the Go>Connect to Server window and type in

This will mount a drive with your lion data.

(Advanced Mac users can also use the Unix mount command described below).

Connecting to lion from Linux/Unix

If you have a unix file browser which is enabled for smb access it will let you copy files to and from your local computer but it does not generally let you use them in situ other than to view them.

Versions of Unix and Linux vary so this is just a rough guideline, refer to your local documentation for more information; man mount and man mount.cifs may be a good starting point.

To mount a network drive under Linux/Unix may require that you have root privileges on your computer. If this is the case and you do not have the right level of access then the administrator of your computer may be able to assist you to do it.

If you have root privileges on your computer you can mount your lion file system as follows: to mount data from lion specify the file system type as 'cifs' or, if that is not available on your computer, use type 'smbfs'.

Depending on your version of unix the mount command will be something like:

Use -t smbfs rather than -t cifs to use the older smbfs file system.

If you have Nautilus on your desktop then depending on your version your lion data may be accessible by using the 'connect to server' option from the file menu, specify 'windows share' as the service type and fill in the details for machine name, share, username and password. or go to 'open location' from the file menu and enter:

Where the above methods are not an option then scp is available on the server. The server's full address is:

Secure FTP (ftps) is also available if you are within the .ed.ac.uk domain.

For scp and secure ftp access use your university username (UUN) and your Active Directory password as per mapping or mounting drives.

File backup on lion

Files are backed up nightly to a mirror server and monthly to removable media. These media have a 3-month capacity. Therefore it is possible to restore lost files up to 3 months after the loss.

Connecting to the Psychology file server hsskhyber

Whether or not you have a "managed desktop" the best place to backup your documents and data is to your private home folder on the HSS College server. All Psychology staff should have a home folder at:

Using a "managed desktop"

It should not be necessary to take manual steps to connect to the server hsskhyber from a managed desktop, (and that includes PCs in labs and shared room within Psychology, and any public labs around George Square). When you logon to any of these computers your My Documents folder is automatically redirected to your file space (your home folder) on hsskhyber.

Normally your "M:" drive will already be mapped to your home folder, and your "My Documents" folder redirected there. So to backup just drag-and-drop into "My Documents".

Note: your "My Documents" folder is not part of your profile, but your desktop is. So don't leave large files on your desktop. A large profile causes delay at log on/log off, and there is currently a 200Mb limit on its size.

If you don't use a managed desktop

Open your home folder as follows:

From Windows

Use Start>Run, or alternatively right-click on "My Network Places" and choose "Map a network drive". Enter the network path to your home folder like this:

when prompted enter your credentials like this:

Note: <your password> is your active-directory password. This is not necessarily the same as your EASE or staffmail password.

From a Macintosh (MacOS X)

Use Finder>Go>Connect to Server.

Enter the network path to your home folder like this:

Ensure the username is set to your UUN.

Enter your active-directory password and click OK.

 

This Page