Organize Files Folders

The rapid growth of user data forces us to look at new systems to store big amounts of data which are scalable and maintainable (we are talking about hundreds of Terabytes!). In this how to we explain how you should organize your files. We explain what important directories are accessable for you and how you should/can organize your filetypes.

Every research group has it’s own fileserver now. So, you can replace {groupfs} with ddcmfs, digcomfs, gaimfs, ipifs or smacsfs depending in which research group you belong to.

When you login to windows share make sure you prepend the domain group EA07 to it: EA07\username

There is a way to make this the default in Windows:

Run gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Settings -> System -> Logon
"Assign a default domain for logon" and choose Enabled and default domain "EA07"

research aka home folder

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\{groupfs}\research\* sftp://{groupfs}//research/* /{groupfs}/research/*
\\{groupfs}\* sftp://{groupfs}/* ~ or $HOME

* = your username

This networkshare is your working space for your research activities. Don’t use this share for your temporary data, use the scratch directories mentioned later.

This directory is only viewable by you unless you overwrite the research group permission.

private

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\{groupfs}\private\* sftp://{groupfs}//private/* /{groupfs}/private/*

* = your username

This location is reserved for your personal data that cannot be shared with anybody. It’s not however intended for family pictures, your music, video’s and other media! (Sorry, no we don’t have enough space for everybody to do that!)

shared research group folder

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\{groupfs}\shared sftp://{groupfs}//shared /{groupfs}/shared

Store your data files here which are useful to your research group. Your fellow researcher can access these files also. This way we can limit the number of copies of common files for everyone.

This directory is writable by your research group only.

scratch

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\{groupfs}\scratch sftp://{groupfs}//scratch /{groupfs}/scratch

All folders use some network transfer to work and store your files. In most cases this gives performance penalties. To overcome this you can store your temporary project to the local scratch directory. Examples are input/output from Matlab/Maple simulations, compiling big projects, creating and modifying big files, etc… The local scratch directoy is located in /scratch, but you can use the network location if you want to access it from another machine. This data has only a limited lifetime and we do not make backups of this folder, so copy the necessary files back to your research folder when ready.

Create a personal username folder and set your own permissions.

packages

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\packages\ sftp://packages /packages/

The following shares are available: finances, iso, private, research, shared, vakgroepraad. Windows and linux programs, drivers, iso’s can be found here.

finances and vakgroepraad are limited to selected people.

Only writeable for the sysadmin group.

public_html

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\www\public_html\* sftp://www//public_html/* /www

* = your username

This is the location for your web homepage. Use files like index.html, index.htm or index.php for PHP. If you don’t make the index files, but just regular names and folder, an index will be made for you. If you want to disable this feature you can make an empty index.html file. The URL to your homepage is https://telin.ugent.be/~username/

This directory is viewable by everyone.

backup

My Computer Location Linux command line
\\{fileserver}\share -> previous versions sftp://{fileserver}//share/.zfs/snapshot -

Here you can browse into the backup files, the snapshots are sorted by date, you can restore your lost or older files from here. In Windows you can right click a folder and choose Previous versions.

These shares are read-only and inherit the permissions from the originals.

some tips…

  • Type \\{groupfs} or \\machine_name in the My Computer location bar to see all available shares.
  • You can also use the SFTP-protocol in Windows with Cyberduck, winSCP.exe or Filezilla.exe.
  • rsync, ssh, sftp and NFS are available on the TELIN fileservers.
  • you can access the fileservers with the ugent.be address on port 8822 in or outside the TELIN department with sftp:// or Winscp.exe. These are ddcmfs.ugent.be, digcomfs.ugent.be, gaimfs.ugent.be, smacsfs.ugent.be, ipifs.ugent.be, ipids.ugent.be and packages.ugent.be.
  • You can use sftp://*group*fs//share from your Linux laptop as well and it is possible to have them in the command-line terminal, e.g. your research folder:
$  mkdir ~/research
$  sshfs -p 8822 {username}@{group}fs.ugent.be:/research/{username} ~/research

* replace {username} with your username, {group} with your research group.

To unmount the folder:

$ fusermount -u ~/research
  • $HOME/bin : put your own linux and script executables here so they are included in your search path automatically.
  • $HOME/Desktop: this is the location when you put files and folders on your Linux desktop.
  • $HOME/Documents: letters and general documents.
  • $HOME/{Music,Pictures,Public,Templates,Videos}: erase or move them, put these type of files in the scratch folder!!!
  • The TELIN helpdesk recommends Cyberduck for Mac users. The shares locations are the same as for the Linux users.