{"id":25,"date":"2013-06-26T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T10:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:31:31","slug":"using-storage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/user-faq\/using-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessing Storage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This page shows how to make your allocated storage available on your desktop \/ laptop. You will only be able to do this once your Research Data Storage area has been allocated and you have been informed of the <em>path<\/em> to the storage.<\/p>\n<p>Note that if you are <em>off campus<\/em> you will first need to install the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/ourservices\/popular\/vpn\/\">University VPN software<\/a> and then sign into it.<\/p>\n<h2>What does an RDS share look like?<\/h2>\n<p>Most RDS shares look just like IT Services P-drives &#8211; you <em>mount<\/em> the share on your desktop\/laptop as another <em>drive<\/em> letter (Windows), <em>Remote Volume<\/em> (macOS) or <em>mounted directory<\/em> (Linux).<\/p>\n<p>The exceptions are <em>NFS<\/em> shares, used on the IT Services HPC services (e.g., the <a href=\"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/csf\">Computational Shared Facility (CSF)<\/a>). The Research Infrastructure team will make your storage available on such systems for you. <strong>The instructions below <em>cannot<\/em> be used to mount your CSF storage on your laptop\/desktop<\/strong>. Please see our <a href=\"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/userdocs\/file-transfer\/#MountMap_Your_Home_Scratch_or_CSF_RDS_Directory_on_Your_Desktop_or_Laptop\">information about SSHFS<\/a> for how to do that.<\/p>\n<p>Below, we outline how to access a RDS share from MS Windows, macOS and also from Linux.<\/p>\n<h2>Information About the Examples<\/h2>\n<div class=\"hint\">IT staff will tell you the actual path\/name to use once your storage space has been allocated.<\/div>\n<p>In some of the examples below, we assume, <em>for illustration purposes<\/em>, that your username is<\/p>\n<pre>mxyzpqr7              # Sample username used in our examples.\r\n                      # Use <strong>your<\/strong> username instead!\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>and the <em>path<\/em> to your RDS share is:<\/p>\n<pre>\\\\nasr.man.ac.uk\\<em><strong>eps<\/strong><\/em>rss$\\snapped\\replicated\\<em><strong>myshare<\/strong><\/em>\r\n                  #                            #\r\n                  #                            #\r\n                  #                            #\r\n                  #                            # Your storage area (<em>share<\/em>) name will\r\n                  #                            # be agreed with you and <strong>we will tell you<\/strong>\r\n                  #                            # the exact details once we have allocated\r\n                  #                            # your storage.\r\n                  #\r\n                  # Your faculty code will depend on which\r\n                  # faculty you are located. <strong>We will tell you<\/strong>\r\n                  # the code once we have allocated the storage.\r\n                  # It is usually one of: <strong>bmh<\/strong>, <strong>eps<\/strong>, <strong>hum<\/strong> (or older codes <strong>fls<\/strong>, <strong>mhs<\/strong>)\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>So, in the examples you should replace:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"gaplist\">\n<li><code>mxyzpqr7<\/code> with your username;<\/li>\n<li><code>eps<\/code> with the appropriate faculty initials,if necessary (<code>bmh<\/code>, <code>hum<\/code> and the older, but still active codes: <code>fls<\/code>, or <code>mhs<\/code>);<\/li>\n<li><code><em>myshare<\/em><\/code> with the name of <em>your<\/em> share;<\/li>\n<li>(and, if your share is <em>not<\/em> snapped and\/or not replicated, using <code>unsnapped<\/code> and\/or <code>unreplicated<\/code> instead &#8211; but this is not the norm.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How do I access (use) my RDS share from MS Windows?<\/h2>\n<p>Your RDS share, when mapped in the usual way, will look just like other drives (e.g., your IT Services P-Drive).<\/p>\n<ol class=\"gaplist\">\n<li>Locate the <em>Map Network Drive&#8230;<\/em> option:\n<div class=\"gaptop\"><strong>Windows 10 and 11:<\/strong><\/div>\n<ol class=\"nogaplist\">\n<li>Open <em>This PC<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Map network drive<\/em> in the row of icons at the top of the window<br \/>\n(Note: <em>Home Editions<\/em> of these version of Windows have proved to be problematic and access to storage can be intermittent.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the <em>Drive<\/em> list select the drive letter you wish to use (e.g., <em>R:<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li>In the <em>Folder<\/em> box enter the path according to your faculty and mount point. For example\n<pre>\\\\nasr.man.ac.uk\\<em>eps<\/em>rss$\\snapped\\replicated\\<em>myshare<\/em>\r\n                  #                            #\r\n                  #                            # Use the name given to you when\r\n                  #                            # your storage was allocated.\r\n                  #\r\n                  # Use the faculty code given to you\r\n                  # when your storage was allocated.\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>When asked for a username (and password) enter either of the following for the username (but use <em>your<\/em> actual username) and then your central University password (the same password used to access UoM email for example):\n<pre>ds\\<em>mxyzpqr2<\/em><\/pre>\n<p>or<\/p>\n<pre><em>mxyzpqr2<\/em>@ds.man.ac.uk<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may come across an issue where you cannot access some files due to an inherent maximum path length for accessing CIFS share under Windows.<\/p>\n<p>This happens if you have a deep folder structure and use long names for actual folders and\/or files.<\/p>\n<p>If so this can be got around by making a separate mounting but lower down the tree structure, ideally at the level of the folder containing the files you wish to access.<\/p>\n<h2>How do I access my RDS share from macOS?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>To mount your share on macOS ***Versions OLDER than 15.x**** using Finder<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol class=\"gaplist\">\n<li>In the <em>Go<\/em> menu select <em>Connect to Server<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>In <em>Server Address<\/em> enter the path to your share, preceding it with <code>smb:\/\/<\/code>, for example:<br \/>\nsmb:\/\/nasr.man.ac.uk\/<em style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">eps<\/em><span style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">rss$\/snapped\/replicated\/<\/span><em style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">myshare<br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Connect<\/em> and when prompted enter your IT Services username and password. A window showing the files and folders in the share should then appear.<br \/>\nThe share will also be visible under the <em>Shared<\/em> submenu on the left of your Finder window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>To mount your share on macOS ***Versions 15.x and\u00a0 NEWER*** using Finder<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol class=\"gaplist\">\n<li>In the <em>Go<\/em> menu select <em>Connect to Server<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>In <em>Server Address<\/em> enter the path to your share, preceding it with <code>smb:\/\/ds\\&lt;your_username_here&gt;:*<\/code>, for example:<br \/>\nsmb:\/\/ds\\a12345bc:*nasr.man.ac.uk\/<em style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">eps<\/em><span style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">rss$\/snapped\/replicated\/<\/span><em style=\"font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace;\">myshare<br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Where it says &#8220;Password&#8221; enter your University password.<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8216;Connect&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Further tips for macOS users<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nIf you click the &#8216;+&#8217; button it will be added to the <em>Favourite Servers<\/em> for future use.<\/p>\n<p>To see an icon for the mount on your desktop (if not already enabled):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span data-teams=\"true\">Click the Finder icon in the Dock, then choose Finder &gt; Settings (or Preferences on older macOS versions) from the menu bar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Select the <em>General<\/em> tab.<\/li>\n<li>Select the <em>Connected servers<\/em> tick-box.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>You may need to re-open the Finder window from the desktop icon for the mounted share if Finder is not displaying the files in your Isilon share.<\/p>\n<h2>How do I access my RDS share from Linux?<\/h2>\n<p>To mount your share on Linux do the following (for most distros you will need to use root or sudo):<\/p>\n<ol class=\"gaplist\">\n<li>Ensure that you have the required utilities installed for mounting CIFS filesystems, for example, on a RedHat\/Scientific Linux or Debian\/Ubuntu distribution, you should have the <code>cifs-utils<\/code> package installed.<\/li>\n<li>Next ensure an appropriate mount point exists, for example\n<pre>mkdir \/mnt\/myshare<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Finally, mount your share, for example:\n<pre>mount -t cifs -o username=mxyzpqr7,domain=ds.man.ac.uk,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g) \\\r\n    '\/\/nasr.man.ac.uk\/epsrss$\/snapped\/replicated\/<em>myshare<\/em>' \/mnt\/myshare\/\r\n                       #                           #\r\n                       #                           # Use the name given to you\r\n                       #                           # when your storage was allocated\r\n                       #\r\n                       # Use the faculty code given to you when your storage was allocated.\r\n                       # The single quotes around '\/\/nasr....' are important!\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>Please note that even though you will appear to own every folder and file, you will only be able to modify those files for which you have read-write permission.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Step 3 above will mount your storage as being owned by <em>your<\/em> username and group. However if you wish to mount the storage so that it is owned by root.root (which will be read-only for all users) then use the command:<\/p>\n<pre>mount -t cifs -o username=mxyzpqr7,domain=ds.man.ac.uk \\\r\n    '\/\/nasr.man.ac.uk\/<em>eps<\/em>rss$\/snapped\/replicated\/<em>myshare<\/em>' \/mnt\/myshare\r\n                       #                           #\r\n                       #                           # Use the name given to you \r\n                       #                           # when your storage was allocated\r\n                       #\r\n                       # Use the faculty code given to you when your storage was allocated.\r\n                       # The single quotes around '\/\/nasr....' are important!\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>If you expect to mount this share multiple times, then it makes sense to create an entry in your filesystem table, <code>\/etc\/fstab<\/code>, like this:<\/p>\n<pre>\/\/nasr.man.ac.uk\/epsrss$\/snapped\/replicated\/<em>myshare<\/em>    \/mnt\/myshare\/ \\\r\n    cifs user,noauto,username=mxyzpqr7,domain=ds.man.ac.uk 0 0\r\n                                                            #\r\n                                                            # The 0 0 is only used\r\n                                                            # in \/etc\/fstab, not the\r\n                                                            # command-line methods above.\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>replacing <code>mxyzpqr7<\/code> with your username. Thereafter, to mount your share you need only type:<\/p>\n<pre>mount \/mnt\/myshare<\/pre>\n<p>and enter your central IT password when prompted.<\/p>\n<h2>Some Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>I&#8217;m stuck? Who can I ask for help?<\/h3>\n<p>Please use the appropriate RDS form on the <a href=\"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/help\/\">Getting Help<\/a> section of our website.<\/p>\n<h3>Access Lists \u2014 who can access the share?<\/h3>\n<p>Each share has an access list associated with it: only users on this list can access the share.<\/p>\n<h3>How do I get someone added to an access list?<\/h3>\n<p>Please use the appropriate RDS form on the <a href=\"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/help\/\">Getting Help<\/a> section of our website.<\/p>\n<h3>Does the Microsoft \u201ctrash\u201d feature work on RDS shares?<\/h3>\n<p>No. The \u201ctrash\u201d feature works only on local drives, not remote drives.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"offcampus\">How do I access RDS Shares from Off-Campus?<\/h3>\n<p>The University VPN (Virtual Private Network) must be used to access RDS shares from off campus. This is needed from any kind of device. It is also needed when using the University <em>UoM Wi-Fi<\/em> (but is not needed when connected <em>via<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/wireless\/eduroam\/\">Eduroam<\/a>). Details of installing and using the VPN software are available at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/ourservices\/popular\/vpn\/\">University VPN software page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This page shows how to make your allocated storage available on your desktop \/ laptop. You will only be able to do this once your Research Data Storage area has been allocated and you have been informed of the path to the storage. Note that if you are off campus you will first need to install the University VPN software and then sign into it. What does an RDS share look like? Most RDS shares.. <a href=\"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/user-faq\/using-storage\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions\/1168"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}