Connecting to LSA file spaces (Linux)

Summary

This article discuss how to connect to LSA file spaces from Linux. Refer to the Mac instructions or the Windows instructions for other operating systems.

Departmental shared files and User files (and sometimes Research Data) are stored on the ITS servers, or network shares, in the spaces known as the “S drive” (departmental) and “H drive” (user). Here is how to access the files on those servers.

Environment

Linux

Directions

Accessing the files remotely (off-campus)

First connect to the campus VPN, then connect to the space you want, and optionally create bookmarks.

1. Connect to the VPN.
2. Connect to the file space using the steps below.

Connecting to file spaces from Linux

Although these methods are documented for GNOME on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, they should be easily adaptable to other Linux distributions or other desktop environments.

Fedora 32 (Gnome)

1. in Activities, go to Files
2. On the left side of the window, click Other Locations.
3. In the field next to Connect to Server, to connect to your H: Drive (Home directory), you will need to enter in the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home, followed by the first letter of your uniqname a forward slash, then your uniqname, e.g., davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home/j/johnsmith.
4. A prompt will come up asking you to enter your username and password. Enter your University of Michigan uniqname and Kerberos password, then click Connect. (You can use the radio buttons at the bottom of the password window to Forget password immediately, Remember password until you logout, or Remember Forever as well.)
5. The contents of your Home drive should now be visible.
6. To connect to your S: Drive (Department directory) you will need to enter in the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept/.
7. A prompt will come up asking you to enter your username and password. Enter your University of Michigan uniqname and kerberos password, then click Connect. (You can use the radio buttons at the bottom of the password window to Forget password immediately, Remember password until you logout, or Remember Forever.)
8. You can then scroll through the list to find the department you need, and double click that folder.
9. Once you are in the department folder, you will see a Dept folder and Public folder, double click the Dept folder to access department specific files and folders.
10. Alternately, you can connect directly to your department share by entering in the folder names after Dept/, e.g., davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept/physics/Dept. Some departments use a lowercase 'd' as part of the second "dept" foldername.
11. Optional, but recommended:
    1. To add this as a bookmark, on the left side of the window, right click on the dfs.lsa.umich entry, and select "Add bookmark."
    2. Right-click on that new entry that appears, and select Rename, then name it as anything that is memorable to you, but "S:" for the Dept volume and "H:" for the Home volume would be good choices for consistency with Windows. The bookmark will then be available in the list of places.

RHEL 8 (XFCE)

1. In the menu bar, click File Manager
2. Click Browse Network, and type davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu into the search bar at the top of the window
3. Log in with your University of Michigan uniqname and kerberos password
4. To connect to your H: Drive (Home directory), enter in the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home, followed by the first letter of your uniqname a forward slash, then your uniqname, e.g., davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home/j/johnsmith.
5. To connect to your S: Drive (Department directory), enter the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept/, and navigate to the Dept folder for your department.

RHEL 7

 Note: This assumes you are using the GNOME desktop, which is the default on RHEL.

1. In the Taskbar, go to Places → Browse Network.
2. On the left side of the window, click Other Locations.
3. In the bottom of the window, in the field next to Connect to Server, to connect to your H: Drive (Home directory), you will need to enter in the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home, followed by the first letter of your uniqname a forward slash, then your uniqname, e.g., davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home/j/johnsmith.
4. A prompt will come up asking you to enter your username and password. Enter your University of Michigan uniqname and Kerberos password, then click Connect. (You can use the radio buttons at the bottom of the password window to Forget password immediately, Remember password until you logout, or Remember Forever as well.)
5. The contents of your Home drive should now be visible.
6. To connect to your S: Drive (Department directory) you will need to enter in the address davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept/.
7. A prompt will come up asking you to enter your username and password. Enter your University of Michigan uniqname and kerberos password, then click Connect. (You can use the radio buttons at the bottom of the password window to Forget password immediately, Remember password until you logout, or Remember Forever.)
8. You can then scroll through the list to find the department you need, and double click that folder.
9. Once you are in the department folder, you will see a Dept folder and Public folder, double click the Dept folder to access department specific files and folders.
10. Alternately, you can connect directly to your department share by entering in the folder names after Dept/, e.g., davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept/physics/Dept. Some departments use a lowercase 'd' as part of the second "dept" foldername.
11. Optional, but recommended:
    1. To add this as a bookmark, on the left side of the window, right click on the dfs.lsa.umich entry, and select "Add bookmark."
    2. Right click on that new entry that appears, and select Rename, then name it as anything that is memorable to you, but "S:" for the Dept volume and "H:" for the Home volume would be good choices for consistency with Windows. The bookmark will then be available in the list in Places.

RHEL 6

 Note: This assumes you are using the GNOME desktop, which is the default on RHEL. An advantage of this method is that after you do it once, the DFS volume will be available in Places.

1. Go to Places > Connect to Server.
2. In the dialog box, select "Secure WebDAV (HTTPS)" from the "Service Type" dropdown.
3. Type "dfs.lsa.umich.edu" in the "Server" field.

   Alternatively to 2 & 3, you could use davs://dfs.lsa.umich.edu in the "Custom Location" in the "Service Type" dropdown. This URI may be the only or best option on other versions of Linux.

4. Enter your "User Name" in the style "UMROOT\uniqname".
5. Optional, but recommended:
   1. In "Folder", enter the navigation path as shown above (e.g., "Dept/physics/Dept" for the Dept volume or "Home/first letter of uniqname/uniqname" for Home volume).
   2. Select "Add bookmark", and add a Bookmark name. You can use anything that is memorable to you, but "S:" for the Dept volume and "H:" for the Home volume would be good choices for consistency with Windows. The bookmark will then be available in the uppermost list in Places.
6. Click on "Connect", and enter your Windows Active Directory (UMROOT) password when prompted.
7. Navigate to the resource you are looking for, if necessary.

Where are my files?

Connecting to the resource above doesn't get you directly to the files that you normally see in your H: or S: drive.

• To get to your the files you normally see in your H: drive, you will need to enter the full path of dfs.umich.edu/Home/first letter of uniqname/uniqname, as you are not allowed to browse the Home directory structure.
• To get to your the files you normally see in your S: drive, navigate to the folder labeled "Dept", then choose your department. That folder is what you can access as your "S:" drive when you are on campus.

This method of connecting through a web browser should be the same for RHEL 6 and RHEL 7:

1. Using your browser of choice, to access your H: Drive home directory, in the location bar, type: https://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home/first letter of uniqname/uniqname, e.g., https://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Home/j/johnsmith.
2. To access your S: drive, in the location bar, enter: https://dfs.lsa.umich.edu/Dept
3. You can then browse to your department name, double click to enter the folder, then double click again on the Dept or dept folder inside there to see your department's files and folders.

Notes

If you cannot find your space, please contact us.