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Data Storage

The Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science (formerly ENCS) offers data storage to active faculty, staff, and students within the Gina Cody School depending on their user account type.

For more information about ENCS user accounts and the amount of data storage space allocated per user type, visit the ENCS User account page witin the IT Service Catalogue.

To review your current ENCS group quota and ENCS print quota, please visit the online File Storage Quota tool.

Documentation

Location of Disk Space

Users can access the network shares in both Unix/ Linux and Windows.  To access your disk space from Windows, use your ENCS account credentials to map the network drive.  To access your disk space on an ENCS-managed Unix/ Linux host, simply change to the directory where the disk space is located by using the "cd" command. If you have a user-managed Unix/Linux computer, you can mount the needed filesystems using the CIFS protocol.

The Unix paths and Windows Drive folders are listed in the tables below.

 

Window Drive letter

Windows mapping path







Personal



Basic
home
and
web

Windows home

G:

\\filer-users.encs.concordia.ca\USERNAME*

Unix/Linux home

U:

\\filer-users.encs.concordia.ca\unix\U\USERNAME*

Web home

W:

\\filer-users.encs.concordia.ca\web\U\USERNAME*

Email inbox


Not mapped

Cannot map

Thesis

T:

\\filer-thesis.encs.concordia.ca\v_thesis\thesis_unix\U\USERNAME*







Group

“Facdisk” (research)

R:

\\filer-facdisk.encs.concordia.ca\fac_U\USERNAME*

Admin role account

Q:

\\filer-admin.encs.concordia.ca\v_admin\admin_unix\G\GROUPNAME*

 

 

Other role accounts

Course support for instructors

Course project for students

Research group basic presence




Private


S:

\\filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca\v_groups\groups_unix
(look under G\GROUPNAME*)


**

\\filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca\v_groups\groups_unix\G\GROUPNAME*




Web


X:

\\filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca\v_groups\groups_web
(look under G\GROUPNAME*)


**

\\filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca\v_groups\groups_web\G\GROUPNAME*

Other

Temporary storage

 

H:

H:\\filer-nettemp.encs.concordia.ca\nettemp

Notes:

* In all cases:

  • U represents the first letter of the ENCS username
  • USERNAME represents the ENCS username
  • G represents the first letter of the ENCS group name
  • GROUPNAME represents the ENCS group name


** If you'd rather map a particular group to a drive letter, as opposed to using the already-mapped parent directory for all groups, you must assign your own drive letter. 

Do not see the above network drives on your Windows system?

If you are connected to the Concordia Network, AITS has developed a script which can be used to map all ENCS network drives on your Windows system. Click on the button below to download the application. Once the application has been downloaded, double click on it and supply your encs credentials when prompted.

 

Window Drive letter

Unix/ Linux mapping path







Personal



Basic
home
and
web

Windows home

G:

/winhome/U/USERNAME*

Unix/Linux home

U:

/home/U/USERNAME*

Web home

W:

/www/home/U/USERNAME*

Email inbox


Not mapped

/var/spool/mail/U/USERNAME*
(accessible only on host “login.encs”

Thesis

T:


/thesis/U/USERNAME*







Group

“Facdisk” (research)

R:

/private/U/USERNAME*

Admin role account

Q:

/admin/groups/G/GROUPNAME*

 

 

Other role accounts

Course support for instructors

Course project for students

Research group basic presence




Private


S:



/groups/G/GROUPNAME*


**




Web


X:

/www/groups/G/GROUPNAME*


**

Other

Temporary storage

 

H:

/nettemp

Notes:

* In all cases:

  • U represents the first letter of the ENCS username
  • USERNAME represents the ENCS username
  • G represents the first letter of the ENCS group name
  • GROUPNAME represents the ENCS group name


** If you'd rather map a particular group to a drive letter, as opposed to using the already-mapped parent directory for all groups, you must assign your own drive letter. 

FAQ  

 

First, check your network disk space usage using the ENCS web-based quota checking tool; it requires your ENCS username and password. If you see a red bar in the output, it means that you are over your allocated disk quota in that disk space, and you may have problems using your account until you return below quota in this disk space by deleting some files.

If the disk space in which you're over quota is your basic home and web space, you can use our "bigfiles" tool to find the largest files in this diskspace. To use it, use SSH (e.g. "ssh" or "PuTTY") to log into the host "login.encs.concordia.ca", then type the command "bigfiles". Depending on how many files you have, it may take a few minutes for results to appear. The results will show you your 20 largest files.

Delete some files, or move them to another network diskspace if you have one, or move them to external storage such as a USB. or move them to the local disk of your workstation (in the latter two cases, be aware that your files will no longer be protected by AITS snapshots, and if your workstation disk dies or you lose the USB key, it may be impossible to recover your files.)

Once you think you've deleted enough files, check your work by once again consulting the
ENCS web-based quota checking tool (requires ENCS username/password) to ensure your network drives have enough free space. 

NOTE:
The directory ".snapshot" on any network drive (on Windows drive G, U, W, etc., or on your Unix/Linux directories) does not consume any disk quota.  It is a system back-up folder that allows users to recover modified/deleted files by themselves.

While "basic home and web" disk space cannot be shared, a faculty member's "facdisk" space can be shared with students or other School users. To allocate some of your facdisk space to another person, contact the Service Centre.

All graduate students registered in a degree program requiring a supervised thesis are granted some disk space in the "thesis" area, which is intended for the storage of any thesis-related files.

Under Unix/Linux, 'cd /thesis/u/username/' to reach your thesis space.
On a Gina Cody School-managed Windows host, your thesis space is automatically mapped to drive T. 
On a user-managed Windows host, you can map your thesis space via '\\filer-thesis\thesis\u\username'.

In both cases, the letter 'u' represents the first character of your ENCS username and the word 'username' is your ENCS username.

If you have problems, contact the Service Centre.

To facilitate access to your files through different services in varying environments, the files are stored in different directories on the network.

Each user is assigned basic "home and web" space available in the locations describe in the table above. Depending on their status and roles, the user may be assigned additional disk space; once again, please refer to the table above.

Files stored on network shares benefit from AITS' backups and snapshots. In many cases, you can also store files on your desktop's local disk, but it's not recommended as files on your local disk are not protected against disk failure and other catastrophes that could arise with your desktop.

If you're using a Gina Cody School analyst managed Windows desktop, all of the drives you need are probably already mapped. If you want to map more drives, or if you're using a user-managed Windows desktop or laptop where you must map the network drives yourself, here's how to do it:

How to map ENCS network drives automatically:

  1. Download the Map ENCS Drives application to your Windows system.
  2. Double click on the application.

Any problems should be reported to the Service Desk with screen captures, if possible.

How to manually map a network drive:

  1. Click Start  Computer
  2. Select Map network drive.
  3. Specify the Drive letter for the connection, for instance G:.
  4. Type in the network path to the share (Eg: \\filer-users.encs.concordia.ca\<encs_username>) you want to connect to, in the Folder space.
  5. Check Connect using different credentials.
  6. Click Finish to connect the drive.
  7. You will be prompted for a username and password. Supply ENCS\< username> and password.

Review the 'Location of disk space' table for more information.

To map a drive from outside of the Concordia University network, you must first connect to the VPN service. Follow the instructions found on the Virtual Private Network (VPN) information page.

Important: To connect to the VPN service you must use your Concordia Netname and Password. Then to map an ENCS network drive, you need to use your ENCS Username and Password.

Working Remotely?

To map a drive remotely, e.g., from outside of the Concordia University network, you must first connect to the VPN service. Follow the instructions found on the Virtual Private Network (VPN) information page.

Important: To connect to the VPN service you must use your Concordia Netname and Password. Then to map an ENCS network drive, you need to use your ENCS Username and Password.

On your Macintosh Computer:

  • Open Finder
  • From the Go menu, select Connect to Server or press  K
The Connect to Server window will appear.

 

  • Use the table below to find the network address for the drive you wish to connect to.  
Drive
Description Network Address
G:

Personal Windows home

smb://filer-users.encs.concordia.ca/USERNAME
U:

Personal Unix home  

smb://filer-users.encs.concordia.ca/unix/U/USERNAME
W: Personal Web home smb://filer-users.encs.concordia.ca/web/U/USERNAME
Q: Admin role account
smb://filer-admin.encs.concordia.ca/v_admin/admin_unix/G/GROUPNAME
R: "Facdisk" smb://filer-facdisk.encs.concordia.ca/fac_U/USERNAME
S: Group Private smb://filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca/v_groups/groups_unix
(look under G/GROUPNAME)
X: Group Web home smb://filer-groups.encs.concordia.ca/v_groups/groups_web
(look under G/GROUPNAME)
  • Enter the drive's Network address into the Server Address field
  • Where:
    • U represents the first letter of the ENCS username  
    • USERNAME represents the ENCS username
    • G represents the first letter of the ENCS group name
    • GROUPNAME represents the ENCS group name
  • Click on Connect

You will be prompted for a username and password.

  • Enter your ENCS account credentials.
  • Click on Connect

Once connected, the mapped drive will appear under Locations in Finder.

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