This article describes how to connect to and mount Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) including FSMresfiles on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.
Connect to the right network
RDSS/FSMResfiles only allows connections from Northwestern University IP addresses. To get your computer's IP address assigned by Northwestern, sign in to a Northwestern network:
- On campus: Plug in to an Ethernet port or use the Eduroam network.
- Off campus: GlobalProtect VPN
Note, if you are trying to connect to FSMResfiles, connecting to Eduroam won't work. You need to use Ethernet or VPN.
If you're connected to one of these networks and cannot access your share, email rdss-help@northwestern.edu and we can help troubleshoot.
Identify your server
- Feinberg: If you are a member of Feinberg School of Medicine, the address is fsmresfiles.northwestern.edu
- Audited: If you are not in Feinberg, but have selected auditing capability, the address is resfilesaudit.northwestern.edu
- Non-audited: If you are not in Feinberg and have no auditing, the address is resfiles.northwestern.edu
Connect to your share
The following instructions describe how to connect to your data storage share. The connection will reset if your computer goes offline or restarts.
MacOSX
- From the Desktop of your Mac computer, on the top Menu Bar select Go -> Connect to Server
- Enter in the server you identifed earlier in the following format, then click Connect
- Feinberg: smb://fsmresfiles.fsm.northwestern.edu/fsmresfiles
- Audited: smb://resfilesaudit.northwestern.edu
- Not audited: smb://resfiles.northwestern.edu
- Enter your NetID as your username and NetID password to authenticate
- Select the share you would like to mount, click OK. This share will be given based on your research group name given
Windows
- Open a File Explorer window:
- Type your server in the address bar in the following format and press enter
- Feinberg: \\fsmresfiles.fsm.northwestern.edu\fsmresfiles
- Audited: \\resfilesaudit.northwestern.edu
- Not audited: \\resfiles.northwestern.edu
- You will be prompted to authenticate to the server. Enter your username as ads\NetID (replacing NetID with your NetID), and enter your NetID password.
- Once connected, you will see the list of shares on the server. Select your share to copy (and write, if you have the appropriate privileges) files
Linux
Linux: Ubuntu GUI
- In the file manager, click Other Locations in the side bar.
- Select Connect to Server and then input your Research Data Storage share in the following format
- Feinberg: smb://fsmresfiles.fsm.northwestern.edu/fsmresfiles/share_path
- Audited: smb://resfilesaudit.northwestern.edu/share_name
- Not audited: smb://resfiles.northwestern.edu/share_name
- Select Connect. You will be asked to authenticate
- Username: "ads/NetID"
- Password: NetID password
Linux Command Line
- Identify your server
- Feinberg: //fsmresfiles.fsm.northwestern.edu/fsmresfiles
- Audited: //resfilesaudit.northwestern.edu
- Not audited: //resfiles.northwestern.edu
- Make sure you have:
- The full path to your share: //servername/share-path
- Common Internet File System (CIFS) installed. To Install:
- with apt-get:
sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
- with yum:
sudo yum install -y cifs-utils
- Logged on to your linux machine as root
- Create the directory you would like to use as a mount point (For example: #
mkdir -p /mnt/mountpoint)
- Use the mount command as follows:
mount -t cifs //server-name/share-path /mnt/mountpoint -o username=NetID,domain=ads
replacing NetID with your NetID. You will be prompted to enter your NetID password.
Once the share is mounted, you can access its contents by
Need help?
If these instructions don't work for you, please see our RDSS Troubleshooting Guide.
For help connecting to RDSS email rdss-help@northwestern.edu
Researchers from the Feinberg School of Medicine or FSMresfiles users requesting access or having issues with their shares, Please email their local IT support staff at fsmhelp@northwestern.edu.
Also see our Research Data Management Guide for links to all of our help articles.
Research Data Management Support at Northwestern University
Research computing data services partners with the Office for Research, University Libraries and Galter Health Sciences Library to provide research data management support throughout the research process. Please see the Research Data Management and Sharing page for more information.