Connecting to a Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) share

Quest and Kellogg Linux Cluster Downtime, March 22 - 31.

Quest, including the Quest Analytics Nodes, the Genomics Compute Cluster (GCC), the Kellogg Linux Cluster (KLC), and Quest OnDemand, will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance starting at 8 A.M. on Saturday, March 22, and ending approximately at 5 P.M. on Monday, March 31. During the maintenance window, you will not be able to login to Quest, Quest Analytics Nodes, the GCC, KLC, or Quest OnDemand submit new jobs, run jobs, or access files stored on Quest in any way including Globus. For details on this maintenance, please see the Status of University IT Services page.

Quest RHEL8 Pilot Environment

The RHEL8 Pilot Environment is available for use now.

Ahead of the March 2025 Downtime, Quest users have the opportunity to test their software and research workflows on CPU nodes and NVIDIA H100 GPU nodes which are running the new RHEL8 OS. Detailed instructions are available on how to submit jobs for the new Operating System in the Knowledge Base article, RHEL8 Pilot Environment.

RHEL8 Pilot Quest log-in nodes can be access via ssh or FastX through using the hostname login.quest.northwestern.edu. Please note that the new hostname login.quest.northwestern.edu will require the GlobalProtect VPN when outside of the United States.

RHEL8 Pilot Quest Analytics nodes can be access via: rstudio.quest.northwestern.edu, jupyterhub.quest.northwestern.edu, and sasstudio.quest.northwestern.edu.

This article describes how to connect to 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.

RDSS uses the CIFS protocol, so your device must allow access on TCP port 445.

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

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

Mount share as a network drive

Follow these operating systems specific instructions to create a permanent mount to your machine. 

MacOSX

Windows

  1. Open a Windows Explorer window. Select the Computer tab and click Map network drive.
  2. Select your desired drive letter. 
  3. In the Folder field, enter \\[server]\[share name] , where [server] is the server name you identified above and [share name] is the name of your share.

  4. Reconnect at sign-in: 
    • If this is a public workstation or shared workstation DO NOT select Reconnect at sign-in. 
    • if it is your own computer or workstation then you may select Reconnect at logon as well so that it auto mounts on reboot. 
  5. Connect using different credentials:
    • If you use your Northwestern NetID to log in to the computer, do not select this option
    • If you do not use your Northwestern NetID to log in to your computer, select this option. 
  6. If prompted for your credentials. Enter the letters "ads" followed by a backslash, followed by your Northwestern NetID, for example ads\jnw216 . In the password field, enter your Northwestern password.
     
  7. Upon clicking OK the   drive will appear in your This PC window. To view the S: drive, search This PC in the Windows Start Menu and select it.

Linux

 

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

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