Connecting to your SEAS storage hosted in FAS RC

SEAS is currently migrating the Research storage shares and the computing resources to FAS RC premises, this movement is allowing SEAS researchers to explore their data with all the computing power Odyssey can offer.

In order to access your data hosted in FAS RC you need to first request for an account over there using as a sponsor the faculty member you work for.

You can also check FAS RC Documentation for mounting storage

Initial steps

• Please request for your FAS RC account here : https://portal.rc.fas.harvard.edu/request/account/new
  
  • Some instructions for the account request can be found here help signup (Hint: lab manager/assistants tend to be quicker with approvals)
    • For people who don't have harvardKey (or use ecommons), you can still apply and not be charged so long as your sponsor has an affiliation with SEAS/FAS
  • Select "Other" (or simply not select anything) if you only need storage access, selecting cluster will lead you to a mandatory and very helpful training course.
• If you already have an account and you don't remember/have :
  • your password, please use: https://portal.rc.fas.harvard.edu/pwreset/ to reset your password with your registered address.
  • your open auth key please use: https://software.rc.fas.harvard.edu/openauth to authenticate and retrieve your key again.
• If you already have an account you'll need to be a member of the right group to access the volume.
• Please send us an email if you have any issues accessing the storage and mention your previous existence on Odyssey.

Access From IMPORTANT

In order to access the storage you need to use:

• Wireless access ONLY through Harvard Secure network : instructions here
• Any SEAS network : send us your ip and we'll let you know if you are in one of these
• SEAS VPN  : vpn5.harvard.edu and vpn.fas.harvard.edu
• FAS RC VPN : vpn.rc.fas.harvard.edu (use rcusername@odyssey as login)

Technical instructions to access the storage:

The way you will be accessing your data depends on the operating system you are using:

Mac

1. Open a Finder window and click on Go -> Connect to Server
   
2. Enter smb://<server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu/<group_share>
   
3. Enter your RC credentials when prompted, use RC as the domain
   
   1. username should be in the form: RC\<your_RC_username>
      

Windows

1. Click on Start and then on Computer
   1. Depending on the windows version, you'll have a menu on top with "Map Network Drive"
   2. You can also right click on your computer and then "Map Network Drive"

2. Choose the drive letter and then type in the folder field: \\<server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu\<group_share>  
   

    **IMPORTANT: you should be provided with the server_name and group_vol name, if you don't have this, please email us: help@seas.harvard.edu**
   

   	IMPORTANT: Don't forget to click on the "Connect using different credentials"!!!

3. Click on the check box to add a different set of credentials and use
   
   1. username: RC\<your_RC_username>
   2. password:  <your_RC_password>
       

Linux

There are many ways to have a CIFS volume mounted in your system:

1. Static mount using CIFS protocol:

   1. Run manually

      mkdir /home/<your_local_username>/group_share
      sudo mount ­-vv ­-t cifs ­-o domain=RC,user=<your_RC_username>,uid=<your_local_username>,acl //<server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu/<group_share> /home/<your_local_username>/<group_share>

   2. Edit your fstab and add the line

      //<server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu/<group_share> /home/<your_local_username>/<group_share>    cifs    credentials=<your_credential_file>,uid=<your_local_username>,rw,iocharset=utf8,acl 0 0

      The contents of the credential_file will be formatted like this:

      username=<your_RC_username>
      password=<your_RC_password>
      domain=RC

      Writing your username and password in a plain text file is not advisable, do this with extreme caution 

2. You can use gvfs (a FUSE based protocol) so that your password is stored in the keyring:
   1. add your credentials to your gnome-keyring (password and keys)
       
   2. gvfs-mount smb://<server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu/<group_share>
      

3.  You can simply ssh into odyssey and cd into your group share:

   ssh <your_RC_username>@odyssey.rc.fas.harvard.edu
   cd /n/<group_share>

4. Using your file explorer:
   
   

Text Instructions	Screenshot
Open Nautilus -> File -> Connect to server Select "Windows Share" as the type. Write <server_name>.rc.fas.harvard.edu in the server field Write your <group_share> name in the share field Use RC as the Domain Name Use your credentials for the user name and password fields You can add a bookmark so that the connection is re-established upon reboot

All OS

• You can use Filezilla using FAS RC instructions from  https://rc.fas.harvard.edu/resources/documentation/transferring-data/sftp-file-transfer/

Location for lab storage

Using SEAS VPN

See the Using SEAS VPN page.

You could also use vpn.rc.fas.harvard.edu which is the FAS RC VPN endpoint. Note that this may prevent you from accessing some internal SEAS resources.

In this case, make sure you use <rc_username>@odyssey in the username field, more instructions here.

Troubleshooting

For Mac users: OS X tend to have issues (slowness) with large volumes because of the .DS_Store files, please read what-is-a-ds_store-file to see how to improve your experience and let us know so that we can help on the server side.

For Windows 10 users: On Windows 10 systems, the samba protocol version 1 is only enabled for some days and disabled if not used. That will prevent you from connecting to the RC shares. To enable it again:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Programs
3. Click on Turn Windows features on or off
4. Expand the SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support
5. Check the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client
6. Click OK to save your changes
7. For the change to take effect, you'll need to restart the system.

If you can't connect please check:

• Can you login to this page?: https://downloads.rc.fas.harvard.edu
  • That is a test for your authentication (Username and Password) if this doesn't work, please contact rchelp@rc.fas.harvard.edu or reset your password
• Double check that you are using rc\username when accessing your storage
• If you are connected to the "Harvard University" wireless you need to use a VPN connection (either RC or SEAS), it is neither secure nor advisable to access your storage using a wireless network.
• If you really need wireless access to your storage, please use the "Harvard Secure" network instead (instructions to connect to it here)
• Make sure you are NOT USING any other DNS servers for your network settings, it could lead to problems with the connection, stick to the Harvard ones.
• There is a chance that you already exist as an FAS RC user and that you are not part of the right group, this will prevent you from access the share, please contact us: help@seas.harvard.edu