For instructions on how to map your SMB share, see the section for your operating system below.

Windows

MacOS

Linux

Windows

1) Launch Windows File Explorer

2) Select Network->Map Network Drive

Right-click on the Network icon and select "Map Network Drive":

3) Select mapping options

Select the desired local drive mapping (i.e., Z:). 

In the Folder dialog box, enter \\smb.rdf.rice.edu\research

Please Note:   Windows systems managed by Rice OIT will typically be bound to Rice's Active Directory network. 
If you are working on a Windows system that is bound to Rice Active Directory (ADRICE), you provided your credentials at login.  For the next step, you can click "Finish" and you will see the RDF drive available in the Windows File Explorer.  The RDF system already knows who you are and will map you without prompting for a password.

HOWEVER:  If your Windows system is *not* bound to Active Directory, for example a personal laptop, etc., you should check the “Connect using different credentials”, checkbox as shown below, then click “Finish”.

If you select the "Connect Using Different Credentials" option, you will be prompted for a username and password.  Enter ADRICE\<yournetid> and provide your password when prompted, as seen below: 

4) After the connection dialogs complete, you should now see the share available in the Windows File Explorer under the drive letter that you mapped.

In the right hand panel will be all the faculty PI folders, which typically will be named by the research faculty member's NetID.  Generally, most users will only have access to the share associated with the research group they are a member of, and the other folders will be inaccessible.  Click on the folder that is associated with your research group to access your research data area.

5) To disconnect the shared drive, right-click the drive in the Windows File Explorer and select the “Disconnect” option.

MacOS

1) From the Finder, select Go->Connect to Server

2) In the Server Address field in the Connect to Server dialog box, enter

smb://smb.rdf.rice.edu/research

Then click the Connect button.

3) You will be asked to provide your NetID and NetID password in the Name and Password fields.  Be sure that Registered User is selected, then click Connect.

You will now see the RDF drive available to use in the Finder window.  Under the top level research share, all the faculty PI folders, which typically will be named by the research faculty member's NetID.  Generally, most users will only have access to the share associated with the research group they are a member of, and the other folders will be inaccessible.  Click on the folder that is associated with your research group to access your research data area.

4) To disconnect, click the eject button to the right of the drive share icon in Finder.

Linux (Ubuntu/CENTOS/Redhat)

Most Linux distributions do not allow non-privileged users to execute mount commands.  However, Linux systems can be configured to allow user-space mounts of RDF shares.  Depending on the type of Linux system, one of the following two methods may be the best approach:

For individual Linux workstations, laptops or virtual machines (e.g., ORION virtual machines) primarily used by a single user who has sudo privilege on that system, it may be easiest to use a single, preconfigured mount point.

For multi-user systems (shared compute servers, etc.) it may be best for a user to mount the share via the command line,  attaching to a mount point within the user's home directory.  This allows discrete mounts for each user on the system rather than a single top-level mount point.

Please make note of the following mount options used in the examples below:

        username: should be the NetID of the mounting user

        domain: should be ADRICE

        mfsymlinks: this option allows symlinks to work consistently with POSIX filesystem behavior on a CIFS-based filesystem

        rw: grant read/write access to the user mounting the share

        vers=3.0:  The RDF does not support lower CIFS/SMB version standards.  Linux mount.cifs will default to the lowest version so this parameter is required

        sign: Request packet signing from the server.  The RDF requires this parameter for a secure connection.

        uid: should match the local POSIX user-id number of the mounting user

        gid: should match the local POSIX group number of the mounting user

Preconfigured Mount Point

The following procedure will configure a Linux client to allow a non-root user to access their RDF share from user space with a more convenient mount command, assuming that the user's local POSIX username matches their NetID.  Administrative access to the client system is required to complete steps 1-4.

1) Make sure cifs-utils is installed

(CENTOS/Redhat)

sudo yum install cifs-utils

(Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

2) Change permissions to allow non-root users to execute mount commands

sudo chmod u+s /bin/mount /usr/sbin/mount.cifs

3) Create a mount point

sudo mkdir /rdf

4) As a privileged user, edit the file /etc/fstab using your editor of choice, adding the following line:

//smb.rdf.rice.edu/research /rdf cifs nounix,mfsymlinks,rw,vers=3.0,sign,noperm,domain=ADRICE,user,noauto 0 0

5) At this point, a user of the system without root privilege should be able to execute a mount command, provide their NetID password, and be able to access the share locally at /rdf:

[heider@ancalagon /]$ mount /rdf
Password for heider@//smb.rdf.rice.edu/research: ********
[heider@ancalagon /]$ df -k /rdf
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
//smb.rdf.rice.edu/research 644245094400 333210730200 311034364200 52% /rdf

Command Line RDF Mount

The following procedure will allow a non-root user to access their RDF share from user space through a mount point under their own home directory.  This approach may work better on shared, multi-user systems as it allows each user to have their own discrete mount point.  Note that steps 1 and 2 must be completed on the system by a systems administrator or a user with sudo privilege on the shared system, to enable this functionality.

1) Make sure cifs-utils is installed (systems admin required)

(CENTOS/Redhat/Rocky)

sudo yum install cifs-utils

(Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

2) Change permissions to allow non-root users to execute mount commands (systems admin required)

sudo chmod u+s /bin/mount /usr/sbin/mount.cifs

3) Create the mount point

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ mkdir $HOME/mymount

Issue the mount command and passwords (including sudo password if required)

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ sudo mount.cifs -o username=heider,domain=ADRICE,mfsymlinks,rw,vers=3.0,sign,uid=1000,gid=1000 //smb.rdf.rice.edu/research $HOME/mymount
[sudo] password for heider:
Password for heider@//smb.rdf.rice.edu/research:  ******************************

You can use the df command to check to make sure the mount is active:

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ df -h $HOME/mymount
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
//smb.rdf.rice.edu/research  600T  341T  260T  57% /home/heider/mymount

Now you can use the filesystem:

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ ls -l $HOME/mymount/heider 
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 heider heider 0 Nov  1 12:29 data
[heider@ancalagon ~]$ cd $HOME/mymount/heider
[heider@ancalagon heider]$ mkdir data2
[heider@ancalagon heider]$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 heider heider 0 Nov  1 12:29 data
drwxr-xr-x. 2 heider heider 0 Nov  1 12:31 data2

4)  To unmount the filesystem, be sure you do not have any active processes using the share, then type

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ sudo umount $HOME/mymount 

You can use df again to verify the share is unmounted (note that the mount directory now just appears as a local filesystem)

[heider@ancalagon ~]$ df -h $HOME/mymount
Filesystem                       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/rhel_ancalagon-home  178G  3.7G  165G   3% /home