How to mount the Research Data Storage Service on Mac OS

This guide outlines options for mounting the Research Data Storage Service on Mac OS.

This guide is aimed at...

Researchers

Before you start...

Previous versions of our service did not allow storage to be mountable directly (though there were some third party tools that would allow it). Our new GPFS/Spectrumscale facility which launched on 9th November 2017, allows direct mounting through the CIFS protocol.

CIFS is the standard Windows way to mount network storage, but Mac OS and Linux can also mount it (see how to guides below for other operating systems).

Please consider that choosing to mount your storage (especially in Windows), opens your data up to some additional risks from malicious software such as WannaCry. You can mitigate this risk by keeping your antivirus software up to date and by accessing the storage only by SSH or SFTP (i.e. not mounting).

Also, please note that you need to have registered a project with RDS in order to be able to access the storage. If you’d like to do that please read the Research Data Storage Service overview for details.

Instructions

The following method was performed on Mac OS (Sierra). Starting with no other program windows in focus, click on the Go drop-down menu, followed by Connect to Server...

A windows will appear asking for a server address. Enter:

smb://live.rd.ucl.ac.uk

in the Server Address: box and optionally, you can click on the + button to store the location. Click on Connect.

There is a further confirmation window to confirm which server you would like to connect to. Please confirm that it says live.rd.ucl.ac.uk and click on Connect.

Connect to Server confirmation on MacOS Sierra

Next you will be asked for a Name and Password. Please enter your seven letter UCL id./username. and your UCL password. Optionally, you can check the Remember this password in my keychain box to have your credentials saved. Then click on Connect.

Username and password entry on MacOS Sierra

Next you will be presented with a volume (share) selection window with all of the CIFS shares that you have at least read access to. You should see homes, your user id./username and at least one project of the form ritd-ag-project-rdabcd-abcdefg. The first two of these are equivalent references to your home area on the storage. The home area is not for storing any significant amount of data; it is space for you only, but limited to a few hundred megabytes.

Please select a project and click on OK

You should now have the CIFS share open in a file browser. If you get an error, you may have taken too long to get through the stages since entering your password. Try going back and either saving the credentials, or moving faster.

View of CIFS share in file browser on MacOS Sierra.

If you look in the left of the window, you will see a Shared section with the beginning of the server address as one of the items. If you click on this, you will see a list of all the available CIFS shares on the RDS service to navigate through.

View of all available CIFS shares in file browser on MacOS Sierra.

Related guides & other info

Help & Support

For further help and assistance you can contact researchdata-support@ucl.ac.uk