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GSD Network Resources

In the GSD's networked computing environment, file management systems extend beyond a single computer. Networked file systems are very useful when any of the following needs arise, to:

• Share files with other users
• Manage email
• Store files on the net
• Transfer files from your computer to another computer inside the GSD, or from home
• Post files on the world wide web

The networked resources of the GSD have evolved to help users meet these various needs. There are several networked file systems that differ in terms of their security, accessibility and file space limitations. All of these systems are equally accessible from PCs and Macs. This page provides an overview of the capabilities and relationships among GSD Networked Resources.

Click for larger image

Networked Resources

The diagram above shows the connectivity between users in the studio and users on the internet, with GSD servers and networked file resources. Below, we discuss each of the elements of this system.

• The GSD Network Inside and Out
• Your Network Home Directory -- The hub for network file storage and transfer.
  • public_html
  • nettmp
  • Software directory and Keyserver
  • Courses folder
  • aux(iliary)' folder
• Some Thoughts on Local File systems and Peer to Peer Sharing
• Backing Up Your Work -- If not you, who?

The GSD Network Inside and Out

Many of the information and computing resources available through the GSD are distributed and accessible through the network. There are basically two views of the GSD network that you will see, the view from a computer that is On the GSD Local Area Network (LAN) and the view from Outside the GSD LAN. In the latter case, a person who has no GSD computing account is restricted by our firewall to seeing only the web site, and to sending email to one of our mail servers.

Users who can authenticate themselves with a GSD username and password have many options for accessing GSD resources from the general internet. The most powerful of these tools is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) a service that is offered by Harvard's University Information Systems, that lets any computer, properly authenticated, to behave as if it was inside the GSD LAN. See the GSD Manual page, About the VPN. There are other ways of moving files around on GSD filesystems from outside the LAN, noteably Secure Copy (scp), and Secure FTP (sftp), and Secure Shell (ssh); these are each discussed on the page, Remote Access.

Your Home Directory -- Access Point for GSD File Systems

Everyone who holds an account on the GSD network is given a directory on the server terra. This directory is a portal to other networked file systems supported by the GSD. By default, each user has 50 megabytes of storage space that other users may be able to read, but only the owner is able to delete or add files to, the user's home directory.

Each user's home directory contains virtual folders that link to other filesystems that have different purposes and levels of security, such as shared course and project folders, and large temporary storage spaces; each of these will be discussed below. For now, it is enough to know that your home directory is the key to a range of GSD networked resources.

If you are using a Mac or a PC within the GSD network, or from the vpn, you may attach your home directory and all of its contents to your computer as a shared file system. This is accomplished through a Server Message Block SMB, or SAMBA connection to our primary file server, terra. Instructions for attaching your home directory from machines inside the GSD can be found on the pages Mapping Network Drives from a Mac and Mapping Network Drives from Windows. For information on how to access your home directory from outside the GSD, see the manual page, Remote Access.

Several special subdirectories are provided in each user's home directory. Some of these are symbolic links which facilitate access to file system resources which are actually outside of the user's homedir. Other subdirectories, including those that users create for themselves, take up user quota. It is important that users manage their home directory and inbox in order to not go over quota. To find out more on how you can check your home directory or mail quotas, refer to the Email/Account FAQs page of the online manual.

public_html

This directory is the user's portal to the world wide web. Files placed in this directory are accessible to anyone on the internet via a url of the form, "/~yourusername". Users have exclusive access to write and delete files within their public_html directory. For more information on publishing materials from your GSD web site, see Web Publishing at the GSD in this manual.

nettmp

This directory is a symbolic link to a large hard disk intended for short term temp storage of files while transferring files between machines. Any GSD user on the network, or using ftp from anywhere on the internet has read-write access to this directory. Files stored here are not secure, therefore nothing should be put into nettmp which is not easily replaced. This directory is kept free (most of the time) by an automatic process which, each hour, runs and deletes any file or directory over 24 hours old. If this volume becomes full, files will be deleted, oldest first, so that other people can use the space.

software

All GSD owned software which students can install is accessible on the shared drive: desiognapps.design.harvard.edu. Information on installing applications and staying connected to the keyserver may be found in the page Accessing GSD Software.

aux(iliary)

This folder -- caled 'aux' or 'auxiliary' is an empty folder provided for your personal or shared files, with a much larger disk quota (1 GigaByte) but also NO BACKUP system. Although the disks are on a RAID system, and are relatively well-protected from ordinary disk failure, files in this folder are not backed up, and so always have a small risk associated with them.

Files in this directory are by default READABLE by other users, via the web, at the address http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/aux/username

This makes this aux file space a useful way to share large files with others, for example, in a less volatile way than using nettmp.

If you put HTML files in this directory, such as index.htm, they will work the same way as all HTML files in your personal web space (so, this is a good place to put large DV, animation files, or other media content to be shared via the web.)

If you wish to make these files un-readable to the public, use your operating system's 'file permissions' mechanism to make them readable only to yourself. Contact helpdesk if you have questions.

* If you require a larger disk quota than 1 GB, it may be possible; submit a request via helpdesk, with a reason for your request.)

shared

Shared Course or Project Directories: Faculty or other project organizers may provide access to on-line resources through the 'shared' folder. Inside the 'shared' directory are other course and project folders. You will have permission to open or read only those for which you have been granted acess, by being enrolled in a course, or participating in a project, etc. In these cases, the details about how this file system should be used should be provided by the instructors. For information on applying for a course or project disk or web space see the manual page Course, Project Disk or Web Space. (If you cannot access a folder that you should be able, please report the details to helpdesk.)

Some Thoughts about Local File systems and Peer to Peer Sharing

There are many useful file systems on the GSD network, but by far the best file system to use in many cases is the hard drive on the computer you are using. Here are a few reasons:

• The path from the processor to the local hard drives is much simpler, faster, and more reliable than the path from the processor to networked file systems -- see above diagram.
• The hard drive on your own computer is substantially bigger than your secure space in your home directory.
• Within the design school, you can share directories from your local computer with other users. Consult the documentation from your operating system for more information on Peer to Peer file sharing.

Note that the first point in the list above also pertains to public computers but there is a major distinction: local hard drives on public computers are very insecure!! You should work with your files on the local hard drive to take advantage of the processing efficiency then save to your home directory or file storage media. In short, you should always keep recent versions of whatever it is you are working on backed up on your home directory AND on at least one removable storage disk.

Backing Up Your Work

The networked file systems are backed up for restoration in the event of catastrophic server-side disk failure. We do not have systems in place for backing up files which are accidentally deleted, or corrupted. It is up to each user to back up his/her own work. For more information on backups at the GSD, see Thinking about Backups and Archiving