All Ross faculty, staff, and PhD students are allotted space on the
Ross Microsoft Windows file servers to store data (commonly referred to as the
U: drive) and publish web documents (commonly referred to as Webspace). Use this
space to store important documents, research data sets, confidential files, and
documents that have long, historical value to the Ross community. Users have
full control over the underlying organization.
Ross departments, programs, centers and institutes have a separated
shared network drive for collaborative work (usually the S: drive). This shared
network space allows multiple people within the same department to work on,
share and save documents that pertain to groups within a department. It is
possible for people outside of the department to be granted permission into
specific file folders at the request of the department director or chair. As
with individual file space, use this space to organize, share and protect
information that pertains to the entire organization, i.e. strategy, policy,
budget, HR, etc.
All
Ross students, as well as faculty and staff, are allocated space on the
Institutional File Service (IFS) provided by the central University IT group
(ITS). IFS is a central file
storage, sharing, and retrieval system that you can access from Macintosh,
Windows, and Unix computers. IFS provides a convenient way to store, share,
publish and protect documents using a 'Public', 'Shared' and 'Private' folder
structure. There is a quota for this storage. You can also easily publish
information to the Web by placing documents in a special folder under your 'Public' folder.
Faculty and PhD
students have access to a Research Computing environment that consists of
several high-performance servers in a grid configuration running Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. These systems are designed to run computationally intensive
numerical calculations as well as large-scale statistical applications. All
nodes are connected to the Business School main network and, in turn, to desktop
computers located in offices here, at home, and around the world. Available
software includes mathematical and statistical software; compilers and
development tools; and Internet tools.
Finally, everyone
has access to file space on Webspace, which is powered by the Microsoft
SharePoint technology to easily store and share information, self create private
sites, establish access permissions for members of project teams, create shared
calendars that integrate with Microsoft Exchange, build project task lists, and
much more. Webspace is integrated into iMpact as 'My Sites'.
Benefits of Network File Space
Sure, you can easily store all of your important documents on your
laptop or the hard drive of your desktop computer. You're probably thinking,
"hey, what're the chances that my computer will stop working or that my hard
drive will fail anyway?" Greater than you might think. Sending a damaged hard
drive to a repair facility to try and read the data can cost thousands of
dollars. So, pretty soon you are buying external hard drives and complicated
software to backup your local computer.
And, when you need to share files, you probably think it's easier
to send the files and datasets to people using email. Perhaps, but that's also a
big risk to take. Using email to share just clogs up everyone's email and you
lose track of which version is most current. Besides, try sending gigabytes of a
dataset or digitized information in email and see how many email services block
your email because it's too big.
Keeping data and files on your local computer may be great if you
have extra time and really want to become your own technology support
professional. If that doesn't sound too attractive, strongly consider using Ross
Network File Storage and/or the UM IFS system for these benefits:
- Network files are backed up nightly making a restore possible
should the network drive become corrupted, data become infected with a virus, or
if a user accidentally deletes files.
- User data is protected by a login ID and password ensuring the
highest level of data security and confidentiality.
- The Ross Windows File Space works directly from all Microsoft
business software, like Office and SharePoint, making your work much easier.
- Network files can be accessed pretty easily from off-campus and
anywhere in the world, even when you don't use your own computer, using a
variety of common applications, like File Transfer Protocol (or FTP).
Network Drive Mappings
| Network Drives
|
Departments |
Fac/Staff
PhD
|
Students
|
S:Drive
(Shared Network Drive)
|
|
|
|
|
IFS Space
|
|
|
|
|
SharePoint WebSpace
|
|
|
|
Reseach Computing
|
|
|
|
Network Storage Quotas
The amount of allocated storage space on the Ross Network is based
on the user's classification as follows:
CAEN provides 5 GB of storage space to all regular CoE faculty and enrolled students.
1 GB is provided to regular CoE staff, and to non-Engineering students who are eligible for CAEN computing accounts.
Space for CAEN account holders can be accessed via CAEN's main storage server address: storage.engin.umich.edu.
Backup and Recovery of Data (ShadowCopy)
Network storage is highly protected and the best place to store your important information. All data on network servers are backed up several times during the day. Digital "snap shots" of the global file space are taken several times a day and stored on high-speed disk in case you made a mistake and need to recover a previous version by yourself. This process is called 'ShadowCopy'. These snap shots get written to tape every night. Weekly tapes get sent to a company called Iron Mountain that stores the tapes in an off site, highly secure archive facility. The weekly tapes are stored off-site for a maximum of one year. You should not store important data on your local computer where hard drive crashes are common.
If you accidentally delete a file or a file becomes corrupted, and the file is relatively new, ShadowCopy can restore a previously saved version of the file. If the file or version of the file is older than a week, contact the HelpDesk (615-3000) to ask the file be restored. The time required to complete the restore process will vary depending upon the size and complexity of the request. Please note that files created and lost between each ShadowCopy will not be available for restore. Save your work often to reduce the risk of lost work.
Backup and Recovery of Email (Vaulting)
Both Ross (Exchange) and central University (IMAP) email is archived and protected in the same careful and rigorous way as data files. Email is only guaranteed for recovery within two weeks of being deleted. In other words, as long as you keep an email on your email system, it is backed-up and can be restored. Once you delete an email, it can only be recovered within two weeks of the deletion. Files can be restored for up to a year. Email can only be restored for up to two weeks per University guidelines and policy.
Ross Exchange email is stored on high-speed disk to give you fast access to your email, calendar, contacts and tasks. All email that you have not accessed (read) in 3 months (90 days) is moved to a lower cost, lower speed disk. This process is called "email vaulting". Using this technology allows us to provide you with higher email quotas so you do not need to spend time archiving email into .PST files that can become scattered over different computer and can become obsolete as version of Exchange change.
Even though email backup is easy and convenient, never keep email you do not need or want. Practice "green computing" by keeping your email account as small as possible. Delete your "deleted" and "junk" email often.
"Cleaning" your Network File Space (U:/, R:/, IFS and Webspace)
File and email quotas are very generous. You can store a lot of
information on the network for a very long time. Still, do take the time to
clean up your electronic information in the same way you would clean up your
office and desk space. Storing old or unwanted information on the network is a
waste of resources. More unwanted and unnecessary network files means the
purchase of more expensive tapes for archiving and a longer time to protect the
files that you really need protected.
To use your network file space most efficiently and to free up
space:
-
Delete data that is no longer needed.
-
Delete folders from shared space, like a Department folder, when
people leave.
-
Do not keep several versions or copies of the same file.
-
Move seldom used data to a CD or Portable Hard Drive.
- Do not
store data that is inappropriate and non-work related such as music, videos and
personal documents. Never store files that violate copyright laws.
Accessing your Network File Space Remotely
Network files can be accessed pretty easily from off-campus and anywhere in world using common applications, like File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Remote Desktop (see sidebar for more information).
Alternate Storage Locations
On those occasions when you do need to store files and other forms of data outside of the Ross Network File Space services, consider these options:
Portable Hard Drive - Most portable (external) hard drives on the market today connect to a compatible computer's USB port, Firewire port or both. Some require a software installation for a local access client on your computer. The manufacturer is not as important as the amount of storage, the size of the drive and the cost to meet your needs. The size of these drives can range from a few pounds to the size of a deck of cards. The disadvantages of external hard drives are that they are vulnerable to damage from dropping, electric shock (i.e. static electricity), loss, theft, and can become infected with viruses. 
USB Flash RAM Drive ("Thumb Drive") - These are nonvolatile RAM chips that connect to the USB port of your computer and are recognized as a drive by your computer. Most RAM chips do not require any additional software installation on your computer to function. In other words, you can walk up to any computer with a USB port, plug your RAM drive in, and use the drive. These store much less data than a comparable hard drive, but are much more portable. The advantages of this option are that drives are very small (pocket size), hold a large amount of data, and can be used on virtually any computer with a USB port without having to install software. These drives are susceptible to electric shock (i.e. static electricity) and like all other options, can become infected with viruses.- Recordable CD (CD-R/RW) - Compact Disc Read/Write drives are produced as internal or external models (external models plug into the computer's USB port). A single CD can store up to 700MB of data. There are two varieties:
CD Recordable (CD-R) discs allow you to write a file to the disc only once and you can continue to write to the disc until you close the session. If you have changes to a file that is already stored to the CD, you need to save the changes under a different name or to a different disc. Also, files cannot be deleted off of a CD-R disk. Once the disk is full, or the session closed, by, for example, removing the disc from the device, it can never be written to again.
CD Read/Write (CDRW) discs function much like a hard drive in that files can be updated and deleted. CD-RW drives can read both CD-RW and CD-R disks; however, they require a CD- RW disk when writing. Note that some older CD-R drives cannot read CD-RW disks.
The disadvantages of CDs are that they are easily scratched if not handled properly and they can warp is exposed to direct sunlight.
CAUTION: If you lose an external drive, you permanently lose the information unless you have backed-up the drive to some other device. If you lose a portable drive, you assume the risk of the loss of any of the confidential data that was on the drive at the time. This might have very severe negative consequences to the University of Michigan. Any loss must be reported to the Director of Computing Services immediately.
Alternate File Backup Software
Most storage devices intended as a backup option come with their own backup software. Microsoft and Apple provide a data backup program that comes standard with the operating system, called "Backup and Restore Center" and "Time Machine" respectively. Backup software usually allows you to select what you want to archive (data, programs, whole drives, OS, or folders) and choose one of the media types (see Alternate Storage Locations above). Backup procedures can usually be scheduled to be performed automatically. Again, this is for only those times when you cannot use Ross Network File services.