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Mounting network drives

What is mounting?

To use the central disk space you must connect to the network drives to which you have access. You need to mount your network drives.

When a network drive is mounted, you will see the drive letter and/or disk name associated with the disk space in the (Windows) Explorer or (Mac) Finder. You can then open files or save them on the network drive.

A number of network drives are mounted automatically on the Athena platform and all PCs that have joined the Active Directory domain.

ⓘ You will have to add new network drives.
Tip: first check if your network drives are mounted automatically.

How to mount?

Mount on a Windows device

SMB version 3.1.1

The network shares use SMB version 3.1.1
On outdated PCs this might not work.
Consult this overview of Windows versions and their SMB support.

Connected to UGentNet

Note: the pc must be connected correctly to UGentNet. This means that — if you are outside UGentNet — you first need to set up a VPN connection.

Drive letters

While mounting you need to assign a (drive letter) to the network disk.

A number of drive letters is reserved. You should not use these.
Following drive letters are reserved: A, B, C, H, S, W, X, Y and Z.

Overview of drive letters and network disk
Drive letter Network disk
In the drive mappings below, replace jpeeters with your own UGent username.
H: for your home drive, your personal disk;
is attached automatically on Athena and all PCs which joined the Active Directory domain.
Drive mapping is: \\files.ugent.be\jpeeters\home
S: only for UGent staff: access to all your shares at one point;
is attached automatically on Athena and all PCs which joined the Active Directory domain.
Drive mapping is: \\files.ugent.be\jpeeters\shares
W: for your personal webspace and webshares
Drive mapping is: \\files.ugent.be\jpeeters\www
  1. Click on Desktop.
  2. Click on the Windows button + E. Explorer opens.
  3. Click on Computer.
  4. Click on Map Network Drive.
  5. Use a drive letter which is not reserved and which is not yet in use.
  6. Fill in the Path \\files.ugent.be\jpeeters\ in and confirm with OK.
  7. Activate Reconnect at sign-in.
  8. If you are using a computer that is not installed using the UGent rollout, and you are outside UGentNet select Connect using different credentials
  9. Click on Finish.
  10. You will now be asked to fill in your credentials.
    Add ugent.be\ before your username, e.g. ugent.be\jpeeters
    Windows referenties
    Check Remember my credentials only on desktop PCs permanently connected to UGentNet

Mounting on Mac OS

Note: In the drive mappings below, replace jpeeters with your own UGent username.

UGentNet

Note: the pc must be connected correctly to UGentNet. This means that — if you are outside UGentNet — you first need to set up a VPN connection.

Drive name

Mac OS X does not use drive letters but uses drive names to refer to a mounted network drive.

Use this method to reach your network drives:
Click in Finder op Go < Connect to server and enter this:
smb://UGENT\jpeeters@files.ugent.be/jpeeters


Mounting on Linux (including Ubuntu)

Note: In the drive mappings below, replace jpeeters with your own UGent username.

SMB version 3.1.1

The shares use SMB version 3.1.1.
On some outdated installations this might not work.
Linux kernels older than version 4.17 (see Linux kernel version history) have a bug which causes errors while mounting SMB drives.
Check your kernel version and keep your system up-to-date.

UGentNet

Note: the computer must be connected to UGentNet. If you are outside UGentNet you need to activate VPN first.

Open a share with smbclient

The command smbclient gives you a temporary ftp-like access to a network share.

Add the parameter -m smb3.
E.g.: smbclient -U UGENT/jpeeters //files.ugent.be/jpeeters -m smb3

Once you entered the command you'll be asked the password.

Mounting smb shares

Make sure to add following options (e.g. in /etc/fstab): vers=3.11 and echo_interval=5.
Consult the man page for mount.cifs.

Note: to use DFS links you need both a recent version of cifs-utils and keyutils.


To mount a generic share:

First make the mountpoint (this needs sudo):
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/<sharename>/

Make a file with your (or those of a systemuser) UGent credentials:
$ mkdir -p /home/<local_username>/.credentials/
$ touch /home/<local_username>/.credentials/UGent-credentials
ⓘ Protect that folder and file:
chmod -R go-rwx /home/<local_username>/.credentials/

Add these lines to the UGent-credentials file (use nano, vi or another texteditor):
user=jpeeters
pass=<ugent_password>
dom=UGENT
 ⓘ All the data in this file are case-sensitive.

Add a line to the /etc/fstab file (sudo needed):
//files.ugent.be/jpeeters/shares/<sharename> /mnt/<sharename> cifs credentials=/home/<local_username>/.credentials/UGent-credentials,noperm,vers=3.11,sec=ntlmv2i 0 0


To mount a webshare, type https://<webshare>.ugent.be/

First make a mountpoint and credentials file as described above.
Make a separate credentials file for each account.

Add a line to the /etc/fstab file:
//files.ugent.be/jpeeters/www/shares/<sharename> /mnt/<sharename> cifs credentials=/home/<local_username>/.credentials/UGent-credentials,noperm,vers=3.11,sec=ntlmv2i 0 0


To mount your personal webshare, type https://users.ugent.be/~jpeeters/

First make a mountpoint and credentials file as described above.
Make a separate credentials file for each account.

Add a line to the /etc/fstab file:
//files.ugent.be/jpeeters/www/ /mnt/<sharename> cifs credentials=/home/<local_username>/.credentials/UGent-credentials,noperm,vers=3.11,sec=ntlmv2i 0 0


Remarks

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