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How to access FMRIB file servers over SMB

Introduction

The SMB remote file system access protocol is supported by all major OSes and provides access to your servers files as if they were locally available on your machine. We only allow access to this service from within the FMRIB network trusted networks, so you will need to connect to the FMRIB VPN to access from WiFi, remote locations and restricted FMRIB ethernet networks.

Details on how to connect for each OS are in this section.

SMB File sharing

Connecting to the SMB shares from a macOS computer

To access your home folder, choose Go->Connect to Server from the Finder menu (or type CMD-k). This will open a dialogue box into which you should enter (replacing username with your WIN computer account name): 

 

smb://smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/username

Scratch can be mounted with 

smb://smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/Scratch_username

and Data with 

smb://smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/Data_mygroupfolder

Where mygroupfolder is the /vols/Data subfolder of interest.

If you click on the + symbol to the right of the url entry box then you will add this to the list of favourite servers which you can then use in the future by double clicking on - or see the section on adding to Locations below.

You will be presented with a username/password dialogue box, enter your WIN username and password and click Connect.

MacOSXSMBMount.png 

Although the macOS finder will add a 'smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk' section to the Locations area in the side bar, it will only display your home folder (if this share has been connected to). If you close all windows on your Scratch or /vols/Data folder then you can open a new view by using Finder Go > Go to Folder... and entering /Volumes - you will find the links to the server folders in the view you receive. You can also use this view to add links to your folders to the side bar using the instructions in the next section. 

Adding links to Locations

Use Go > Go to Folder... and enter /Volumes. Find the item corresponding to your share, e.g. username or Scratch_username and drag it to the Locations section of the Finder side-bar. You can now return to this folder (including when you are not currently logged in) or unmount by using the entry in this section.

Disconnecting

Once you have finished with the share, you can un-mount the server by closing all Finder windows on the share and clicking the eject icon next to the server name or individual share name in the 'Locations' section of the Finder side bar:

Screenshot 2023-03-20 at 17.54.10.png

N.B. To avoid potential data loss or computer lockups, ALWAYS disconnect shares before disconnecting from VPN or ethernet.

Connection to the SMB shares from Linux

The following description is based on the Gnome desktop environment for Linux. 

The SMB file servers can be mounted using the Gnome file manager - see Gnome's instructions

The URL to use is as follows.

Home folder:

smb://username@smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/username

Scratch folder:
smb://username@smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/Scratch_username
/vols/Data folder:
smb://username@smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/Data_mygroupfolder

To speed opening of this share in the future, bookmark this location. From the file browser window on the share that initially opened choose Places->Add Bookmark. This will add this share to the Places menu allowing you to open this share from that menu in the future. 

Once you have finished you can disconnect the share by right-clicking on the share's icon in the My Computer window and choosing Unmount Volume

Connecting to the SMB shares from a Windows computer

You can access your files directly from the Windows file browser which can be opened by clicking on the Folder icon in the Windows 11 tool bar.

At the top of the File Explorer window is an address bar - click in this and enter:

Home folder

\\smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk\username

Replace username with your WIN computer account username.

Scratch folder

\\smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk\Scratch_username

Replace username with your WIN computer account username.

/vols/Data folder

\\smb1.services.fmrib.ox.ac.uk\Data_mygroupfolder

Replace mygroupfolder with your allocated /vols/Data folder name.

The first time that you have accessed this share in this login session you will be prompted to login. Enter your username in the form:

username@IPA.FMRIB.OX.AC.UK

Your login details will be cached for a considerable so you can connect to additional shares without needing to re-enter your password. We do not recommend that you remember your password.

To avoid having to re-type the URL every time, once connected to the share, visit the top-level folder in the File Explorer and then click on the '...' in the tool bar and choose Pin to Quick access. A shortcut will now appear in the list of folders on the left of the window.

There is no mechanism to disconnect from the share, so just close all open files and File Browser windows viewing the share before leaving the FMRIB network/VPN.