Digital storage/backups

Owned by Wesley Chatham
Last updated: May 31, 2023 by Veran Flavour
2 min read

Science Computing now offers digital backup solutions to research groups. We utilize high-redundancy storage servers that are partitioned on a per-group basis to provide private and shared folders, allowing groups to collaborate and store files securely. The default offering is 1TB.

Availability | Maintenance | Off-Site Redundancy | Access Instructions

Availability

We have implemented new servers to deliver data storage. Please contact Paul Miskovsky for more information.

Maintenance

Patches and updates will be most often on Sunday mornings. Please plan accordingly.

Off-site redundancy

Our storage and backup are currently housed in a single site for setup. Discussions are occurring regarding moving the secondary copy to another site on campus.

Access instructions:

Windows | Mac

Storage folders are set up per request by contacting Paul Miskovsky.

Once set up, the storage server can be accessed by:

Mapping the shared folder

**In order to follow these instructions and map your scinas1 folder from off-campus or wireless on-campus, you will need to install and connect to the campus VPN.

Windows

  • Open "File Explorer" and highlight “This PC” on the left.

  • At the top, click the “Computer” tab and select “Map network drive.”

    • Choose "X:" from the dropdown and enter: \\scinas1.uwaterloo.ca\<folder name> in the address field.

    • If you are on a Nexus machine, use the default checkboxes.

    • If you are on any other machine, check the box next to “Connect using different credentials” so that it doesn’t automatically use your local credentials, which will not work.

  • When prompted for credentials, enter “NEXUS\WatIAMuserid” in the username field and your WatIAM password in the password field.

    • If you don’t want to have to enter your credentials every time you access the folder after a reboot, check the box next to “Remember my credentials." 

Mac:

  • Click the desktop.

  • On the top menu, select Go > Connect to server.

    • For the server location enter: scinas1.uwaterloo.ca/<folder name>

  • In the authentication dialogue, enter "NEXUS\WatIAMuserid" in the username field and your WatIAM password in the password field.

    • If you don't want to have to enter your credentials every time you access the folder after a reboot, check the box next to "Remember this password in my keychain."