Data Storage - Non-Restricted Data

Data Storage - Non-Restricted Data

The Watson College provides our faculty with a 100 GB quota for non-restricted file storage. A research folder is created for each faculty member. Faculty are encouraged to use this storage to collaborate with their graduate students. Faculty who have identified their graduate students will have individualized subfolders created for each student. Faculty have access to all files and folders within their research folder, while graduate students are restricted to their folder and common folders.

The file storage system is a network attached storage (NAS) appliance that presents as a network file system to the user. The appliance is operating system agnostic, supporting Linux, Microsoft, and iOS devices. The file server supports academics, research, and administrative needs of the school.

The NAS appliance creates hourly snapshots of stored files. Snapshots are aggregated from hourly into daily, the daily into monthly snapshots. The snapshots allow users the ability to restore files that were accidentally deleted or overwritten.

Quota Increase

For activities that require additional storage capacity, the quota can be increased. Request an increase in your storage quota here.

Mapping a research folder on the Lightning file server

On-Campus (Signed in using your BU account)

  1. Open File Explorer "The Folder Icon"
  2. Right Click on "This PC" (Windows 10)
  3. Select "Map network drive"
  4. Select any drive letter from the dropdown
  5. In the folder box copy and paste "\\lightning.bu.binghamton.edu\YourProfessorsResearchDrive"
  6. Click "Finish"
  7. You are now connected to your network drive

Off-Campus

  1. Go to http://ssl.binghamton.edu/
  2. Sign in with your BU account
  3. Download and install "Ivanti" VPN client approporate for your system
  4. Once installed add the server "ssl.binghamton.edu"
  5. You will connect with your BU account, make sure to change the domain drop down to BU\
  6. Once a VPN connection has been extablished, open File Explorer "The Folder Icon"
  7. Right Click on "This PC" (Windows 10)
  8. Select "Map network drive"
  9. Select any drive letter from the dropdown
  10. In the folder box copy and paste "\\lightning.bu.binghamton.edu\YourProfessorsResearchDrive"
  11. Check "Connect using different credentials"
  12. Click "Finish"
  13. In the "Windows Security" windows please use this format
    • username: BU\YourBUUsername
    • password: YourBUPassword
    • Select "OK"
  14. You are now connected to your network drive

You should now see this network drive in "This PC" and be able to save and load data from it.