Useful lab related links.

  1. ELOG
  2. Shared network drive a.k.a Z drive
  3. Extra shared network drive a.k.a X drive
  4. GIT web interface

ELOG

Shared network drive a.k.a Z drive

Use our network drive shared via samba protocol.

Windows people map it as Z: drive (any letter is good but Z: is used across lab computers).

  • Put \\qo.physics.wm.edu\qol_grp_data into the url field
  • Check login as different user
  • use qol as user name
  • If you are lab member you should know the password or ask around if you new

Unix people use

smb://qo.physics.wm.edu/qol_grp_data for permanent mount put the following line into /etc/fstab

//qo.physics.wm.edu/qol_grp_data  /mnt/qol_grp_data/  cifs  credentials=/etc/smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlmv2,rw,fsc,file_mode=0660,dir_mode=0770,uid=qol,gid=qol  0  0

You will need the following to be set in the /etc/smbcredentials file

username=qol
password=you_should_know_it

Also note fsc option: if cachefilesd package installed, the read access to files will be cached. Eugeniy tested this option with Debian bookworm v12.2 on internal WM network, the read speed of cached files was limited to about 12MB/sec which was comparable to the direct uncached read speed. But network activity was clearly lower. It is unclear why cached read was so slow, since the cache was sitting on SSD with throughput of at least 100 MB/sec. So if you want to use cachefilesd test your configuration.

Accessing Network drive from outside of WM

Unfortunately, our mighty IT blocks access to samba drives from outside of WM.

Use secure copy (SCP) clients, good for any OS

You can still access files via scp. For windows people there is a nice client WinSCP, linux don't need a silly GUI.

Once you have your SCP client, connect it to qo.physics.wm.edu use

username=qol
password=you_should_know_it

Once you are there look for z_drive folder.

Mount via sshfs (unix people)

For unix people there is still a way to mount the whole drive via SSHFS (Secure SHell File System) protocol.

Learn your uid and gid by running

id -u
id -g

use them below (mine are 1000, but it likely not the case for you)

sshfs -o uid=1000,gid=1000 [email protected]:/mnt/shared_data/qol_group_shared_data /mnt/qol_grp_data

Mount via rclone (recommended since there is a way to enable cached access)

Another option available to unix people to use rclone utility. It has an option to enable caching so repetative reads will be faster, apparently it will help with simultaneous read and write too. So install rclone and do the following.

Run rclone config and add new 'sftp' remote. For the remote name I used z_drive, for the server name put qo.physics.wm.edu and username qol. You can access this remote with the password or ssh-key which I prefer. Answer config question appropriately.

You can do usual cli magic with rclone, i.e. copy files back and force, but it is convinient to mout such remote with

rclone mount z_drive:z_drive /mnt/qol_grp_data  --vfs-cache-mode full --daemon

Note z_drive:z_drive, the first z_drive refers to the remote name chosen above, the second is the simlink inside home directory of qol user, which points to physical location of shared data at the qo server. To unmount use appropriate command, in my case fusermount -u /mnt/qol_grp_data.

Server configuration of the network drive

For all this jazz to work here the relevant parts of smb.conf on server (note unix extension = no, otherwise cifs mount will not honor creation masks.

[global]

ntlm auth = yes
workgroup = QOL
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
logging = file
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
server role = standalone server
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes

[qol_grp_data]
comment = Main space for QOL lab user, effort should be made to back up this data
path = /mnt/shared_data/qol_group_shared_data/
valid users = qol
force user = qol
force group = qol
read only = no
writable = yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777

[qol_grp_archive]
comment =  Additional space for QOL lab user, intended for less critical data
path = /mnt/shared_data_archive/
valid users = qol
force user = qol
force group = qol
read only = no
writable = yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700
directory mask = 0700
valid users = %S

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no

Extra shared network drive a.k.a X drive

This drive is not backed up, but it has significantly more space. Good location for large files, which maybe useful. Talk to Eugeniy, if you must have this data backed up.

Instructions to connect are similar to Z drive, just replace qol_grp_data --> qol_grp_archive. Windows people, please mount it as X drive, so it is uniform across the lab.

  • Put \\qo.physics.wm.edu\qol_grp_archive into the url field
  • Check login as different user
  • use qol as user name
  • If you are lab member you should know the password or ask around if you new

GIT web interface

Very quick intro to start git

Run with proper email and names

git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email [email protected]

Send Eugeniy your public ssh key. It is generated with

ssh-keygen