UBFS: Difference between revisions

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The UBFS folder in your home directory contains data and lots of other goodies you may need to access at some point. The good people at UBIT grant permissions to specified UB users to be able to access this network folder.
The good people at UBIT have provided us with a 1TB network folder and allow specified UB users to be able to access this network folder. In The Before Times, there used to be a ubfs folder in your home directory that you needed to manually mount. This is no longer the case, so if you're just returning to the lab after an extended vacation, you will find our shared drive in the /ubfs/ folder:


If you do not have a UBFS folder in your home directory, one will be created for you automatically by running the <code>ubmount.sh</code> script. This script sends the UBIT fileserver all the information it needs in order to grant you access to the drive. However, this script also requires you to provide it with a few parameters, which we store in a file called <code>ubfs.keys</code> that sits in your home directory in a place that only you can see it.
cd /ubfs/caset/cpmcnorg/


== Creating a ubfs.keys configuration file ==
Also, your own network folder can be found in:
Open a terminal (ctrl-alt-T).
  cd /ubfs/myfiles/
Move to the .config directory
  cd ~/.config 
Check that the ubfs.keys file exists (when you execute the <code>touch</code> command, if the file exists, the Last Accessed timestamp gets updated but nothing special otherwise happens. If the file doesn't exist, then it is automatically created).
touch ubfs.keys
Open the file to edit
nano ubfs.keys


In the ubfs.keys file add the following:
=Possible Problems=
username=''YourUBname''
==I Can't Access the Shared Folder!==
password=''YourUBpassword''
Access to /ubfs/caset/ uses Kerberos authentication of your UBIT credentials. When you log in to the workstation, you get a temporary authentication token that's good for a short period of time -- 24 hours or so, I think. If you log in to the workstation and leave the session open for an extended period to run a process (e.g., running data preprocessing over the weekend), then your access token will have expired by the time you log back in (your session will have been idle, but not terminated). If that's the case, you won't be able to access the ubfs folder.
domain=AD
Fortunately, the fix for this problem is easy: log out and log back in. This generates a new authentication token.
 
Of course, you need to replace '''YourUBname''' and '''YourUBpassword''' with your actual UBIT name and password (the same info you would use to log into any UB computer system, including your email).
 
'''Note:''' when the ubfs.keys credential file is parsed by the ubmount.sh command, the parser pays attention to ''every single character'', even whitespaces. Naturally, whitespace doesn't show up at all in the text editor -- the only clue that it's there is that there will be space at the end of the printable characters and the cursor. Make sure you don't have any unintended whitespace in your ubfs.keys file. If there are, these whitespace characters will be assumed to be part of your username or password (which is probably not correct) and will lead to puzzling "permission denied" errors, as when there are trailing spaces in the example below (highlighted in gray for visibility):
 
username=joeshmoe<span style="background:#c0c0c0">      </span>
password=mypassword<span style="background:#c0c0c0">    </span>
domain=AD
Push ctrl-o to save, enter, and ctrl-x to exit. Your ubfs.keys file is now correctly configured for this computer (you will have to do this on each computer you work on).
 
== Using ubmount.sh to mount the ubfs directory ==
Is your ~/ubfs folder empty (or nonexistent)? Well guess what, you need to mount (or remount) it!
 
Just open up your Terminal (ctrl-alt-T) and run the command:
ubmount.sh
 
Your UBFS folder should be good as new! If not, see below
 
==What am I looking for?==
After it has been mounted, your ~/ubfs folder will contain several dozen directories, only one of which contains our files. You will be looking for the following subdirectory:
~/ubfs/cpmcnorg/
This folder contains many subdirectories of useful resources and is where we plan to store all of our raw fMRI data (for the time being, at least)
 
== Mounting Errors ==
===Permission Denied===
Especially for new lab members, it is possible that you were not added to the '''lab''' group of users on a particular machine (or else if you were, that you had not logged out since that time). Check with a system administrator to see if you are part of the '''lab''' group, and ask to be added if not. If you are part of that group, try logging out and logging back in again.
===UBFS Unavailable===
When you run <code>ubmount.sh</code> you will get an <code>Input/Output Error</code> message if there is some sort of network problem at the UBIT end of things. This is out of our control, but you can check on the status of the UBFS system at the following website before bugging the UBIT people about a problem they are already working on:
[http://www.buffalo.edu/content/www/ubit/news/alerts.html/ UBIT Alerts]
Look for an alert with the heading '''UBFS Unavailable''' or something similar. If such an alert exists, just hang tight until it gets resolved. If not, ask a system administrator to file a ticket with the CASEIT group.

Latest revision as of 13:53, 25 May 2021

The good people at UBIT have provided us with a 1TB network folder and allow specified UB users to be able to access this network folder. In The Before Times, there used to be a ubfs folder in your home directory that you needed to manually mount. This is no longer the case, so if you're just returning to the lab after an extended vacation, you will find our shared drive in the /ubfs/ folder: 

cd /ubfs/caset/cpmcnorg/

Also, your own network folder can be found in: 

cd /ubfs/myfiles/

Possible Problems

I Can't Access the Shared Folder!

Access to /ubfs/caset/ uses Kerberos authentication of your UBIT credentials. When you log in to the workstation, you get a temporary authentication token that's good for a short period of time -- 24 hours or so, I think. If you log in to the workstation and leave the session open for an extended period to run a process (e.g., running data preprocessing over the weekend), then your access token will have expired by the time you log back in (your session will have been idle, but not terminated). If that's the case, you won't be able to access the ubfs folder. Fortunately, the fix for this problem is easy: log out and log back in. This generates a new authentication token.

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