Faculty (and others who are eligible) can request their ResearchDrive space by filling out the ResearchDrive Request Form. It will then be created by the ResearchDrive team.

Graduate students and others who need to store research data should talk with an advisor, supervisor, or another faculty member about using their ResearchDrive space. Faculty, we are counting on you to make sure all graduate students can store their data in ResearchDrive.

Giving Someone Access to Your ResearchDrive

If you let us, SSCC staff can manage permissions in your ResearchDrive space just like we manage permissions for SSCC project directories. If SSCC staff can manage your permissions, then you can give someone access or take it away by emailing the SSCC Help Desk or using the SSCC’s self-service portal.

Unfortunately, the SSCC can only give access to people who have SSCC accounts, so if you are sharing your ResearchDrive with people who do not have SSCC accounts you’ll need to do that using the DoIT-provided tool for managing permissions, called Manifest. 

If you want to allow the SSCC to manage your Research Drive permissions, what you need to do (or not do) depends on your home department:

Once the SSCC is allowed to manage your Research Drive permissions, we can do so in either of two ways:

• We can give collaborators access to your entire ResearchDrive

• We can define “projects” within your ResearchDrive and give collaborators access only to specific projects

The first method is simplest, but it’s all or nothing. If you need to give any collaborators access to some but not all of the data in your ResearchDrive, you need to use the second method. We cannot set different permissions for different parts of a project, so if files should be accessible to different groups of people they should be in different projects. Note that you can mix these methods: you can give some collaborators access to your entire ResearchDrive and others access only to a specific project.

If you want to manage permissions by project, start by filling out the project request form and tell us the name of the project and who should have access to it initially. SSCC-managed projects will be put under a folder in your ResearchDrive called sscc, so if your username is bbadger and you request a project called on_wisconsin, it will be /researchdrive/bbadger/sscc/on_wisconsin on SSCC Linux servers. On a Windows computer, if you map the R: drive to \\researchdrive.ssc.wisc.edu\dfsroot\ResearchDrive it will be R:\bbadger\sscc\on_wisconsin.

To add or remove users, either to a project or your entire ResearchDrive, you can email the Help Desk and tell us what changes need to be made, or use the SSCC’s self-service portal.

Requests to give someone access to ResearchDrive or a project in ResearchDrive must always come from the ResearchDrive owner. If you need access to someone’s ResearchDrive, reach out to them.

Connecting to ResearchDrive

ResearchDrive is available from anywhere on the UW-Madison campus network, or off-campus via VPN. On your own computer or Winstat, you can map a drive to it just like SSCC network drives. The location to map is \\researchdrive.ssc.wisc.edu\dfsroot\ResearchDrive. It will contain a folder for each ResearchDrive you have access to. You can also map drives to specific folders. For example, if you mapped a drive to \\researchdrive.ssc.wisc.edu\dfsroot\ResearchDrive\bbadger\sscc\on_wisconsin then that drive would open the on_wisconsin project directly.

Your username must be given as NetID@ad.wisc.edu where NetID should be replaced by your NetID (not the NetID of the person whose ResearchDrive you are using). When asked, give your NetID password (not SSCC password).

Connecting to ResearchDrive from Linux and Slurm

To access ResearchDrive from Linstat you'll use the rdmount command. You'll then be asked to provide your NetID password (not SSCC password).

When you run rdmount, the appropriate ResearchDrive(s) will be mounted as /researchdrive/NetID on the server you are currently using, where NetID is replaced by the NetID of the person whose ResearchDrive you are using. (rdmount knows about all the ResearchDrives you own or to which SSCC staff have given you access.) That directory will be available until the next time the server is rebooted. For the next seven days, any SSCC Linux server you log into or submit a Slurm job to will also automatically mount that directory. After seven days, ResearchDrive will still be available on the servers you've logged into (unless they have been rebooted) but will no longer be mounted automatically on new servers. That could cause problems with jobs submitted to Slurm, for example.

We suggest you run rdmount every seven days so that ResearchDrive will always be available. You'll get a reminder when you log in if your ResearchDrive credentials have expired.

Transferring Data To and From ResearchDrive

You can move data to and from ResearchDrive using standard tools, including drag-and-drop to a mapped drive for all but the largest transfers. The following articles describe more options.

• ResearchDrive - Transferring Data with an Apple Computer
• ResearchDrive - Transferring Data with a Linux Computer
• ResearchDrive - Transferring Data with a Windows Computer

Backups and Restores

The SSCC does not handle backups or restoring files from ResearchDrive. Refer to ResearchDrive - Restoring Files or Folders from Snapshots for information, including how you can do your own restores. If you need further assistance with restoring files from Research Drive, contact the ResearchDrive team at researchdrive@wisc.edu.