Mapping Your CAE Network Drive

Instructions for mapping your CAE network drive

When you are in a CAE Windows lab, your files can be found on your I drive. In CAE Linux labs, this same space will be your default home directory.

These instructions help you access your files from computers outside CAE labs. 
**Note you can only reach your network drive from any UW-Madison campus wireless network, or the Engineering or WiscVPN. Details on how to connect to the Engineering VPN here: Installing and Connecting to VPN. If you have not yet activated your Engineering VPN, please follow the instructions here: Activating VPN Access**

How to map your CAE home directory

Windows

  1. Open "File Explorer" (Folder Icon in taskbar, otherwise under start menu)
file explorer
 
2. Right Click "This PC" on the sidebar and click "Map network drive"
After right clicking "This PC" click "Map network drive" in the context menu
3. In "Drive:" enter any available letter
4. In "Folder:" enter \\files.cae.wisc.edu\[login_name_first_initial]\[login_name].  (For example, for the account johndoe, the path is \\files.cae.wisc.edu\j\johndoe.) 
    Please check the "Connect using different credentials" box to make sure you can sign in with your CAE credentials.  If you only want to have to do this once, choose the checkbox "Reconnect at sign-in."
Visual of example above in step 4.
5. When prompted for your login name and password, be sure to use your CAE login, with the ENGR domain specified before. It should look like: ENGR\johndoe
Image displaying what the username should look like. See step 5
6. Click "Finish."

Mac OS

  1. From Finder, press Command+K
  2. Enter the path to your directory: smb://files.cae.wisc.edu/[login_name_first_initial]/[login_name] (For example, for the account johndoe, the path is \\files.cae.wisc.edu\j\johndoe.) 
  3. Click "Connect"
  4. Enter your CAE login and password, with the ENGR domain specified, e.g. ENGR\johndoe, and click "OK"
  5. The drive is now mounted, however it will disappear when you reboot. To enable persistence do the following:
  6. Go to System Preferences from the Apple menu
  7. Click on "Accounts" then "Login Items"
  8. Click the + button to add another login item
  9. Locate the CAE drive you just added, and select "Add"
  10. Exit out of system preferences

Linux

 

The addresses of CAE smb shares are smb://groupspace.cae.wisc.edu for CAE Groupspace and smb://files.cae.wisc.edu/<FirstLetterOfCAEUsername>/<CAEUsername> for CAE Filespace. You also need the domain to be ENGR and you will use your CAE credentials

Option 1: File manager

In your desktop file browser (eg. Thunar, Dolphin), use the navigation bar and enter in smb://<servername>/<sharename>.

Depending on which distribution of Linux you are using, you may need to click on "Other Locations" and use the "Connect to Server" field instead of just entering the address into the navigation bar. Example screenshots of both Debian and Ubuntu are included below.

 Debian:

     Debian Server Address

 Ubuntu:

     Ubuntu Server Address

You should get a prompt asking for your credentials. Be sure to specify the Domain as ENGR and sign in with your CAE credentials.  You can choose how long the password will be saved, but we would recommend selecting Forget Password Immediately, as shown in the Debian image below.  Depending on your distribution of Linux, you may need to specify you are connecting as an Authorized User, instead of an Anonymous one.

 Debian:

    Debian Login Info

 Ubuntu:

     Ubuntu Login Info

Option 2: Command line

The following command will mount the filesystem in a sub-directory of /run/user/${UID}/gvfs:

$ gio mount smb://<servername>/<sharename>

Make sure the domain is ENGR, and to use your CAE credentials. You can then symlink that somewhere more convenient ie: $ ln -s /run/user/${UID}/gvfs ~/gvfs. Note that gio mount is not persistent and must be run each time the computer is rebooted.

NOTE: You may need to install packages for the commands to be available, including libfuse3 and gvfs-fuse (for Debian/Ubuntu based machines).

Here is an example of creating a mount:

$ gio mount smb://files.cae.wisc.edu/b/buckyb


You can see how much disk space you have available, and view a detailed analysis of the files in your Unix/Windows home directory, on the CAE My Account page under "Disk Space".

See Also


Keywords:
map network drive cae windows linux mapping filespace home directory 
Doc ID:
5937
Owned by:
Noel K. in CAE
Created:
2007-05-27
Updated:
2023-11-15
Sites:
Computer-Aided Engineering