Requesting ResearchDrive

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. See ResearchDrive - Getting Started for more details. Once you have filled out the request form, email the ResearchDrive team and ask that SSCC staff be allowed to manage permissions in your ResearchDrive.

SSCC cannot manage ResearchDrive permissions for SMPH affiliates. If you are an SMPH affiliate, you will need to contact SMPH IT for assistance with managing ResearchDrive permissions. 

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.

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

Giving Someone Access to Your ResearchDrive

Once your ResearchDrive is configured to allow SSCC staff to manage your permissions, there are two types of permissions you can grant: 

• You can give collaborators access to your entire ResearchDrive (including all project folders)

• You can define “projects” within your ResearchDrive and give collaborators access only to specific 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, but collaborators with access to your entire ResearchDrive will be able to access all 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. 

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. You can make changes later by emailing the SSCC Help Desk, or by going to the SSCC’s self-service portal and adding people to or removing them from the group associated with your project. Projects will be created as subfolders of a folder called sscc in your ResearchDrive.

If you want to manage permissions by giving people access to your entire ResearchDrive, there's nothing more to set up. You can give people access or take it away by emailing the SSCC Help Desk or by going to the SSCC’s self-service portal and adding them to or removing them from the group called rdrive-netid-lab, where netid is replaced by your NetID.

Requests to give someone access to ResearchDrive or a project in ResearchDrive must always come from the ResearchDrive owner or their authorized delegate. 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.

Connecting to ResearchDrive from Windows and Mac

On your own computer or Winstat, you can map a drive to it just like SSCC network drives.

If the ResearchDrive you'll use is organized by project, map \\researchdrive.ssc.wisc.edu\project. If you're using Windows, map it as the R: drive.

To access an entire ResearchDrive, whether it's yours or someone else's that you've been given access to, map \\research.drive.wisc.edu\netid, where netid should be replaced by the NetID of the ResearchDrive owner.

For example, if you've been given access to PI bbadger's project called on_wisconsin, map R: to \\researchdrive.ssc.wisc.edu\project and then the project will be R:\on_wisconsin. If you have been given access to all of bbadger's ResearchDrive (or if you are bbadger) and map N: to \\research.drive.wisc.edu\bbadger, you'll find the on_wisconsin project in N:\sscc\on_wisconsin.

When you are asked to log in, 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). Then 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). It will mount any ResearchDrive projects you have access to under /rdproject and any complete ResearchDrives you have access to under /researchdrive/netid, where netid is replaced by the NetID of the project owner.

For example, PI bbadger's project called on_wisconsin could be found at either /rdproject/on_wisconsin or /researchdrive/bbadger/sscc/on_wisconsin.

Those directories 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 long backups are retained and 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.