Shared filestores
A shared filestore is an area we reserve for you on our central file servers.
We can provide you with a filestore ranging from 1GB to 2TB, and access to your filestore can be restricted to a list of usernames that you can define. You can access your shared filestore in a variety of ways; it can be made visible to you as a network drive on your campus Windows PC, or you can access it via the VPN from any location, for instance.
Why would I want a shared filestore?
Do you need far more quota than we usually allocate to individual users? Or do you need to be able to share a working area with a number of colleagues? Perhaps you just want to put some vitally important data somewhere that you know is backed up? Shared filestores offer you these facilities.
What do I get and what does it cost?
We offer shared filestore known as Storage:
Storage
Each department will be allocated an amount of filestore proportional to the number of staff and any specific needs. This will usually be in the 20 - 70Tb range per department.
There is no charge for this service.
The filestore is managed by your Departmental Computing Officer (DCO). The DCO can control access to the filestore using a simple web interface. Access control for individual folders can be delegated to other members of the department if required.
How do I set up a shared filestore?
The Departmental Computing Officer should contact the IT Support with the following information:
Filestore owner
What is the username of the person who "owns" the filestore? This is the person who will be the main contact for administration purposes - it should normally be the Departmental Computing Officer.
Filestore name
What should we call your filestore? Something short and descriptive (normally a shortened version of your department name) and preferably less than 8 characters. Due to clashes with existing filestores, some negotiation might be necessary.
Filestore size
How large does your filestore need to be? If you are not sure how big you want your filestore to be then we recommend you start small, you can easily add more space later.
How do I use my shared filestore?
From a Windows PC, you can map your shared filestore as a network drive. The "Map Network Drive" tool can be found under the Tools menu of any Explorer window, or by right-clicking on "My Network Places" on your desktop.
You'll be asked for the path of the network drive you wish to map. You should use:
- Storage: \\storage.its.york.ac.uk\MyFilestore
using the name of your own shared filestore in place of "MyFilestore".
If you've asked for your filestore to be made visible from our SFTP service, the path to it will be:
- Storage: available on request
using the name of your shared filestore in place of "MyFilestore".
This is also the path that your filestore will be found under on the central SFTP servers, if you've asked us to make your filestore accessible via SFTP. It should be noted that you must log on to the central SFTP servers, you can't gain access to these shares anonymously.
How do I manage who can get access to my shared filestore
Storage
Storage filestores are managed by the DCO using a web interface. For instructions, see: