Connecting to new server Locations of pangea files on new server More server info
Last revision September 4, 2008
User logins to the pangea.stanford.edu server will end on September 10 as we move all files to the new high performance, high capacity School of Earth Sciences file server, named sesfs.stanford.edu. This is part of the School's plan to replace the old general purpose "pangea" server with modern specialized servers.
This move affects you if:
Pangea will be shutdown on Wednesday, September 10, from 5:00 pm to midnight to migrate files. Beginning September 11, 2008, logins to pangea will be rejected. You must connect directly to the new sesfs.stanford.edu file server to access directories as network file shares. You may also connect via the sftp protocol to the new sestransfer.stanford.edu server to perform file transfers.
ERE PC USERS MAY TEMPORARILY BE UNABLE TO CONNECT. See details in the connection section, below.
These new servers only accept standard full-service SUNet IDs for logins. Once files are transferred on September 10, we will no longer maintain separate pangea accounts. We have made some special provisions for holders of guest and alumni accounts on pangea to either upgrade to a sponsored SUNet ID or remove their files.
The rest of this page tells you how to connect to the new servers and where to find your files after they are moved on September 10.
The end of user logins to pangea on September 10 also means you can no longer use computing resources on pangea to run your own programs. Such "time-sharing" computing was planned to end last April, but was allowed to continue a bit longer. The "pangea" name will continue to exist on the network as an application server - for example, as the School web server - but will only be directly accessible to IT staff.
If you have never stored files on pangea, you may want to start using this new server because of its vastly expanded capacity and performance. In particular, individual home directories will each be allocated 10 Gigabytes of storage on the new server. Large shares can be created to store research and teaching data sets. Another web page describes the procedure for requesting new storage spaces.
General user connections to
the file server will be refused until September 11, 2008.
A few people already have access to special early migration shares.
The new file server is based on Linux but mimics a Windows file server. It can be directly accessed by Windows and Macintosh PCs. Linux workstations use the Samba software package to access it.
The basic idea is that you "mount" one or more "network file shares" defined on sesfs.stanford.edu so they appear to be directly connected to your workstation. Then you can directly open and edit files on the server. There is no need to copy them to the local disk. This makes it easy to use the same files on multiple computers.
ERE PC USERS MAY TEMPORARILY BE UNABLE TO CONNECT. Old ERE department PCs (in the "PetEng" NT domain) cannot directly connect to sesfs.stanford.edu files shares due to incompatible domain settings. New ERE PCs (in the Stanford Windows domain) will connect. If you are a user of an old ERE PC, until you get a new one, your only access to your migrated pangea files on sesfs.stanford.edu will be by sftp file transfer, described in the "alternate connection methods for off-campus use" section.
On Windows PCs, a mounted file share appears in Windows Explorer as another disk drive letter. On Mac OS X, it shows up on the desktop as a separate disk volume. On Linux, you attach the share to a local directory name.
You can make the connection to a file share only when needed, or you can make an automatic connection every time you startup or login to your local system.
To get started, you need the name of the server - sesfs.stanford.edu - and the name of the file share(s) you want to use from the table below. Use your SUNet ID and password to login. Some people had a pangea account name or password that differed from their SUNet ID. Now you must use only your SUNet ID.
Follow the detailed directions, with screenshots, for your operating system from the list below. You can request configuration help from our CRC desktop consultants using the HelpSU web form.
To "mount" these file shares from off-campus, you must either use the Stanford VPN client or use an sftp client to connect to sestransfer.stanford.edu, as described below.
Disk space on sesfs.stanford.edu is organized into units called "file shares". Each home directory on pangea becomes a separate file share in order to maintain privacy of user files. The rest of pangea's disk files are organized into a few file shares according to function. The table below summarizes the file shares on sesfs.stanford.edu that will contain the files transferred from pangea on September 10, 2008.
In addition, brand new shares are being created for research group data. The table of share names gives detailed information about the uses and policies of all file shares.
You need to know the name of the file share that you want to use in order to connect. Sesfs.stanford.edu does not advertise its shares in the Microsoft "Network Neighborhood" or "My Network Places" browsers.
The final column in the table shows the directory location where the new file shares are accessible for sftp file transfers from logins to sestransfer.stanford.edu.
| Type and use of files | Old directory on pangea | New file share name on sesfs | New directory on sestransfer |
|
Individual home shares, one per standard account. Disk quota increased to 10 Gigabytes per account on sesfs. Each user can only access his own share. Use for files that you do not share with others. Includes your pangea personal web space in your WWW folder. |
/home/dept
dept = your department (ere, ges, gp, etc.) and accountname = your pangea account name. |
Same as your SUNet ID name, for example, johndoe |
/homedirs
sunetidname = your SUNet ID name. |
|
Individual directories for temporary storage of files up to 12 weeks. This disk area is being eliminated. Contents will be copied to corresponding home shares on sesfs, under the folder name Play. |
/play/dept
dept = your department (ere, ges, gp, etc.) and accountname = your pangea account name. |
[no share] |
[no directory] |
|
Common scratch disk. Increased to 100 Gigabytes disk space on sesfs. Any standard user can temporarily store up to 50 GB of files. Files automatically erase after 15 days. Often used to transfer large groups of files between computers. |
/scr1 |
scr1 |
/scr1 |
|
School, department, and research group web sites. Individuals have write access only to folders they maintain. |
/WWW |
WWW |
/WWW |
|
Anonymous ftp directories to distribute or receive files with outside colleagues. Increased to 50 Gigabytes disk space on sesfs; no more than 20 GB per single user directory. |
/ftp |
ftp |
/ftp |
|
Group workspace for LOCOS research group. |
/work/locos |
locos |
/group/locos |
|
Group workspace for SGEMS research group. |
/work/sgems |
sgems |
/group/sgems |
|
Group workspace for SILDATA research group. |
/work/sildata |
sildata |
/group/sildata |
The primary method to access files is to connect directly to file shares on sesfs.stanford.edu from your workstation, as described above. But due to campus-wide firewall rules, that access method only works for computers connected to the Stanford campus network (including Stanford DSL).
If you want to access file shares on sesfs.stanford.edu from off-campus, you can install and use the Stanford VPN client on your computer. That client authenticates you (using your SUNet ID) so your off-campus network connection will be treated by the firewall as if you were on campus.
Alternatively, you can perform file transfers from anywhere in the world using an sftp client program, such as the Stanford site-licensed SecureFX program for Windows PCs, site-licensed Fetch program for Mac OS X, or built-in sftp command line program on Linux. These programs allow you to copy files back and forth between your computer and a server.
The sesfs.stanford.edu file server does not directly support sftp connections, so we have set up another server for that purpose, which has "back-end" connections to the file server. Connect your sftp client program to sestransfer.stanford.edu using your SUNet ID and password.
Once connected, you will be located in your home share. You can navigate to other shares using their directory locations shown in the last column of the table above.
If you have a guest account on pangea, or graduated more than 120 days ago, you probably do not have an active full-service SUNet ID. In that case, you will not be able to connect to network file shares directly on sesfs.stanford.edu.
These pangea guests and alumni users may make sftp logins to sestransfer.stanford.edu using their old pangea account name and password until October 31, 2008, to copy files elsewhere.
After that date, all access will end unless the guest or alumnus/alumna is sponsored by a department or program for a full-service SUNet ID. Due to technical limitations in the way the new server authenticates users, you will need a "full service" ID that must be charged to a university financial account; the free "base service" is not sufficient.