Your AFS File Space at UNC

What is AFS and Why Should I Care?

AFS is a file system used by UNC to provide personal and group disk storage to anyone with an Onyen. Undergraduate students get 100MB of disk space; graduate students, faculty and staff get 250MB.

You can keep important files and web pages in your personal AFS space, or you can use it to transfer files from one place to another. For example, you can write a paper on your laptop in your residence hall, save the file to your AFS space, then go to your professor's office and access your paper from her computer to discuss it with her. You don't have to worry about using a floppy disk that may get damaged or lost. It's that simple!

AFS Software on Your Computer

AFS has two components, a client and a server. The client consists of a software programs on your computer that allows you to connect to a set of servers where everybody's AFS space is located. Your CCI machine comes with a link on the desktop to shareware.unc.edu , where you can download AFS. This software works with the AFS servers to present your AFS space as another Windows drive (like C:\ or D:\). When you make any changes to your AFS space, such as saving files, creating new files, and deleting old ones, the client sends that information back to the servers and updates the files over the network.

Home Directory Space

To use your personal AFS space, you will need to start the client as described in the installation and configuration document located here:

UNC AFS Client Installation Guide for Windows XP/2000/NT

Then you will authenticate (enter your Onyen and password) to access your file space, which, by default, is configured as your H:\ drive. This disk drive is available to you in the same way from Windows machines in any public lab. If you are without your CCI machine but have access to another computer, you can get to your files by using SFTP File Upload and Download (SFTP) to connect to the UNC campus network.

Your personal AFS space on the H:\ drive contains a folder called "documents." We strongly recommend that you save all data and backup files in this folder. Also within your AFS space is a folder called public_html. Any web pages (html files) that you save in this folder will appear automatically on the web as follows:

http://www.unc.edu/home/<onyen>/<filename.html>

Files stored in your AFS space are backed up nightly, so it's a safe place to put important things (e.g., term papers). Courses, projects, and departments you may be involved in could have similar directories. Some site-licensed applications (like Mathematica and SAS) can be run from AFS via your machine with minimal installation steps required.

Where Can I Learn More?

Installing and Configuring the AFS Client

Introduction to AFS

Frequently Asked Questions: http://its2.unc.edu/dci/install/win/doc/

For other questions, or if you still have problems with your AFS software after reading the above documentation, please contact the IT Response Center at help@unc.edu or 962-HELP.


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