the lab @ langford   College of Architecture Texas A&M University
 

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thelab@langford
College of Architecture
Texas A&M University

3137 TAMU
College Station, TX
77843-3137

979.862.8584

 
 

Home Drive Usage

How are my folders set up?
How are my folders’ permissions set up?
How much space do I have?
What can I do and not do with my space?
What about Network Temp?

How are my folders set up?

End users cannot modify the folder structure currently in place. This is for administrative purposes, allowing for ease of management of these resources. The current folder structure for each student is as follows: Under your userID (abc1234 in this example), you have three folders: Classes, Personal, and Web. The subfolders under the Classes subfolder are workspaces for your classes, not your class’s actual class folder. Any information in these folders is fully accessible by the Professor for that class. This is discussed further in the Permissions section of this document. There is another subfolder labeled Old. This folder is for classes you have taken previously. Each semester, class workspace folders for class you were previously registered for in the College of Architecture will be moved here. You can do anything with this data that you wish. Under each of your class workspace folders, there is a folder named Web. As with the web folder in the root of your home drive space, anything placed in these Web folders is accessible to anyone with a web browser (read access only). If your professor requires you to create a web page for your class that he/she needs full access to, this is where you would place that page. The web address for to access the web pages in, say, ENDS105500, would be:

http://thelab.tamu.edu/students/abc1234/classes/ends105500/web/

The Personal subfolder is for your own personal storage space. You may use this space as you see fit, provided that this usage complies with Texas A&M University’s Rules for Responsible Computing.

The Web subfolder is essentially the same as your Home folder, except that its contents are web-accessible. Anything placed in these Web folders is accessible to anyone with a web browser (read access only). This web folder differs from the web folders under your class workspaces in that your professors do not have access to this space other than to read web pages from a web browser. This will be explained further in the Permissions section of this document. Anything placed in this web folder can be accessed on the web at:

http://thelab.tamu.edu/students/<your-login-id>/web/

Note: With each of these web examples, it will be necessary to actually specify the name of your web document in the address, unless you have an appropriately-named default document in your web folder. A default document is a setting at the server that tells the web server to look for certain web files in the event a specific file is not requested in the address. Our web server recognizes the following default documents:
  • default.html
  • default.htm
  • index.html
  • index.htm
As such, http://thelab.tamu.edu/students/<your-login-id>/web/ is the same as http://thelab.tamu.edu/students/<your-login-id>/web/default.html, whereas if you wanted to access myfile.html, you would have to type http://thelab.tamu.edu/students/<your-login-id>/web/myfile.html

How are my folders’ permissions set up?

You cannot change, rename, or delete the initial folder structure. The permissions on your folders are setup as follows:
No Access – As it implies, the user has no access to this data.
Read – The user can look at this data and copy it to another location, but cannot make changes to the data
Change – The user can read the data, change the data, and delete the data.
The following table is based on the example folder structure pictured above.
abc1234 ENDS105500
Professor		 ENDS106502
Professor		 ENDS150500
Professor		 Internet Users All Other Users
  abc1234   Read   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Classes   Read   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS105500   Change   Change   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS105500\Web   Change   Change   No Access   No Access   Read   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS106502   Change   No Access   Change   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS106502\Web   Change   No Access   Change   No Access   Read   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS150500   Change   No Access   No Access   Change   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\ENDS150502\Web   Change   No Access   No Access   Change   Read   No Access
  abc1234\Classes\Old   Change   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Personal   Change   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access   No Access
  abc1234\Web   Change   No Access   No Access   No Access   Read   No Access
The student only has Read access to the root of his or her folder and to the classes subfolder to prevent changes from being made to the folder structure. This is for administrative purposes and will not hinder the student’s use of these resources.

How much space do I have?

For fall of 2001, each student had 190 MB of space. This was based on a linear model, meaning space was allocated based on the total amount of space available divided by the total number of student IDs. This model has been refined due to an underutilization of space from the fall. As airlines sometimes overbook flights and A&M will overbook dorms expecting that some will not use the resources available to them, space is being allocated based on an “overbooking” model derived from statistics gathered from the Fall 2001 semester. For now, the magic number is 1 GB. As of Spring of 2007, students have 1 GB worth of space available to them. This may be reduced during the semester if space becomes limited on the server. This quota is a limit on all of your network storage. Anything you place in your class workspace folders, or your home folder, or your web folder, counts against this quota.

What can I do and not do with my space?

Aside from the University’s Rules for Responsible Computing, the following actions are prohibited. Violations could result in the suspension or revocation of computing resources within the college.

Do not:
  1. Install programs of any kind.
  2. Store executable or zip files related to the installation any program unless they are specifically related to academic work for class in which you are currently enrolled or teaching.
  3. Store digital music unless it is specifically related to academic work for class in which you are currently enrolled or teaching.
Aside from these restrictions, you may use your storage space as you see fit. Bear in mind that since space is being “overbooked” (as described in the Space section), excessive use of your space for items not directly related to your class work could result in everyone’s available space being reduced.

What about Network Temp?

Information about Network Temp can be found here.

Questions regarding these policies should be directed to the helpdesk in A122.
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