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Engram is network-attached storage (NAS), also known as network drive in Windows or linux drive on Mac/Linux.. It is just like a USB drive you plug into your computer - but instead of plugging the USB drive into your computer with a USB cable, Engram is on connected to your server or computer using the network.
In Windows, Engram shows up as a network drive with a letter (for example P:). On Mac, you will see it as a folder in the Finder. In Linux, it shows up just like a USB drive, mounted under its own directory.
For all practical purposes, an Engram network drive has a the same functionality of as a local drive or folder. It is directly attached to plugged into your computer or server. You can access data on it just like on a USB drive or a local directory.
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- From anywhere on Columbia University downtown campus or Manhattanville
- By connecting your computer to the network with a physical network cable
- By using "Columbia U Secure" Wi-Fi
- Note: "Columbia University" Wi-Fi is open and insecure and cannot be used to reach Engram
- From outside the University by using Virtual Private Network (VPN) ( VPN Setup )
- From CUMC: under special circumstances we will work with CUMC IT to open their firewall to allow access to Engram from CUMC locations. Please contact us at rc@zi.columbia.edu
Engram supports three different types of network drives:
- NFS Exports are chiefly used in Unix/Linux-based server environments. Access to these network drives is based off of the domain name or IP address of the server or workstation that they are to be plugged into. You will need to contact research computing at rc@zi.columbia.edu if you need to mount an NFS export on a host that it is not already mounted on. For each NFS network drive, research computing maintains a whitelist of servers and IP addresses that can mount the network drive. NFS exports are useful if you know that you will only be using your network drive on Linux-based servers and you want to facilitate access to your network drive by server rather than by user account.
- SMB Shares are chiefly used on Mac and Windows workstations, although they can also be attached to Linux servers. For this reason, they are a good option if you expect to need to mount your network share both on workstations and servers. Access to these network drives is based off of your user credentials and the groups that your UNI belongs to in Columbia's user directory. If you need access to an SMB share, you will need to contact research computing to request that your UNI be added to the group associated with that SMB share. SMB shares are not ideal for long-term storage in shared computing environments, since the connection is brokered via an individual user account.
- Hybrid NFS/SMB Network Drives are a more complex arrangement that could make sense under certain circumstances. With a hybrid approach, the same set of files and directories could be made available as an NFS export for a Unix/Linux-based shared server environment and an SMB share for Windows/Mac workstation environments. This approach makes sense if you expect to have your storage connected to both local workstations and a remote server for long periods of time. If you anticipate that you will only need to mount storage on servers on an ad-hoc basis, and that the majority of the time storage will be plugged into workstations primarily, it may make sense to stick with SMB shares alone.
Backing Up Your Data
Data on Engram labshare and locker levels is backed up to tape. We can back up your data on staging storage level if requested.
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