Department of Aerospace Engineering

Connecting to AFS, CLUE, or CLUE Scratch File Systems

Windows Lab Directions (Howe 2304 and 2344 Labs)

In the Aerospace Windows Labs (Howe 2304 and 2344), the AFS drive is defaulted to H: To activate this, open My Computer, and double click the H: icon, or in an explorer window, type H: and press enter.

To connect to your CLUE and Scratch Directories, simply double click the GetClue icon on the desktop.

When this window appears, type in your CLUE username and password, and select which drives you want to connect to.

After selecting Map, you will be able to access your CLUE (U:) and Scratch (X:) Directories in the same way that you access your H:  This can be done by opening My Computer, or simply typing U: (or X:) in an Explorer window.

Linux Lab Directions (Howe 2332)

For the CLUE Linux systems, the CLUE space is your default directory.

To access your AFS space (H: on Windows workstations), type the following in a command line:
>cd /afshome/username

To access CLUE Scratch Space from a CLUE Linux box from the command line:
>cd /remote/scratch

Be sure to create a directory named your username:
>mkdir username

Off Campus Access

Off Campus access from Windows must connect through the University VPN before this will work.

To connect to AFS from your home computer, download one of the following applications from the Scout utilities package:

• Pcafs (Scout Current)
• MountAFSHome (Scout Advanced)
• FileZilla (Scout Current)

For connection to NFS, get WinSCP2 or SAMBA, both of which may be used.

Information about File Systems

AFS Directory (H:)

Unlike local disk storage, the Andrew File System (AFS) is central file storage which allows users to access data from any computer. Each user at Iowa State is allowed 500MB of AFS space for their use. AFS directories are backed up on a daily basis. Click here for more in-depth information about AFS.

CLUE Space (U:)

The CLUE space is the default file system in the Linux Lab (Howe 2332) as well as the computers in Durham.  There is a 200MB quota. This quota is also backed up on a daily basis.  For more information, visit the CLUE Website.

Clue Scratch Space (V:)

CLUE Scratch Space is a file system where you can store temporary files that would be too large to fit in your home directory. You can also use the scratch space as an intermediary to share files with other CLUE users.

In order for this service to be able to service all users fairly, some restrictions will be applied:

This space is not backed up.

The file space you use is not counted against your home directory (U: drive) quota.

Users will be limited by default to 1GB of file space. Users needing to use more than 1GB should notify clueiastate.edu.

To keep order, you should create a folder with your username and work from it rather than the top level folder.

Any use of this space for illegal or legally questionable activity is strictly forbidden.

To access this scratch space, use the GetCLUE utility provied in the public labs, or map a drive to \\storage.eng.iastate.edu\scratch which will automatically map to your scratch folder.