ras – IGM IT

Flow Cytometry – Off-campus access to data using RAS

Dec 012016

* RAS

Go to http://ras.ncl.ac.uk/
You may need to install some additional software on the computer that you are using to log into RAS with. Use the links provided on the RAS front page to download and install this software.

Log in to RAS as usual
Click on My Drives icon (if this icon is missing, click on the + icon; All Apps; scroll down and click on My Drives icon)
Wait for window to appear showing your drives. Be patient.

RAS labels the S: drive as “FLOWCF (\\campus.ncl.ac.uk\scratch\IHGSCRATCH)”… and it labels the R: drive as “FLOWCF (\\campus.ncl.ac.uk\igm)”

If these are missing, click on Computer icon
Click ‘Map network drive’ option
Change Drive: to S
Change folder to: \\campus.ncl.ac.uk\scratch\IHGSCRATCH\FLOWCF
tick the ‘reconnect at logon’ box
click Finish button

IMPORTANT! Right-click on some white space, within that window, and choose “refresh” from the menu. The S: drive will now appear.

Repeat this for the R: drive by clicking on the “Map network drive’ option

Change Drive: to R
Change folder to: \\campus.ncl.ac.uk\igm\flowcf
tick the ‘reconnect at logon’ box
click Finish button

IMPORTANT! Right-click on some white space, within that window, and choose “refresh” from the menu. The R: drive will now appear.

The drives shown under the “Network Location” section are your University mapped drives, and these include your H: drive (labelled as “Documents”). You may also have an Institute drive (the IGM uses the Z: drive and this provides access to Institute shared folders and our groups research folders).

The section labelled “Other” contains access to the local drives associated with your off campus computer, the one you are logging into RAS with. These drives will vary but they will usually include your computer’s C: drive – often labelled as “Local Disk” – and any portable drives or USB sticks attached to your computer. Explore these local drives by double-clicking on them so that you become familiar with where things are stored on your local computer. You will be asked about giving RAS permission to access these particular drives – it’s just a precaution.

To copy data from the University to your off campus computer, double-click on the relevant drive under “Network Location” until you find the folder/file you are looking for. Right-click on this file/folder, and from the pop-up menu, select ‘Copy’.

Now double-click on the relevant drive under “Other”. Note that you will be asked about giving RAS permission to access this local drive. Now find somewhere appropriate to store this data and right-click on the location. Choose ‘Paste’ from the pop-up menu.

This copy/paste technique is how you copy data between the University and your off campus computer.

RAS and My Drives feature

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Dec 122013

The My Drives feature found on ras.ncl.ac.uk allows you to access your H: drive and research folder(s), more commonly known within the IGM as the Z: drive.

Please note:

* On your personal/home computer, you will need to install some software first before you can use RAS. It is available from the welcome page at http://ras.ncl.ac.uk/

* RAS/My Drives will automatically display your H: drive. However, it does not yet know about your Z: drive or any other drives that you may use e.g. Flow Cytometry S: and R: drives. You need to add these drives yourself. Hence these instructions!

Please visit http://ras.ncl.ac.uk and install the RAS client software. There are links to this from the welcome page. Windows and Mac clients are available.

When ready, log into RAS using your ISS login and password, via http://ras.ncl.ac.uk

Click on the My Drives icon and wait. Be patient!

Eventually a window will appear, displaying your drives. Your H: drive is represented by something called “Documents” (found in the Network Location section). The drives found in “Other” usually represent the drives that belong to the computer you are using. You may have a number of “Other” drives, depending on what is attached to your computer.

To Add your Z: drive:

Click on “Map Network Drive” button
Change the Drive: letter to Z
In the Folder: box carefully type: \\campus.ncl.ac.uk\igm
Tick the “Reconnect at logon” option
Click the Finish button

There is an issue whereby the window does not update immediately – it can appear as if nothing has happened! Simply right-click on some white space and choose “refresh” from the menu.

You will now see your new drive, which should be labelled as “igm (\\campus.ncl.ac.uk)”. This Z: drive contains both the IGM shared area and all the various research folders for the Institute.

Important! RAS does not provide a drag and drop environment, so while it may appear similar to Microsoft Windows, it is NOT Microsoft Windows! However, you can copy and paste files/folders between your University drives and the drives that you have on your local computer.

In most cases, double-clicking on a file will bring up the appropriate the program in RAS. For example, if you clicked on a PDF file within RAS, it would launch the RAS hosted version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. When it comes across a file that it does not understand then it will prompt you about it. In some cases, you really are not going to get RAS to open that “unknown” file. You can use the copy/paste technique above to copy the file and use it on another computer.

The drives that appear under “Other” are the drives that RAS identifies as belonging to your local computer. You can browse through any of these drives. You then right-click on a file/folder that you want to copy,
choose “copy” from the menu. You then browse the drive that you want to save the file/folder to, right-click and choose “paste”. That is how you copy items to/from your University/local drives.