Stay Connected
February 7, 2012
© 2013 The Regents of the University of Michigan
The Institutional File System (IFS) is a central file storage, sharing, and retrieval system that you can access from Windows, Macintosh, and Unix computers. Just as the ITS e-mail service lets you access your e-mail from different computers at different locations, IFS lets you access your documents and files from different computers at different locations.
Members of the U-M community can access their IFS space via the web using MFile. For more about IFS, see IFS Overview (R1070).
Members of the U-M community who are eligible for the standard computing services receive a 10GB IFS home directory as part of that package. That home directory can be used to store and share files and to publish personal Web pages. For information about IFS, including instructions for purchasing additional storage space, see IFS Overview (R1070).
Group directories are also available. See "How do I get IFS space for a class, group, or campus organization?" for details.
Yes! You can use MFile to work with the files in your IFS home directory. It can also be used to access group home directories. See Using Your IFS Home Directory Over the Web with MFile (S4311) for details.
For file transfer connections (SFTP), use this hostname:
sftp.itd.umich.edu
You can publish your own home page on the web by using the Public folder inside your IFS home directory. Create a folder called html inside your Public folder, and put your web page inside. For more detail, see How to Create Your Own Home Page.
You can also publish a web page or site using your IFS home directory that is restricted to members of the university community—or to some group of people at U-M that you specify. See Restricting Access to Your Web Pages (S4293) for details.
IT Education Services offers several workshops on creating and publishing web pages. See the IT Education Services page.
As part of your standard computing services, you have file storage space in IFS. To find out how much of your space you are using and how much you have left, do the following:
Look at the UMCE Balances and Subscriptions page.
Log in with your uniqname and UMICH password.
You will see information showing how much of your IFS space you are using.
Click logout (at the bottom of the page) when you are finished.
At the % prompt, issue the command:
fs lq ~
To get additional personal file storage or group storage space in IFS, contact the ITS Service Center.
Use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) software to connect to IFS for downloading and uploading files.
Windows. Use WinSCP software. For information about obtaining and using WinSCP, see Use WinSCP to Transfer Files with sftp [Windows] (S4387).
Mac OS X. We recommend that you use the Fugu program, which provides a graphical user interface to the secure file transfer capability of the Mac OS. You can download Fugu for Macintosh from the Blue Disc website.
You can arrange to have a group IFS directory—to use as a shared work space, as a means of publishing on the web, or for some other purpose—for your department, unit, or student organization. Also, faculty members can have an IFS group directory for a class that they teach.
To obtain a group IFS directory for a class, please submit an application for a course home directory.
To obtain a group IFS directory for anything other than a class (department, unit, or student organization), log in to Web Application Signup and click Sign Up next to IFS Group Directory.
See this documentation:
All the files in the Institutional File System (IFS) are backed up regularly by ITS for your security and convenience.
Should you accidentally delete, change or otherwise destroy files in your IFS home directory, there are two ways you can get the files restored from the backups:
Oldfiles restores. The Oldfiles mechanism lets you access the most recent backup volume of your files yourself at no charge.
Operator restores. You can ask the IFS staff to restore files for you from the available previous backups. There is a $10 fee for this service.
For details, see Using IFS Backup and Restore Services [Oldfiles and Operator Restores] (S4110).
Pages that you publish on the web are normally available to anyone who browses the web. You can, however, restrict access to your web pages to the U-M community or to groups and/or individuals within it. Those who wish to view your pages must first log in with their uniqname and UMICH password. See Restricting Access to Your Web Pages (S4293) for details.
You can control whether other people can see the files and documents in the folders inside your IFS home directory, whether they can make changes to them, and more in two ways:
With htaccess files, Access Control Lists (ACLs), and pts groups.
With htaccess files and directory groups.
An ACL is a list of uniqnames and/or protection groups to which access rights have been assigned. (A protection group—or pts group—is similar to an e-mail group except that it is a list of uniqnames rather than a list of e-mail addresses; it is used to assign permissions to a group of people. ACLs are set for folders.
See the Restricting Access to Specific Groups and Individuals at U-M section of Restricting Access to Your Web Pages (S4293) for details.
You can restrict access to your web pages to the members of specified LDAP groups in the MCommunity Directory. See Kerberos Access to Web Pages for details.
To learn about the file structure of IFS, see the Navigating IFS section of IFS Overview (R1070).
If you try to open an SFTP connection to the Login Service (to access your IFS space) by using the login.itd.umich.edu address, you will receive this error message: "Remote scp disabled on this host."
This is because you must use a different address for SFTP connections. Please connect to sftp.itd.umich.edu for SFTP connections to access your IFS space instead.
The ITS Service Center can answer your questions about IFS and transferring files at U-M.
These services are available to members of the University of Michigan community only.
February 7, 2012
© 2013 The Regents of the University of Michigan