Getting Started DartFS

5 min read • 855 words

Attention: If you’re off-campus, connect to the Dartmouth VPN for access to DartFS.

To get a DartFS home directory, request a Research Computing account at Dartmouth HPC Account. To purchase a lab volume (or, if faculty, to claim your RC Bill-of-Rights 1TB lab space), go to Dartmouth Storage Requests.

Step-by-step DartFS Access Guide  

Accessing Your DartFS Home Directory (your Dartmouth NetID)  

1. If off-campus, first start the Dartmouth VPN so that your computer is effectively on-campus. Eduroam WiFi is on-campus, unless you are a visitor from another institution using the “guest eduroam,” which will not work.
2. Click the Start or Windows menu icon (bottom left corner of the desktop).
3. In the search text field, type Run.
4. Select and click the Run application found towards the top of the menu.
5. In the Open text field, type \\dartfs-hpc\rc\home\x\netid where x (lowercase) is the last character of your NetID (also lowercase). For example: \\dartfs-hpc\rc\home\8\dz99918 or the fully-qualified \\dartfs-hpc.dartmouth.edu\rc\home\x\netid.
6. On a kiewit-domain-joined computer, this should open a Windows Explorer window in your DartFS home with no further input. Your computer already has the needed credential.
7. On a non-kiewit-domain-joined computer (for example, joined to the Tuck or DHMC domain or privately owned), you will be prompted for a username and password.
   • You may have to click on Use another account to edit/add the username. If your system is configured to use a fingerprint scanner or short PIN to authenticate locally, the Use another account button may not be very obvious.
8. In the Username field, enter kiewit\<your NetID>. For example, kiewit\dz99918.
9. In the Password field, enter the password associated with your NetID.
10. Optionally check the Remember my credentials or Store my password box.
11. Click OK.

For computers on the TUCKNT & DHMC domain, privately owned, and as an alternate method for all users, download the attached mkdartfsmount.zip file. Unzip and run the enclosed mkhomemount.bat script. This will create a custom mount script on your Desktop, named for example d1234e-DartFS.bat. This script will prompt for a password if needed, then mount DartFS with the correct syntax for an alternate domain (needed for Tuck, DHMC, and privately owned computers) and open an Explorer window.

To save a shortcut to DartFS on your desktop:  

1. Open a Windows Explorer window in your DartFS home as above.
2. Right-click the folder named for your NetID in the address bar at the top of the Explorer Window.
3. Click Copy address from the menu that appears.
4. Right click on your desktop then click Paste shortcut from the menu that appears.
5. A new shortcut icon appears on your desktop leading directly to your DartFS home directory.

Accessing your DartFS Lab Shared Directory Space (named after your PI)  

The steps are similar to setting up your home share, except for the server and path to the lab folder. You may have access to multiple lab shares. The default naming scheme uses the PI’s last name and first initial, but many shares are named differently. Let’s use share KirkJ as an example. This share will either be at \\dartfs-hpc\rc\lab\K\KirkJ or \\dartfs\rc\lab\K\KirkJ depending on the performance tier. It should not be required to have the full server domain name (.dartmouth.edu) but in some cases, it is needed. The full mount path will be e.g. \\dartfs-hpc.dartmouth.edu\rc\lab\K\KirkJ. Capitalization is important.

As above, a Dartmouth (kiewit) domain-joined computer requires no further input. All non-kiewit-domain-joined computers will require a username (kiewit\NETID) and password, and Tuck and DHMC computers need to use the attached mount script.

Creating 1-click shortcuts  

The attached mkdartfsmount.zip file contains another script, mklabmount.bat, which will prompt for your NetID (not the NetID of the faculty member who owns the share), the share name (e.g., KirkJ in our example), and the performance tier: h (high) for dartfs-hpc or l (low) for dartfs. With this information, it constructs a Desktop clickable script customized for your NetID and lab share. This can be used by any computer, regardless of domain affiliation (i.e., not joined to any domain, or joined to the Tuck domain, or joined to a DHMC domain or privately owned computers).

See DartFS for more information.

Troubleshooting Ideas  

1. Make sure you are on the Dartmouth network. If you are on campus connected with an ethernet cable or using the wireless eduroam network, that should work. If you are off campus, use Dartmouth’s VPN. Note: If you are a visitor using eduroam credentials from another institution, that will not work.
2. Try using dartfs-hpc.dartmouth.edu instead of just dartfs-hpc for the server name (or dartfs.dartmouth.edu as appropriate). If you have tinkered with the DNS search path on your computer this may fix a “server not found” error.
3. Similarly, if you have tinkered with the DNS server settings on your computer you could try 10.1.20.67 instead of dartfs-hpc (or 10.1.20.232 instead of dartfs). That will completely bypass DNS lookups and also possibly fix a “server not found” error.
4. If you find that you need to use the “.dartmouth.edu” in the server name, you should also use it for the authentication domain, i.e., kiewit.dartmouth.edu\NETID.

Access DartFS from Macintosh  

[Link here…]

Access DartFS from Linux  

[Link here…]

Still need help? Email Research.Computing@dartmouth.edu for assistance.