CSS Account Services

More Storage Backups Backup of Local Drive with Retrospect Firewall

Additional Storage Space

Faculty and staff who need more disk space or mail storage than your quota allows can purchase extra disk storage at a cost of $2.00/gigabyte/month. Contact the CSS main office, 1256 SC, 335-5751, to use this service.

To determine how much home directory quota you have and are using, from a Windows computer go to Start | All Programs | COE Tools | Disk Quota. From a Linux workstation, type quota at a shell prompt. Usage is given in kilobytes; you must divide by 1000 to get the equivalent megabytes.

To determine how much mail quota you have and are using, see the mail status section at the top of the Account Tools page or run Webmail, which shows your mail quota and usage from the Inbox view.

Backups

For disaster recovery, CSS backs up critical services daily, including files stored in user's home directories. If you have accidentally deleted or overwritten a file, it may be recoverable from the CSS backup tapes. Go to the consulting office, 1253 SC, to complete the form to request this service.

You can make backups of your files by writing them to CD, DVD, flash drive, or ZIP disk. If you are leaving the College of Engineering by graduating or changing employment and you want the files stored on your account, make a CD or DVD of those files. There is a CD and DVD burner in the consulting office, 1253 SC. All of the new computers to be installed in the Elder and Hering labs during summer 2005 have DVD burners. You will also find several CDC burners in Windows computers in the Elder and Hering labs, 1231 and 1220 SC.

Backups for Local Hard Drives using Retrospect

Since June 2006, a program called Retrospect has been backing up the D: drives of staff and faculty machines in Seamans Center. Retrospect notifies you if no backup has been made for 7 days. All the settings you have access to can be set from All Programs | Utilities | Retrospect Client. On the Status tab you can turn Retrospect on or off and see when the most recent backup was completed. On the Preferences tab, you set notification options and whether to give priority to backup (default) or what the user is doing when the Retrospect client starts its backup. No other settings are available, though there are tabs that indicate more functions.

If for some reason Retrospect misses a daily backup, it does not retry. It will back up the D: drive at the next scheduled time.

Retrospect Restores

If you need a file restored from a Retrospect backup, use the on-line form. Backed up files are kept for at least a month.

Help

There are no Retrospect help files, and you cannot modify much in Retrospect. If you need help with settings or requesting a restore, please talk to the consultant in 1253 SC, 335-5055.

Firewall Service for Self-administered Computers

CSS uses a firewall service for self-administered computers on the 30 and 31 subnets. This service makes your computer invisible to the outside world, and so more secure, yet allows you access to the Internet. With the firewall in place, access coming in to your computer is blocked. Contact Doug Eltoft, 1256 SC, 335-5752, for more information.

updated: 27 May 2006