Network File Storage (NFS)

The NFS is a secure storage environment managed by BU IS&T that can be provisioned on request. The storage is expandable (with fees) and has both backup and replication policies in place to protect your data.

Support Policy

MET IT is responsible for the following:

• Consulting clients regarding this storage option
• Assisting with connecting BU-provisioned devices to the NFS
• Assisting with restoring lost or corrupted files from snapshots
• Managing access to select NFS

For those interested in pursuing this storage option, please contact us to discuss your needs.

Resources

Minimum Requirements

In order to use this storage option, users should:

• Comply with the Minimum Security Standards for accessing University data.
• Install Crowdstrike on their BU-provisioned machine or their personal computer used for BU business.
• Obey the Data Restriction policies for their particular NFS share.
  • Shares that include “NAS1” in their drive path can only store Confidential or Internal Use data.
  • Shares that include “NAS-RU1” in their drive path can store all types of data.

You can learn more about the different data classification types by reviewing the Data Classification Policy.

Protection Policy

BU IS&T takes periodic snapshots of your data to ensure you can fall back to a previous version should a file become lost or corrupted. In addition, all data is replicated to a secondary, remote data center every 15 minutes in the event of a drive failure or outage.

The following table outlines the snapshot intervals for reference:

Mounting a NFS Share

Before starting, make sure that you have the full network path to connect to the NFS share.

• Windows Example: \\nas1.bu.edu\met\example_folder
• Mac Example: smb://nas1.bu.edu/met/example_folder

Using the full network path, follow the Mounting a Network Drive instructions on our Laptops page.