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Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
MSL iLab Site

How to Access the MSL Data Server

Getting Started

Before you can access our server, you will need to provide the MSL staff with your onyen (which we ask for as part of our training and service request procedure). Once we have that, we can put in a request to IT and will inform you once you have access.

What will server access give you?

You will have access to 2 folders:

  • MSL\Users\[your onyen]: Your own folder (read-write), where you can place your data
  • MSL\Public: We will place things of common interest to many users here (read-only)

Only you and the MSL staff will be able to see and modify the contents of your folder. Data is backed up every few hours and can be recovered up to 2 weeks in the past.

We do not yet have limits in place for how much data, or how long you may store it. Do keep in mind that our server is not a place for long-term storage or backup of your data. Rather, it is a tool to facilitate transport of your data from our scopes to your lab, and is available for short-term storage. We will contact you if we need you to delete data from your folder to make room for other users.

How can you use our server?

To put data on the server from our scopes, you will need to “map the drive” from the scope computer. To download data from our server to your computer, you will need to “map the drive” from your lab computer. How to “map the drive” differs between Macs and PCs (see below).

Important: make sure you disconnect from the server once you have moved your data there from any scope computer

From a Mac

  1. On the top menu click: Go /Connect to Server. A new window appears. Enter the server address below and then click the “+” button.
  2. Server address: smb://ad.unc.edu/med/Pathology/Groups/MSL . If that does not work, try cifs://ad.unc.edu/med/Pathology/Groups/MSL
  3. Important: do not click remember this password in my keychain
  4. Click Connect to connect to the file share.
  5. Enter credentials: AD\[your onyen] and password. Example: AD\jsmith

From a PC

  1. Open File Explorer from the taskbar or the Start menu, or press the Windows logo key + E
  2. Right click “This PC”
  3. Click Map network drive.
  4. Choose any letter.
  5. Next to folder, type \\ad.unc.edu\med\Pathology\Groups\MSL
  6. Important: Make sure reconnect at logon is unclicked
  7. Click finish.
  8. Please enter your credentials: AD\[your onyen] and your password. Example: AD\jsmith

After it connects, you should see the MSL folder.

How do you access the server from off-campus?

VPN has to be installed on your computer, follow the installation instructions. After you are connected to the VPN, you will be able to map the drive.