A Unity locker consists of storage space in AFS (Andrew File System).  Each locker is assigned to an owner and must be used for University business only.

• Unity Locker Policies
• Unity Locker Application form
• Locker Fees
• Locker Types
  • Project Locker
  • Anonymous FTP Locker
• Using Your Locker
  • Access 
  • Basic commands
  • File transfer
• Granting Access to Your Locker
• Getting Help

Locker Fees

There is a one-time fee for locker setup as well as annual fees for renewal and rental of each 100 MB of space. For a complete schedule of locker fees, see OIT Service Rates.

Locker Types

Project Locker

Most project lockers are used for housing Web pages but may also contain other file types. Be sure to put files, especially Web pages into appropriate subfolders.

A project locker name must contain between 9 and 14 characters, all lower case, and should relate to the name of the project.

Web pages

Files that are to be displayed on a Web site (such as .html, .php) or downloaded from it (such as .pdf, .doc, .xls, .ppt) must be placed in a subfolder named htdocs in the project locker.  The extensions .asp and .jsp are not supported on OIT servers. The extensions .cgi and .pl are generally not enabled. CGI should be placed in a specially configured cgi directory, which can be arranged on most hosts (but not www4). Once you have a script directory, all files regardless of extension will be treated as cgi scripts.

Formats and example:

• AFS path format:
  /afs/unity/web/initial/projectname/htdocs/filename
  • projectname is the name of the locker 
  • initial is its first letter 
  • filename is the name of the Web page
• URL format:
  http://www.ncsu.edu/project/projectname/filename
• Example (for a locker named cropgrant):
  • AFS path:
    /afs/unity/web/c/cropgrant/htdocs/page1.html
  • URL:
    http://www.ncsu.edu/project/cropgrant/page1.html

Files other than Web pages

Files not intended to be viewed on or downloaded from a Web site should go into other subfolders (not into htdocs) in the project locker.  Format and example:

• AFS path format:
  /afs/unity/web/initial/projectname/folder/filename
  • projectname is the name of the locker,
  • initial is its first letter of the project name,
  • folder is the name of the desired subfolder,
  • filename is the name of the file
• Example (for a locker named cropgrant):
  /afs/unity/web/c/cropgrant/stats/current.xls

Anonymous FTP Locker

Anonymous FTP is a method of moving files from one computer to another in an unsecure manner. You will not need an anonymous FTP locker at NC State unless you want users who do not have a Unity ID and password to be able to upload files to it. This type of locker is usually named with the owner's Unity ID. Format and example:

• AFS path format:
  /afs/unity.ncsu.edu/lockers/ftp/userid
• Example (for Unity user jojones):
  /afs/unity.ncsu.edu/lockers/ftp/jojones/

Using Your Locker

Access
To access and manage your Unity locker, you will need to be familiar with using a Unix or Linux command line and a few Unix operating system commands.  There are two ways to access your locker:

• Use the full locker path.
  Type the following at a command line prompt (usually unity% or eos%):

  cd /afs/unity/web/initial/lockername

  where lockername is the name of your locker and
  initial is its first letter

• Create a symbolic link (symlink) to the locker.
  First, to be sure you are in your home directory, type:

  cd

  Then type the link command in this format:
  

  ln -s /afs/unity/web/initial/lockername linkname

  lockername is the name of your locker
  initial is the first letter of the locker name
  linkname is the name you choose for the symlink

  Example:
  

  ln -s /afs/unity/web/c/cropgrant crp-online

  If you listed the files in your home directory using the command ls -l, you would see the symlink and the locker path listed like this:
  

  crp-online---> /afs/unity/web/c/cropgrant

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these access methods.

Basic commands
For the commands you will need to create directories (folders) and manipulate files (list, copy, remove), see Unix Directory Commands.

File transfer
To copy files from your desktop to your locker, you'll need to use secure file transfer.

Granting Access to Your Locker

Your locker comes with a PTS group that has write access to it.  You are this group's owner and, initially, its only member.  You will have the ability to add or remove other members.  As needed, you can grant permissions to the other members to add, modify, or delete files in the locker.  For the commands you'll need to do this, see the PTS Group page.

Getting Help

• Unity Lockers: Contact a computing consultant at the NC State Help Desk.
• College of Engineering lockers: See http://www.eos.ncsu.edu/lockers.

Go to the Unity File Space page.