Tag Archives: servers

Macintosh – Middfiles – Mmmmm… News You Can Use

Mac users…  Are you having the best possible experience with Middfiles?  It may be time to update how you connect to Middfiles, as well as create some useful shortcuts!

First, check your connection.  In the Finder, click on the Go menu, then click Connect to Server.  You should use cifs://middcloud.middlebury.edu/middfiles and remove any “smb” middfiles favorites you may have stored, as shown.

Go>Connect to Server

Removing outdated SMB favorite

Now it’s time to create some powerful Sidebar favorites for easy access to your frequently-used folders (see sample below).  Sidebar favorite locations are visible in all your programs!  Refer to our wiki article for complete details on how to create these favorites & get rid of outdated ones.

Sidebar Favorite Sample

Sidebar Favorite Sample

Technical stuff:  We use the SMB protocol to connect to Middfiles almost exclusively on campus and the latest revision is CIFS.  To use the most current version of SMB you must specify CIFS in your connection.  Outdated connections may results in errors when saving to Middfiles or be slower.

Servers on the Move from Voter to Carr

Submitted by Rick James

Recently we’ve been moving physical servers from Voter to Carr Hall. This is because we have exhausted our battery backup units in Voter and need to reduce the load to prepare for the arrival of new storage arrays. In all of our computer rooms (Voter -2, Library, and Carr) we have Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS’s) that provide power in the event of a utility outage. The UPS provides power until the computer room generator starts and begins supplying electricity. This entire sequence takes about 10 seconds from start to finish. The current UPS units were installed about 12 years ago and have been very reliable. As we have added new servers and network equipment, the load has steadily increased. The latest generation of servers consume 3-4 times the power than the earlier generation servers did. More CPU’s, more memory, more network cards all add up.