Access your data - UZH - Windows
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Introduction
This collection of step-by-step howto guides helps you to make good use of the IT infrastructure at the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis.
If you can not find the information you are looking for here or have other issues or questions please contact it@zmb.uzh.ch
or in urgent cases +41 79 508 65 39.
We are always happy to help!
The part of our IT infrastructure which is reachable from outside UZH network is limited to be accessible from West Europe. If you are in one of the green coloured countries shown below, you can use our services without a VPN:
How to do anything at ZMB
- To become a ZMB user you should read and understand the user guidelines.
- You can then fill out the registration form specifying who you are and what you want to do at the facility. If you already have an instrument in mind or are in contact with someone in the staff please state it in the registration form.
- Soon after the submission of your registration you will receive your CORE user account via email.
- We will contact you as soon as possible to arrange a meeting or an introduction to our instruments.
Your CORE user account enables you to:
- Log on to computers at the ZMB (microscope computers as well as virtual image processing computers)
- Reserve instruments and image-processing virtual machines via the CORE booking system.
CORE account
General information
Your CORE account is used for any authentication at our facility. You need it for the following actions:
- login into the CORE booking system
- login on microscope computers
- login into the Citrix infrastructure to use the virtual image processing machines
- accessing the CORE file server to access your data
Once a year you will be asked to confirm that you are still actively using your CORE account. You will be notified by email. If you do not prolong your account it will be deactivated and deleted after 180 days (including all stored data).
For security reasons, you will be asked to also change your password for the CORE account once a year. You will be notified by email.
Please note that password change task and account renewal task are independent and should both be performed.
Recovering username
Go to the CORE username recovery page and enter the email address you have registered with. You will receive an email with your CORE account user name.
If you forgot the mail address you registered with, please contact us at it@zmb.uzh.ch and describe your issue.
Changing password
Go to the CORE password change website and follow the form.
Resetting your password
Go to the CORE password reset page and enter the mail address you have registered with. You will receive an email with a temporary CORE account password.
This temporary password has to be changed to your own password before you can use the CORE account again. This is explained in the mail and also in the section "CORE account: changing password".
If you forgot the mail address you used to register, please contact us at it@zmb.uzh.ch and describe your issue.
CORE file server
Saving your data
USB ports are deactivated on instrument computers.
The ZMB offers short term storage to save and process your acquired data in our virtual infrastructure. The ZMB can not offer long term storage. This means data stored on the CORE file server needs to be moved to your institute file server for long term storage. On all ZMB instrument computer and also on the virtual data processing infrastructure you will find the Z:\ network drive for saving. Use this saving location since it is the only location we can ensure optimal performance.
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our service quality and support you with your experiments, we have decided to reduce the ZMB data retention time to 90 days.
Changes will take effect on October 1, 2024
The Z drive contains the following folders, each with a different purpose:
- home (limited to 1GB) -> storage of microscope settings, protocols, lab-notes | auto deletion: only after your CORE account has been deleted | backup: daily
- data (up to 410TB depending on shared usage) -> storage for data that are recorded and processed at ZMB | auto deletion: data older than 90 days (email notification 21 days before deletion) | backup: no
- transfer (up to 10TB depending on shared usage) -> storage for sharing data with other users and ZMB staff. | auto deletion: data older than 7 days without notification | backup: no
- projects -> storage for sharing project data to users acquired by ZMB staff (you will get mails about granted and removed access to project folders). | auto deletion: no (data will be archived for 10 years after defined by staff) | backup: no
Accessing your data
Access to data on the servers of the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis depends on your location in the network. Therefore follow the first link that matches your case. This will give you the best possible experience.
from within the UZH network or with active UZH VPN:
Windows:
Mac:
from the USZ network:
Windows:
Mac:
from external and web based solutions:
CORE booking system
Open the CORE booking system. Login with your CORE account.
Access to instruments is granted after you had an introduction. Contact the person which gave you the introduction if you have no permission to book a system.
Please note that the CORE booking system is independent from the shared equipment reservation system of UZH. Those are two different systems, with different accounts. The ZMB uses only the CORE booking system.
Virtual infrastructure
Getting started
General information about our virtual image processing infrastructure is available here.
To use the image processing virtual machines you can either install the Citrix Workspace app:
or use them directly over the browser:
We recommend using the installed Citrix version if you do intensive image processing.
Using virtual machines
Prerequisites:
- read the IT guidelines.
- check which virtual machine flavor contains the software you need: Software on virtual machines.
- book the virtual machine you need in the CORE booking system.
- start the virtual machine by clicking on the icon in Citrix with the same name as you have reserved in the booking system.
Contact us, if the virtual machine you have booked is not available (it@zmb.uzh.ch). You can check the status of the virtual machines here.
To gain optimal performance always use the CORE file server to work on the virtual machines. The CORE file server is directly connected to the virtual machines which ensures best possible performance.
It is important to correctly end your VM session, therefore please check out the following guide, it describes the difference between logout and disconnect. Please make sure to always correctly log off otherwise you will block resources for other users.
You can connect to your VM session from anywhere and not only from where you started it. The VM session follows you.
If you use a VM without booking it, you will automatically receive a warning email. You will receive warnings once an hour until you react to it. The email also contains a link to instantly end your VM session with one click.
Your VM session only gets automatically killed after 72 hours without interaction.
Citrix Workspace app: Troubleshooting
This guide explains how you can fix the error state "Unable to connect to the server" in the Citrix Workspace app and the "Try again" button does not help.
The following guide explains how you can reset your Citrix Workspace app (only applies to Windows OS) to factory defaults. This is needed if your Citrix Workspace app does not work as expected. An easy solution to reset Citrix Workspace app to factory defaults if various issues with Citrix Workspace app occurs.
If you use UPC as your internet provider at home the following workaround might be necessary to be able to connect to the VMs:
