SIF guidance portal

SIF doesn't enforce quotas on space per say. If you need to store several terabytes of research data, we recommend that you contact the SIF systems administration via sif-info.it@au.dk for help finding a suitable solution.

All data on SIF are automatically replicated across several disks using RAID technology. This includes both research data uploadet by you, the user, data pertaining to you, the user, and data concerning SIF's system functionality. 

Furthermore, we nightly perform automatic backup of all SIF data to a remote location.

SIF has obligatory 2-factor authentication of all access. Because we employ the TOTP industry standard (Time-based One-Time Password) for single use codes generated on your device, it would be all but impossible to gain unauthorised access to your research data, even even if your password had become compromised.

All SIF data is saved exclusively on AU's hardware in server rooms with physical access control. Data stored on SIF can only be accessed via hardened security protocols; research data uploadet by users and data pertaining to users is solely stored on disks in encrypted form, and all data access and storage use strong encryption. Moreover, SIF isolates research data on project basis, to prevent an accidental leak.

Finally, SIF is subject to strict operational regulations, which permit only very few administrators to achieve access to decrypted research data uploadet by the users and data pertaining to the users. This is only permissible after the explicit approval of their superior.

To upload entire folders to SIF, you can either use the effective file/folder-handling we describe under Effective data access, or you can access SIF as a network drive. By accessing SIF as a betwork drive, you can copy folders to and from SIF via your file handling programme.

The SIF web-interface only supports up- and download of single files.

There are a number of special characters SIF will reject in file names, e.g. "< > { | } * ? [ ]". They are known to cause trouble, either because they are control characters, with a potentially harmful effect on the storage systems, or because they disturb web-use -display. We continually evaluate the need to permit further special characters, if they do no harm either to the user interface or the underlying systems. You are welcome to contact us, if there is a character you would like approved.

Due to security considerations, we do not store passwords in our systems, only a one-way derived hash-value. Therefore, we cannot retrieve forgotten passwords.

We do, however, permit that you change your password. Since the SIF access portal is tied to the central user database, the system uses your normal AU username and password. Therefore, if you have forgotten your password or if it has expired, you should follow the normal procedure or contact AU IT support for help.

The other SIF services - for instance SFTP and WebDAVS – uses login details you yourself define, and that you can change on the SIF Setup page.

If you're using WebDAVS and get an error message that your file is too big, this is due to a 50MB limit set by Microsoft for tranfers using this service. Consult the Guides for help solving this issue.

SIF sign-up for an AU employee

Overview 

Project management

Project administration 

Use SIF as external drive/WebDAVS

WebDAVS

Windows Files

Adjust the Windows size limit

Mac OSX Files

Linux Files

SFTP

Other clients

Linux Files

SSHFS

If you have any suggestions for improvements or questions about SIF, we would very much like to hear from you.

This applies to support as well, if a SIF functionality doesn't work as described. To help you as effectively as possible, please include information about your operating system and browser in your query. If in doubt as to which operating system and browser you're using, you can check it by going to www.whatismybrowser.com or detectmybrowser.com. Send us the line under “Your web browser is:”, or the line which begins “You're using”.

Screen shots are very useful here too, because they let us see exactly what you're seeing.

Contact us via email at sif-info.it@au.dk.