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Sunet Drive

Welcome to the Sunet Drive documentation. This section covers both conceptual and technical aspects of the service. Use the navigation to browse guides for getting started, sharing files, configuring clients, security, administration, and integrations.

Sunet Drive in a nutshell

Sunet Drive is a national data storage and collaboration platform that simplifies the handling of research data. Several components make up Sunet Drive:

  • The frontend is based on Nextcloud, so most daily tasks are performed through the Nextcloud web interface or its synchronization clients. Collaboration on your data also takes place through Nextcloud.
  • The storage backend is based on S3-buckets, which are logical storage entities comparable to hard disks. Buckets are handled by your local institution and the idea is to create buckets for research projects, institutions and so on. The lifecycle of a bucket can easily be handled beyond the lifetime of a regular research project, and the ownership of a bucket can be transferred. In Nextcloud, buckets will be shown as regular folders.
  • Your login and identity are handled by your organization through the eduGAIN federation. Your login is directed to the federated Nextcloud node associated with your institution.

Production and test environments

To explore the service, visit Sunet Drive or Sunet Drive Test and log in using your institution. If you do not have an institutional account, create an eduid.se account and use it to log in. Sunet Drive Test has the same architecture as the production service with a few limitations, mainly that it should not be used for production data and that you can expect occasional downtime during upgrades.

Nextcloud user documentation

Most users access Sunet Drive through Nextcloud client applications. For general instructions, see the Nextcloud user manual, which includes documentation for the Nextcloud Desktop Client and Nextcloud Android App (which is very similar to the iOS app). Please be aware that there might be some differences between the Nextcloud documentation and the implementation of Sunet Drive.

If you cannot find the information you need, contact your local IT support or Sunet Drive support.