4. Working in the ADRF

This section provides an overview of how to work within the ADRF.

💡 You can find detailed information as well as video tutorials on how to work in the ADRF in the ADRF User Guide, which is available to ADRF users in Secure PASS in their project workspaces.

Project Workspace

A project workspace is a secure, isolated virtual environment in the ADRF within which an approved set of users can access a defined number of agency datasets. The project workspace is designed to allow approved researchers to access, analyze, and manipulate specific datasets relevant to their approved projects while maintaining strict data confidentiality and integrity.

Project workspaces in the ADRF are isolated from each other. Even if a person is granted access to two project workspaces, the user can not access or copy files from one into the other. This is important because the two project workspaces might have access to different datasets.

Virtual Desktop

The Virtual Desktop Environment (VDE) is a secure, remote Windows system that allows you to work as if it were your own desktop. This environment is temporary: running programs will stop and unsaved data will be deleted after four hours of inactivity. Always save your files to the appropriate drives and log out by selecting End Session from the top taskbar to preserve your work. The interface is a familiar Windows desktop, with icons and a start menu for accessing programs and tools like PowerShell.

ADRF Session Security & Log Out Guidelines

To maintain compliance and protect research data, the ADRF enforces specific session inactivity and lock-out policies. Please be aware of the following requirements: - Session Lock (Auto-Lock): To protect your workstation, your session will automatically lock after 15 minutes of inactivity. - Session Termination: Your active session will be terminated after 60 minutes of inactivity. - Account Deactivation: Accounts are subject to deactivation after 90 days of inactivity.

Account Reactivation

If you have a valid ADRF account; but the account has been deactivated due to inactivity, please reach out to support@coleridge.us to reactivate your account.

Post-Reactivation Requirement: If your account is reactivated after a period of inactivity, you are required to log in within 1 hour to complete the process and avoid triggering a secondary reactivation request.

Best Practice: Always manually lock your screen or log out of your session when stepping away from your workspace to ensure these automated controls do not interrupt your work unexpectedly.

Modifying the Environment

Establishing Personal Folders

Establishing your own personal folders is one of the simplest, yet most important, steps to take when setting up your environment. As we note in the section on Storing Analytic Results, the two possible places to store your analytic results or files are in either the U: drive or the P: drive.

You will find your personal folder in the U: drive. The folder name will include your Firstname and Lastname, and may additionally include your project workspace number. This is a personal workspace that only you can access in the ADRF.

The U: Drive and the P: Drive

  • The U: drive is your user drive; it’s where you will store any files you are working on. Only the user will have access to the U: drive. For example, if user A wants to share information with user B who is on the same project, user A will need to save files to a P: drive folder and not folders in their U: drive since user B will not be able to access user A’s U: drive.

  • The P: drive is the project drive, which will be used to house project-specific folders. Thus, you and other collaborators on the same project will be able to save files to project drive folders.

Other Modifications

The top taskbar contains shortcuts to the command prompt, multiple desktop windows, a temporary folder, settings, full-screen view, and toggling multiple monitors.

Software in the ADRF

The ADRF project workspace provides a range of pre-installed, open-source, and commercial analytical software for data analysis. For detailed instructions on how to use each tool, refer to the full ADRF User Guide located in the secure data enclave.

Key analytical software includes: - JupyterLab: An interactive environment for running Notebooks with R, Python, and Stata kernels, and the recommended way to conduct exploratory computing. - Statistical Software: Dedicated environments are available for Python, R (via RStudio), and Stata. - DBeaver: A universal database tool for querying and managing data stored in the Redshift database.


Support

Need help?

  • Email: support@coleridge.us

  • Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 AM - 5 PM ET