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Disk Quotas with Reports in Win 2003

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Setting up quotas on your storage is an efficient way to

manage misuse. However, Win 2003 servers did not provide much in the way of

letting administrators do this efficiently other than setting up limits on how

much can be used. There was no way to find out, for instance, how that space was

being utilized or who was flouting internal directives and storing files of

unacceptable nature on the server space. The refresh release of the Windows

server, 'R2' solves these problems by providing you with features like

extensive and customizable file screening, scheduled reporting as well as the

ability to find out exactly who is storing what. In this article, we will take

you through what is possible in this direction and how to achieve it.

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File type grouping



Create groups of file types (called a 'file screen template') to setup

various controls on files of that type. For example, if you don't want the

hassle of listing out the hundred-odd image file extensions every time you need

to manage them, simply create a template (say 'picture files') and add your

extensions to that. If certain file extensions need to be excluded, simply move

them off the particular group (and possibly into another one). Now that groups

have been created, you can ban them, view what files are being stored by those

types and so on. To create file groups, open the FSRM (File Server Resource

Manager) console and the File Screen Management node  and 'File Groups'

under it. To create a group, you need to specify a name for the group and add

filename pattern filters.  You can add two types of filters here-those to

include in the group and those to exclude from it. File exclusion is required in

some circumstances. For instance, you create a group called 'Approval

Documents' which can be a set of all files of type DOC and XLS, but you wish

to exclude all DOC files that have the word 'request' ('*request*.doc',

'*request*.xls') in it.

The FSRM report will tell you exactly what large files are there and who own's them. Use this info for fine tuning quota settings
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Per path limits



Earlier, it was only possible to create quotas on volumes. That is, you

could limit the space used by a user on 'D' drive, but not into

'D:\Public'. Win 2003 R2 lets you define per path quotas. So, users can

different quota limits within different folders on the same drive. This greatly

enhances your ability to manage your storage resources better depending on what

each share-folder is used for. By default,  R2's quota manager creates

per-path quotas. To create a new quota entry, you need to open FSRM>'Quota

Management'>'Quotas'. Select the path, and define the quota's

parameters. To make life easy, you can derive the quota's limits, filters and

exclusions from predefined quota templates.

 When you select the first 'Create quota on path'

option instead of the one to apply it onto all existing and new subfolders, the

quota is only applied at the root level of the path you select. To have it

propagate to child folders which may be created at a later date as well as have

it propagate into existing ones, you need to select the second option.

Ban and monitor files



You can prevent people from storing files of a certain type, size or

combination of both and this can again be done per path. You can directly

configure your server to reject any storage attempt of 'Music and Video files

over 10 MB in size from the Public\Media share'. This is called a 'file

screen.' You can define your own file screens from the 'File Screening

Management' node in the FSRM console. Again, file screens can be setup on a

per path basis. You can setup file screens on an 'Active' or a 'Passive'

basis. Active screens will thwart attempts by users to place those files (in

that path). Passive ones are only for monitoring purposes, and setup alerts to

notify yourself, the administrator of the system, the user, the support

personnel and so on about disk usage patterns. You also have the ability to

select multiple file groups to monitor.

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Reports



The way to find out what to fine-tune and where a configuration may be

bettered is through proper reports. R2's file server management lets you

generate flexible reports on a schedule and sent to you as e-mail. These reports

can be on a variety of fully selectable and customizable parameters. For

instance, one can create a report of all the files above a certain file size

stored by a particular group of users and on particular shares every Saturday at

6 pm and sent on to that server's administrator. These reports use graphs and

tables to present information. The administrator can then use the report data to

determine if further fine tuning or disk clean-up procedures are necessary. Two

very useful reports in this direction are: reports of duplicate files on the

server and disk usage pattern. Both can be accessed directly from the list on

the Scenario selection screen when you click on the 'File Server Management'

root node in the console. Users on file servers can frequently have the same

files-typically these are files they have received individually, or downloaded

from the Internet. The report can help you locate the files precisely down to

the exact folder where it is stored. You can then selectively move them (not a

feature of the report) to a common location and reclaim disk space.

FSRM allows you to schedule reports and have them either

saved to disk (default) or send them to an email address you specify. If

selected to be saved to disk, are saved in 'WINDOWS_DRIVE\ StorageReports'

folder. You can have reports run immediately using the 'Generate Reports

Now' from the menu. To generate a report, you need to select the paths, the

type of report you want with customization and select a file format type (DHTML,

HTML, XML, CSV or Text). When you schedule a report, you can edit its

parameters. This is not possible when you ask for immediate runs, because the

report task when running is locked against edits and is deleted after it is run.

These features definitely  take the ease of managing

disk space on your Windows server box a notch higher. Now, you can find out

exactly how much space is being used by  each user and what they are

storing, and what duplicate files are on the disk. You also get to set up quotas

at a much granular level than before.

Sujay V Sarma

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