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NORTHERN Quota Server |
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Guidance
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Scenarios
How can I view disk resources based on geographic location?
Quota Server's management interface includes a large number of
customization possibilities. With guidance from the Quota Server View
Wizard, you are able to create views to meet your needs. It's easy to
create Views per geographic location, for example all users in New York.
Other examples of Views could be showing lists with locked-out users
that are above their quota, or displaying people approaching 90% of the
quota, etc.
Define views:
- Per geographic location, for example for all users in New York.
- Showing all locked-out users that are above their quota.
- Showing all users that are approaching 90% of the quota.
- Displaying only your Auto-quotas.
Users are filling my servers with music
libraries and picture galleries and I'm supposed to manage this stuff!!
This scenario is not exactly uncommon. Unproductive, even legally
hazardous material accounts for a significant portion of the storage
resource use within most, if not all, unmanaged networks. Existing space
and valuable administrative time are wasted in the management of an
amazing amount of useless data.
Quota Server allows you to prevent these losses. Preventing unwanted and
offensive material, such as JPGs and MP3s from ever being saved on your
servers. Quota Server's File Block Quota absolutely prevents the saving
of files with the extensions you specify.
I'm sure I would win back storage capacity if I
could delete all files that haven't been accessed in the last five
years.
Quota Server can generate a report that will list all files that haven't
been accessed since a certain date. You can use the report to delete, or
possibly burn to a CD-ROM, all files that have not been accessed since
the specified date. Clearing up disk space, and providing capacity for
more valuable information.
I want to implement a Storage
Management Policy, but I don't know where to start.
In order to gain an initial understanding of your user’s storage needs,
it is good practice to implement disk quotas without any locking or
blocking mechanisms, ‘soft quotas’.
It would also be wise to employ the threshold notification system. Use
two, or a maximum of three thresholds to provide a good level of
awareness but prevent an information overload. The first threshold is
commonly set at 75%, with email or pop-up messages sent to users, and
the second at 100%, with both users and Admins receiving notifications.
The general level of quota use should be reviewed after two to three
months. You and your users will have a much better understanding of
storage needs, as well as Storage Management as a concept, after this
'sit back and watch' process.
I want to develop my Storage
Management Policy to be more controlling, but I don't want a bunch of
mails a day about locked quotas.
There are two different methods of using quotas to control disk space
usage. Some Quota Server customers advocate the use of ‘hard-quotas’ to
absolutely prevent users from exceeding there allotted storage capacity.
This is an excellent means of ensuring the absolute safety of storage
devices that are at risk of being overloaded. However, locking quotas
can create the need for more active management; immediate response to
critical threshold warnings, more careful monitoring of certain
applications, answering angry phone calls, etc.
Many administrators prefer to use non-locking quotas and Quota Server’s
threshold notification system to reduce unnecessary workload and create
an understanding of the issue among users. This less rigid style of
storage management involves the use of quotas that allow users to exceed
100% threshold, in conjunction with carefully constructed notification
templates. This style has allowed many Quota Server customers to
effectively delegate the responsibility for disk clean up and efficient
storage use, to their users.
Storage Management sounds
great. In fact, you've got me worried. I need to find out what is
happening on my servers right now!
The first step is to download Quota Server
Proceed to Download. Next, you simply need to construct some ‘Volume
Usage’ reports for the servers you wish to monitor. These will provide
you with a clear overview of storage usage.
Creating a web page based on the "Volume Usage" [The Storage Statistics]
template is a very good initial report. Configured so that Quota Server
creates an HTML report every 30 minutes to a specific directory. Name
the HTML report output file "Volumes on SERVERNAME.html". For example:
C:\WebReports\Volumes on MARS.html or C:\WebReports\Volumes on
PLUTO.html.
These reports will provide a clear understanding of the actual storage
usage within the server specified. For more information about creating
these reports, download the Quota Server Users Guide from
Documents.
I like the sound of this
software but I'm not looking forward to installing it on all 50 of my
company's servers.
Quota Server can be installed onto a server by either going to the
server and installing the software interactively, or creating an
installation script [this can be done automatically by the setup
program], or by remotely installing [also known as push installation]
the software onto remote servers across the network using the Remote
Installation Wizard.
This tool “clones” an existing Quota Server installation out to other
server computers. It will essentially copy the server components, the
settings that have been made on the server, reports that have been
created, and so forth out to the other computers.
No running in the corridors
Evaluation Guide
INTRODUCTION
This Evaluation Guide will describe how you can explore some of the many
features in Quota Server 2003 and Storage Portal.
EXPLORING QUOTA SERVER 2003
The objective of any evaluation is to get a fairly decent idea of the
key features of the software one is considering to invest in. To that
end Northern has devised this paper, which will try to help you in your
exploration of the software Quota Server 2003.
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Perform a full server installation under the Evaluation license
agreement.
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After you have completed the installation, choose Start > Programs >
NORTHERN > Storage Suite > Quota Server. The Quota Server client
appears.
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In the Network Pane right-click the machine where you have installed
the Quota Server service and select Add Server(s) from the shortcut
menu.
STORAGE POLICIES
Quota Server gives you the opportunity to set Storage Policies. These
Storage Policies allow you to set quotas on any number of objects,
automatically. The Storage Policy Wizards available from the Policies
menu in the Quota Server client, make sure that policies are quick to
define and easy to deploy. The Storage Policy Wizards also allow you to
prohibit certain file types from being saved. Quota Server ensures that,
for instance, no Media files [jpg, avi, or mpeg files, etc] are saved.
Using the Storage Policy Wizard you can easily deploy network-wide
content prohibitions and also set quotas and threshold notifications for
any number of folders, shares or users.
The Storage Policy Wizard comes with four pre-configured Storage Policy
strategies:
- Set Quotas on User Home shares
- Set Quotas on Public shares
- Set Quotas on entire drives
- Set Custom Quotas
IMPLEMENTING STORAGE POLICIES
To implement a Storage Policy:
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Choose the Policies menu. Select the desired wizard [The
different kinds of policies are described below.] The Storage Policy
Wizard appears.
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Follow the on-screen instructions.
SET QUOTAS ON USER HOME SHARES
If you choose the strategy to set Quotas on User Home shares, the wizard
will ask you to set quota size, and ask you to navigate to the directory
that contains the User’s directories. If you complete the wizard, this
policy will proceed to set a quota on every directory added or present
in the directory on which the policy has been applied.
SET QUOTAS ON PUBLIC SHARES
If you choose the strategy to set Quotas on Public shares, the wizard
will ask you to set quota size, and ask you to navigate to the directory
that will act as a public share. If you complete the wizard, this policy
will proceed to set a quota on each user that saves a file to the Public
share.
SET QUOTAS ON ENTIRE DRIVES
If you choose the option to set Quotas on entire drives, the wizard will
ask you to set quota size and scan interval. It is recommended that you
set a fairly long interval for this policy. A day [86400 seconds] should
suffice. If you complete the wizard, this policy will proceed to set a
quota on all selected drives. This is an excellent policy for those
admins who want to monitor drives in order to ensure that they are not
accidentally filled. Set the policy to send an admin alert at 90 percent
full and you know you will be alerted when a drive is near full.
SET CUSTOM QUOTAS
If you choose the strategy to set Custom Quotas, the wizard will ask you
to set quota size, and ask you to navigate to any directory that you
want to set quotas on.
FILE BLOCKING POLICIES
The File Block Policy Wizards comes with seven pre-configured File
Blocking Policy strategies:
- Prohibit movie files from being stored
- Prohibit music files from being stored
- Prohibit picture files from being stored
- Prohibit Internet files from being stored
- Prohibit Office files from being stored
- Prohibit dangerous files types from being stored
- Prohibit Custom file type from being stored
The File Block Policy Wizards helps you set network-wide or server
specific bans or prohibitions on certain file types. The prohibitions
are aimed at keeping non-business file types off your server, but can
also be used to ban any other file types deemed private, recreational or
plain unnecessary.
SETTING A FILE BLOCKING POLICY
To set a File Blocking Storage Policy
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Choose the Policies menu. Select the desired File Blocking
Wizard. The Storage Policy Wizard appears.
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Follow the on-screen instructions.
INTEGRATING WITH NORTHERN STORAGE PORTAL
To be able to explore the benefits of Northern Storage Portal you must
configure Quota Server to interact with Northern Storage Portal.
To integrate Quota Server with Northern Storage Portal:
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In the Quota Server client, choose: Tools: Storage Portal
Integration Wizard.
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Complete the wizard following the on-screens instructions.
EXPLORING END-USER PAGES IN STORAGE PORTAL
To explore End-User pages in Storage Portal
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From the Northern Storage Portal client, go to the Users page.
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Enter a path to a user home directory in the Path text field and
type account [DOMAIN\Name] of that user in the Account text field.
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Click the Go button. The End-User page appears.
EXPLORING QUOTA SERVER’S CENTRAL DATA STORE
(ADVANCED)
To ensure easy and safe backup of Quota Server data you can use the
Central Data Store, as a means of replicating and backing up Quota
Server’s settings [Quota settings, scheduled Reports, client settings,
server settings etc.] These settings are normally kept in the Registry.
When you proceed with the preparations for the Central Database you
should provide Quota Server with a database on your SQL server and make
other necessary preparations. For details on this refer to the relevant
MS SQL documentation of to the Quota Server User Guide.
REPLICATING REGISTRY DATA TO SQL
To replicate Quota Server’s Registry settings to a Central Data Store:
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Choose: Tools > Central Data Store Wizard. The Wizard appears.
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Follow the instructions of the Wizard
Documents
Brochure covering the whole of Northern Storage Suite [317KB]
A low resolution PDF version of the product brochure for Northern
Storage Suite covering all the modules.
Northern Quota Server Product Brochure [588KB]
A product brochure for Northern Quota Server in pdf-format.
Northern Quota Server 2003 user's guide [1935KB]
The full user's guide for Quota Server 2003 in pdf-format.
Northern Quota Server Getting Started Guide [1379KB]
A pdf version of the getting started guide for Northern Quota Server
included in the physical package.
Northern Storage Suite Deployment Guide [1654KB]
A thorough guide to the process of planning and executing the deployment
of Northern Storage Suite.
White Paper - Northern Storage Suite Licensing [76KB]
How to register and license Northern Storage Suite.
White
Paper - Storage Resource Management [91KB]
An in-depth look at Storage Resource Management [SRM], how NORTHERN sees
this subject and how Northern Storage Suite fits in the Storage
Life-Cycle.
White
Paper - Legally Liable for User’s MP3s [122KB]
Are you worried about unauthorized illegal MP3s on your servers?
Case Study: Jervis B. Webb Engineers a Solution to Streamline Storage
Management [36KB]
Read about how Northern Quota Server has allowed Jervis B. Webb to
efficiently and flexibly manage user data while freeing up time to spend
on other administrative tasks.
Case Study: Prominent Boston Museum turns storage management into a fine
art [59KB]
Read about how the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston use Quota Server to
manage their users storage.
Case Study: 25,000 users regulated by Quota Server [32KB]
An organization that grows as fast as UPMC requires a responsive,
resourceful IT staff particularly if it’s in charge of maintaining peak
network performance on a tight budget. Read more about how UPMC Health
System uses NORTHERN's Quota Server to manage 25,000 of their users.
Case Study: What a leading aerospace company did when it began running
out of space [44KB]
Alliant Techsystems, an aerospace and defense company, that employs
approximately 11,500 people needed to find an efficient means of
managing and tracking fast disappearing disk space. Users were backing
up their hard drives to the home server, which was quickly filling up.
It was then when they made the decision to implement NORTHERN’s Quota
Server. |
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