File Server Resource Manager

No matter how much storage you have on your file servers, users always manage to fill it up. Even if you restrict Internet access so that they can't download their favorite games and pictures, they still pack your servers with various documents and other assorted business-related and "other" files that they just can't live without. Is it really necessary to retain WordPerfect 5.0formatted documents from 1993?

In most environments, the administrator must have a mechanism to monitor and control the amount of space that users are allocated. Although there have always been third-party utilities available to control disk usage, Microsoft finally included the Disk Quota feature in its operating systems starting with Windows 2000. Previous to the R2 release of Windows Server 2003, the Disk Quota feature in Windows Server 2003 was largely unchanged since the initial version.

The File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) is a new MMC snap-in available in Windows Server 2003, starting with the R2 release. FSRM provides a variety of tools that can be used to monitor and control the amount of space used and control what files are stored on your servers. In addition, it also provides storage reports, so that you have a record of who's storing what and where.

Exam Alert: R2 Only

Although the domain can still be Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 without R2, the server the FSRM is installed on and all the servers that will be managed via the FSRM must be at R2 or later.

To install the File Server Resource Manager on a Windows Server 2003 R2 server, follow the procedure in Step by Step 13.6.

Step by Step

13.6 Installing the File Server Resource Manager

1.	From the Start menu, click Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs.
2.	In the Add or Remove Programs window, as shown in Figure 13.9, click Add/Remove windows. Figure 13.9. Installing Windows components.
3.	This starts the Windows Components Wizard. From the Windows Components dialog box, select the check box for Management and Monitoring tools, and then click the Details button.
4.	In the Management and Monitoring Tools dialog box, select the File Server Resource Manager subcomponent, as shown in Figure 13.10. Click OK to return to the wizard. Figure 13.10. Select the File Server Resource Manager subcomponent.
5.	On the Windows Components dialog box, click the Next button to continue.
6.	When prompted, insert the requested Windows Server 2003 R2 CDs. (You might need both CD1 and CD2.)
7.	The necessary files are loaded. When completed, click the Finish button.
8.	When prompted, restart the server.

After the FSRM is installed, it can be opened by selecting the File Server Resource Manager icon in the Administrative Tools folder.

The FSRM MMC, as shown in Figure 13.11, takes advantage of the new functionality in MMC version 3.0 by displaying the additional Actions pane on the far right.

Figure 13.11. The File Server Resource Manager MMC.

As you can see in Figure 13.11, there are three major nodes in the FSRM MMC:

• Quota Management Used to create and manage quotas on volumes and folders.

• File Screening Management Used to create file screens that prevent users from saving blocked file types in managed volumes and folders.

• Storage Reports Management Used to create and schedule storage reports.

Before we can use the FSRM MMC, we need to set up a few configuration options. To access the configuration, right-click the File Resource Manager entry in the left pane, and select Configure Options from the pop-up menu. This opens up the options dialog box, shown in Figure 13.12.

Figure 13.12. You can set the FSRM notification configuration from the Email Notifications tab.

On the Email Notifications tab, enter the SMTP server, the email address of the administrators that you want notifications sent to, and the From e-mail address. Click the Test E-mail button to test your configuration.

On the File Screen Audit tab, shown in Figure 13.13, you have the option to record all file screening activity in an auditing database. This database is used to create the File Screen Audit Report.

Figure 13.13. File Screen auditing is enabled by selecting the check box.

Note: Performance Hit

Enabling file screen auditing adds a certain amount of overhead to the file screening process. Make sure that you actually need this functionality before turning it on.

Now that we have the initial configuration of the File Server Resource Manager completed, let's take an in-depth look at what we can accomplish with it.