Users like to save everything. Unfortunatley disk space is not unlimited and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING! JPEGs, MP3s, AVIs and other "crap" fills up file servers, is often forgotten about and in some cases against the IT policy in place. R2 includes a feature in the File Server Resource Manager to control and manage the types of files stored on the file server.
The File Screening component can be utilized to scan the file types on the file server and take notify an administrator. The File Screen can be configured to
- control the types of files that users can save
- send notifications when a user attempts to save a forbidden files
File Screens can be configured from scratch or from built in templates. You can also create your own templates. You can also create exceptions to the File Screen rules. As an example you could use the File Screener to prevent users from saving video files at the same time creating an exception for certain users to allow them the ability to store these types of files. You can also configure a screen to notify you when a user saves a SCR, PIF or other notoriously bad file type so that you can take the appropriate steps to remove it.
To begin, expand File Screens, right-click in the open area in the center pane and select Create File Screen. Configure the screen by selecting a template to use, or enter in some custom properties.
Once the basic file screen has been configured, right-click the screening rule in the center pane and select Edit File Screen Properties. Under the Settings tab you can select active or passive screening. Active screening will prevent users from saving any banned file types wheras passive screening will just monitor the results of the file screen rule. You can add or remove file type groups from screening.
As with the quota rules, you can specify an e-mail notification,
Event Log reporting,
specify a command to run,
and configure report generation.
You can also right-click the screening rule and select Create File Screen Exception. Here we can create an exception to the rule in order to allow users to save files that would be banned by the file screening rule. You cannot create an exception on a folder that has a screening rule applied to it, you need to create a subfolder and apply the exception to that subfolder.
You can create additional File Groups to customize the files that should be screened. Right-click on the File Groups node and select Create File Group. Give the group a name and add the file extentions and/or file names to be included and/or excluded from screening.
As you can see, the File Screener is a very powerful addition to a Windows 2003 R2 file server. Combined with quotas, you can reduce the amount of disk space required in your enterprise.