2.1.3 System Capabilities
The following are the administrative operations that can be performed by using the File Services Management Protocols:
DFS namespace management: The Distributed File System (DFS) namespace is a virtual view of resources that reside on one or more file servers. When a user views the namespace, the directories and files in it appear to reside on a single share. Users can navigate the namespace without previous knowledge of the server names or the shares hosting the data. By using the admin tools, an administrator selects which shared folders to present in the namespace, designs the hierarchy in which those folders appear, and determines the names that the shared folders show in the namespace, as described in Distributed File System (DFS): Namespace Management Protocol [MS-DFSNM].
Configuring Distributed File System Replication (DFS-R): The administrator can use the admin tools to create, modify, and delete configuration objects in Active Directory. For this purpose, the administrator uses the Distributed File System (DFS) Replication Helper Protocol, as described in [MS-DFSRH].
Monitoring Distributed File System Replication (DFS-R): The administrator can monitor DFS-R on the server and collect statistics about the DFS-R operation. Information that can be collected includes:
Number and size of replicated files on the server.
Disk use on the server.
Information about replicated folders on the server.
Replication backlog—the number of files that are not yet fully replicated.
The interfaces that are used to collect these statistics are described in [MS-DFSRH].
Directory quota management: Directory quotas track and control directory space usage for NTFS file system volumes. Directory quotas allow administrators to control the amount of data that each user can store on a specific NTFS file system directory. A directory quota can be configured with one or more directory quota thresholds that define a set of highly customizable notifications that are sent when the quota usage reaches the threshold value. For more information on how to configure the directory quota, see the File Server Resource Manager Protocol [MS-FSRM].
File screen management: Administrators can create and modify file screens that restrict the types of files that can be stored in a specific directory and its subdirectories. For each file screen, there is a configurable list of blocked file groups that define a set of patterns, based on the file name, which is to be restricted. When a file is created or renamed, the server evaluates whether the file name matches a pattern in any file group that is configured on a parent portion of the path. If a match is found, the file is blocked, and a set of highly customizable File Server Resource Management (FSRM) notifications that are configured for the file screen are raised. For more information on how to configure a file screen, see [MS-FSRM].
Analyze storage use: An administrator can generate reports to better understand how storage is used in specific directories. A storage report job specifies a set of directories to be analyzed to generate one or more reports. Report jobs can be run on a schedule or on demand. An administrator can also query and set properties on the report job to manipulate report generation parameters, format options, email delivery information, and other options. For more information on how to configure report jobs, see [MS-FSRM].
File classification: An administrator can classify files and apply policies that are based on that classification. An administrator can retrieve and modify the values that are assigned to classification properties for files that are stored on the server. An administrator can create, enumerate, modify, and delete classification rules and classification modules on the server. For more information on how to configure the file classification, see [MS-FSRM].
Creating and modifying a file management job: A file management job is a scheduled task that applies a command to a set of files, as determined by lists of conditions and namespaces. File management jobs can also produce FSRM notifications at configurable intervals before a file is affected by the configured task.
Modifying the file properties: An administrator can set, enumerate, modify, and delete values of properties for specific files on the file server by interacting with the FSRM server component.
Configuring the SMB Network Redirector: An administrator can query and configure the SMB Network Redirector by using the File Services Management system. For example, the administrator can query the computer name or major and minor version numbers of the operating system from a remote computer. An administrator can set the following configuration options:
The number of seconds that the SMB Network Redirector maintains an inactive SMB connection to a remote computer's resource before closing it.
The number of simultaneous network commands that can be processed by the SMB Network Redirector.
The number of seconds that the SMB Network Redirector waits before the redirector disconnects an inactive SMB session.
Configuration operations and the protocol that is used to carry out these tasks are described in [MS-WKST].
Managing information on the SMB server: The administrator can query and configure information on the server, such as active connections, sessions, shares, files, and transport protocols. A server can be configured to present different resources based on the name the client connects with, allowing it to appear as multiple, distinct servers. This task is achieved by scoping a share to a specific name and by hosting all of the names on the same server. The Server Service Remote Protocol [MS-SRVS] provides a list of configuration operations.
Managing the SMB server: The administrator can query and configure the SMB server. For example, the administrator can identify the type of service that the SMB server is running, such as a server running the Workstation service, change the services that are running, and get a list of all servers of a specific type in a domain. The administrator can also configure aliases for a server by identifying multiple distinct names that present the same resources. The protocol that is used to manage an SMB server is described in [MS-SRVS].