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Exercise 4: Only Business Critical Files on Primary Storage

Figure 1

In this lesson, you will configure the File Classification Infrastructure to track files based on their value to the organization. You will then configure the server to automatically move non-business critical files off to a secondary location.Most organizations have files that fall in some of the following categories (and likely more):

  1. Files that they need to do business and change often
  2. Files that they need to do business and change rarely
  3. Files that they do not really need to do business
  4. Etc

Maintaining files in the second category on the fastest file servers is expensive and maintenance heavy. If these could be automatically moved off to another server shortly after appearing on the file server, IT Departments could spend less time per day backing up data and spend less money by purchasing less costly storage solutions.

In especially organized companies, the IT department may mandate that the different categories of files should be stored in separate directories to make it possible to automatically move off the non-business critical files after they have been on the server for a few days. However, once a file is moved from one directory to another, the file automatically falls under the policy on that directory, which may be incorrect and cost the company money.

The File Classification Infrastructure can allow an administrator to classify files based on their location and ensure that those classifications stay attached to the individual files. A File Management Task can then be utilized to move files to the secondary server. For this scenario, the administrators set up the following directories to make this possible:

  • C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_often: files that are necessary for business and change often
  • C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_rare: files that are necessary for business and change rarely

  • C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\Low: files that are not necessary for business

Part 1: Only Business Critical Files on Primary Storage

  1. In FSRM, expand Classification Management and select Classification Properties:

    Figure 2

  2. Click Create Property in the Actions pane.

    Figure 3

    Note:
     This opens the Create Classification Property Definition dialog box:
  3. In the Property name text box, type the name Business Need for the property.
  4. In the Property Type drop-down menu, select Ordered List from the list.

  5. Enter the following entries into the Value column below the Property Type dropdown:

    1. High often
    2. High rarely

    3. Low

    Figure 4

  6. Click OK to close the dialog.
    Note:
     This defines a new property that the system will track for files. The property can have any one of the three specified values.

    To assign these labels to files, an administrator could execute a script or a Line-Of-Business application could set properties while saving the file. However this will not account for any existing files and is not always feasible. The Classification Rules allow an administrator to specify a set of rules that are automatically evaluated to assign values to classification properties on files.

  7. In FSRM, expand Classification Management and select Classification Rules:

    Figure 5

  8. Click Create a New Rule in the Actions pane:

    Figure 6

    Note:
     This opens the Classification Rule Definitions dialog box.
  9. In the text box labeled Rule name type Set High business need for files that change often as the name for the rule.
  10. In the Scope section, click Add and select the following path:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_often
  11. Select the Classification tab

  12. From the Classification Mechanism dropdown select Folder Classifier:

    Figure 7

    Note:
     This classification mechanism sets the specified value for the specified classification property for all files underneath the rule’s scope.

  13. Select the value Business Need from the Property name dropdown:

    Figure 8

  14. Select the value High often from the Property value dropdown:

    Figure 9

  15. Click OK.

    Note:
     This has created a rule to automatically classify all files in the ‘C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_often’ directory as having a Business Need of High often.

  16. Repeat steps 8 through 15 to create two more classification rules

    1. Rule Name: “Set High business need for files that rarely change” Scope: “C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_rare” Classification mechanism: “Folder Classifier” Property name: “Business Need” Property value: “High rarely”
    2. Rule Name: “Set Low business need” Scope: “C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\Low” Classification mechanism: “Folder Classifier” Property name: “Business Need” Property value: “Low”

    Note:
     Once a file has been classified, the properties are stored with the file. As long as the file stays on NTFS, the properties will move with the file. For Office files, the properties are stored as document properties inside the file. That means, a classified Office file can safely be emailed or placed on a FAT volume. Once it returns to a Windows 2008 R2 Server the properties will be found and policies will take effect.

    Classification of a large number of files can take time. For that reason, the File Classification Infrastructure will only classify files on a schedule set by the administrator or when an application requests the classification properties of a file.

  17. In FSRM, click File Server Resource Manager (Local), and then click Configure Options in the Actions pane:

    Figure 10

  18. In the File Server Resource Manager Options dialog box, click the Automatic Classification tab:

    Figure 11

  19. Click Create and then in the Schedule dialog box, click New.
    Note:
     This displays a default schedule set for 9:00 A.M. daily.

  20. Change the start time to 12:00 AM:

    Figure 12

    Note:
     Since classification can take time, it may be advisable to run it only while users are not actively using the server.
  21. Click on the Settings tab.

  22. Ensure the check box next to Stop the task if it runsfor is checked and enter 5 in the text box next to the label:

    Figure 13

    Note:
     This will ensure that the classification process runs nightly from midnight to 5am.
  23. Click OK to close the Schedule dialog.
  24. Click OK to close the File Server Resource Manager Options dialog.
  25. In FSRM, select File Management Tasks, and click Create File Management Task in the Actions pane.
    Note:
     This opens the Create File Management Task dialog box
  26. In the Task name text box, enter Move Low Business Need documents to secondary storage for the new task.
  27. Under Scope, add the following directory by using the Add button:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data
  28. In the Action tab, select Custom from the dropdown box labeled Type.
  29. Enter the following application path into the Executable text box:

    C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

  30. Enter the following line into the Arguments text box:

    /Cc:\windows\system32\move_file_and_leave_link.cmd [Source File Path]

    Figure 14

    Note:
     These parameters will be passed to the command. The “/Cc:\windows\system32\move_file_and_leave_link.cmd” parameter to “cmd.exe” indicates that it should execute that script. The “[Source File Path]” string will be replaced with the actual file being acted on when the command is executed.
  31. In the Command security section select Local System.
  32. Select the Condition tab.
  33. Select the check box next to the text Days since created and enter the number 30 into the text box next to it.

  34. Click Add to create a new condition based on the file’s classification:

    Figure 15

    Note:
     This will open the Property Condition dialog box, which allows you to select a property, an operator to perform on the property, and the value to compare the property against.
  35. Select the property Business Need from the Property dropdown
  36. Select the condition Equal from the Operator dropdown

  37. Select the property value Low from the Value dropdown:

    Figure 16

  38. Click OK to close the Property condition dialog.
  39. Select the Schedule tab
  40. Click Create…, and then in the Schedule dialog box, click New.
    Note:
     This displays a default schedule set for 9:00 A.M. daily.
  41. Select Monthly from the drop down list.
    Note:
     This sets up the schedule to run on the 1st day of every month at 9am.
  42. Click OK to close the Schedule dialog.
  43. Click OK to close the Create File Management Task dialog
    Note:
     This File Management Task will find all files on folder ‘C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data’ that were created more than 30 days ago and have the classification property Business Need set to Low. For these files, it will execute the move_file_and_leave_link.cmd script.
  44. Create a new folder called Secondary under C:\
  45. Open an Explorer window to the following directory:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data
  46. Right click the file move_file_and_leave_link.cmd and select Edit
    Note:
     This will open the file in notepad. This script takes a file name with full path as a parameter. It attempts to create the same folder hierarchy in “c:\Secondary” as the parameter, moves the file into the newly created directory, and uses mklink to create a symbolic link where the file used to be, pointing at its new location. If the text “C:\Secondary” were to be replaced with a path on a different machine in the script, it would move the files there instead.
  47. Close Notepad

  48. Copy the following file:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\move_file_and_leave_link.cmd

    To:

    C:\windows\system32
  49. Open an explorer, navigate to:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\Low
  50. Note any existing files
  51. Open another explorer, navigate to:

    C:\Secondary
  52. Note that the directory is empty

  53. In FSRM, right click on the Move Low Business Need documents to secondary storage File Management Task you just created and select Run File Management Task Now:

    Figure 17

  54. Select Wait for task to complete execution and click OK
  55. Inspect the generated report for files affected by the File Management Task

  56. Note that the files in:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\Low

    have been replaced with links.

  57. Note that the directory:

    C:\Secondary

    now has a Low directory containing the moved files

  58. Move a file from:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\High_often

    to:

    C:\Server 2008 R2 Labs\File System Classification Infrastructure\Data\Low

  59. Run the File Management Task again

    Note:
     Note that the file was not replaced by a link and no new folder was created in C:\Secondary

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