Novell File System Factory Identity Driven Storage Management

David Condrey

Product Engineering Manager

davidc@novell.com

Ed Shropshire

Product Management Director

eshropshire@novell.com

Identity Driven Storage Management
Agenda

Lifecycle Storage Management based on Identity

Provision & Migrate Personal User Storage

Provision Departmental Group Storage

Policy Based Storage Management

User & Departmental Storage Policies

Employee Data Manager / Workflow

File System Rights Analysis

Quota Management

Executive Storage Dashboard – Trends & Reports

Technical Components

Identity Driven Storage Management

IDM

N

L

Provisioning / De-Provisioning

Role Based Access and Mgt

Novell exteNd™

Novell iChain®

NetWare® Storage

OES Linux Storage

Novell Cluster Services™

Storage Area Networks

Security

Storage

Identity Driven Storage Management

FSF

Identity Driven &

Policy Based Storage

Personal Storage Management

Group Storage Management

Trustee & Rights Analysis

Identity Driven Data Migrations

Data Manager Workflow

Analysis & Storage Trends

IDM

N

L

Provisioning / De-Provisioning

Role Based Access and Mgt

Novell Extend

Novell iChain

NetWare Storage

OES Linux Storage

Novell Clustering Services

Storage Area Networks

Security

Storage

Identity Driven

Storage Mgt

The common thread:

Regulatory Compliance

HIPAA

Sarbanes-Oxley

Privacy Act

Audit Requirements

Policy based storage mgt

Productivity

Fast employee ramp-up

Free-up admin staff for strategic projects

Team Collaboration

Eliminate redundant administration tasks

Reduce helpdesk burden

Automated storage mgt.

Trend Analysis

Cost Reduction

Data Security

Consistent storage policies

De-provision access to critical data

File Rights Analysis

Intellectual Property

Identity

Identity

Novell File System Factory Overview

Automatic NetWare® storage which provides access from Windows, Mac, UNIX, and the Web.

Relieves disk management headaches.

Supports All Namespaces

Traditional and Novell Storage Services™ (NSS) supported

Built on procedures proven in “real world” environments.

Load balancing.

Automated policy based data Migration between servers

Cleanup (everybody’s pain point) is now automated based on policy.

The Challenge

The Challenge

Do you give all your users home directories?

If you do, how do you manage the disk space?

Do you evenly distribute the disk space? Criteria?

How do you manage growth?

If you do give your users home directories, how do you clean them up? How extensible is it?

Do you give ALL your groups of users collaborative storage space?

Business: All working groups?

Education: All sections of all classes?

Do you evenly distribute the disk space?

How do you manage growth? Cleanup?

A New Philosophy

…and be done with it.

Point your tree…

…at your disk…

Netware

* OES Linux

Windows (Future)

* Currently in Beta

Solution

All you have to do is create the objects…

…any way

…we’ll handle the rest!

you want…

File System Factory
Storage Management based on Policy and Events

eDirectory

Policy

Manage

Provision

Events

LDAP

ConsoleOne

NWAdmin

Custom/3rd

iManager

Identity Mgr

ConsoleOne

NWAdmin

Custom/3rd

iManager

LDAP

UIMPORT

LDIF

DirXML 1.x

File

System

Factory

You Create and Manage objects any way you want, FSF will handle the file system.

Move to

modern provisioning technology without worrying about file storage.

Netware

OES Linux

File System Factory
Storage Management based on Policy and Events

Let policy govern storage management instead of helpdesk or local admins.

eDirectory

Policy

Manage

Provision

Events

LDAP

ConsoleOne

NWAdmin

Custom/3rd

iManager

Identity Mgr

ConsoleOne

NWAdmin

Custom/3rd

iManager

LDAP

UIMPORT

LDIF

DirXML 1.x

File

System

Factory

You Create and Manage objects any way you want, FSF will handle the file system.

Netware

OES Linux

Identity-Driven Storage Management

BorderManager

ZENworks for Desktops

Identity Mgr

Identity Mgr

AD

Active

Directory

LINUX

Identity

Driver

Driver

eDirectory

GroupWise

Identity-Driven Storage Management

FSF

NetWare

OES LINUX

LINUX

BorderManager

ZENworks for Desktops

Identity Mgr

Identity Mgr

AD

Active

Directory

LINUX

Identity

Driver

Driver

eDirectory

GroupWise

Identity-Driven Storage Management

LINUX

Policy Based, Event-Driven

Rights Analysis

Load balancing

Storage Trend Analysis

Storage creation

Storage Migrations

Storage management

Storage cleanup

Personal user storage

Group storage

FSF

NetWare

OES LINUX

LINUX

BorderManager

ZENworks for Desktops

Identity Mgr

Identity Mgr

AD

Active

Directory

LINUX

Identity

Driver

Driver

eDirectory

GroupWise

File System Factory for:

Microsoft

Active Directory

Coming up Next

Scenarios

SERV1/VOL1:Procedures

Delete Inhibit / Rename Inhibit

Algorithm: Random Balance

Rights: RWCEMF

Quota: 150 MB

Template: SERV1/VOL1:Procedures

DelWait: 90 Days

150MB

Copy

BSmith

BSmith

Policy

Create

RWCEMF

iSCSI

COURTS

CSCJ

SUPREME

APPEALS

NCS

Lifecycle User Management

Algorithm: Random Balance

Rights: RWCEMF

Quota: 150 MB

Template: SERV1/VOL1:Procedures

DelWait: 90 Days

150MB

Rename BSmith

to BJones

BJones

Policy

Rename

iSCSI

COURTS

NCS

CSCJ

SUPREME

APPEALS

Lifecycle User Management

New workflow component allows employee’s manager to review, reassign, or vault user data prior to deletion.

Algorithm: Random Balance

Rights: RWCEMF

Quota: 150 MB

Template: SERV1/VOL1:Procedures

DelWait: 90 Days

150MB

BJones

BJones

Policy

Delete

iSCSI

COURTS

NCS

CSCJ

SUPREME

APPEALS

Lifecycle User Management

ATL

ITS

SALES

ENG

BSmith

Policy

RJones

KJackson

RCroom

DWyatt

BSmith

RCroom

DWyatt

RJones

KJackson

Backfill
Existing users without storage

Backfill
Existing users with storage

HQ

SALES

ITS

ENG

BSmith

RJones

KJackson

RCroom

DWyatt

BSmith

RJones

KJackson

RCroom

DWyatt

Policy

Standardized Storage Based on Policy

Policy Assignment & Data Migration

BSmith

Digital Airlines

Employee

Pilots

Other

Brussels

Paris

Barcelona

Policy

Policy

Policy

BSmith

BSmith

BSmith

Seamless

Fault-tolerant

Safe

NIU Data Migration - Backfill

NIU

Faculty

Students

Other

Policy

BSmith

RJones

KJackson

RCroom

DWyatt

RJones

KJackson

BSmith

RCroom

DWyatt

BSmith

RCroom

DWyatt

RJones

KJackson

Admin issues Backfill with “Enforce Policy Paths” option, which will move data.

Pentium Pro 200’s –

67,672 Users

NCS

GOV

GVL

CAE

CHS

BSmith

RCroom

DWyatt

RJones

KJackson

Admin issues Backfill with “Enforce Policy Paths” option, which will move data.

Netware 5.x or 6.x

1,000 Users

Netware to OES
Identity Driven Data Migration – Backfill

BSmith

RJones

KJackson

RCroom

DWyatt

Policy

OES

RJones

KJackson

BSmith

RCroom

DWyatt

Netware 5.x or 6.x

0 Users

Policy Assignments
can be made via:

File System Factory Web Interface

LDAP

Nsure® Identity Manager

NDK Application

CN=BSmith

Surname=Smith

StudentID=123456789

cccFSFactoryPolicy=Riverside.Schools.Jefferson

Collaborative Storage

Why is this Important?

Sharing data and working together is what networks are all about.

Yet in most environments, managing shared disk storage is the most manual process in the shop.

This means it’s resource intensive.

This means it is not managed in a timely manner.

This means that many times collaborative storage just does not happen.

Why do we have this network again?

Assign Policy to Courses Container

Engl-201-7

Create Course Group Object

Education Example

Target File Systems

SERV1/VOL1:GroupSample

Jefferson

Courses

Employee

Student

Algorithm: Random Balance

Rights: none

Quota: 500 MB

Template: SERV1/VOL1:GroupSample

DelWait: Never

Policy

150MB

Engl-201-7

RW

Automatically Create Group Storage and Assign Policies

Copy

Copy Course Files for Each Student from Template

Group Policy Templates

JSmith.Students.STATEU

MRoberts.Students.STATEU

NFrost.Students.STATEU

PJones.Students.STATEU

RBrooks.Students.STATEU

SSmith.Students.STATEU

STimms.Students.STATEU

TJones.Students.STATEU

TSmythe.Students.STATEU

WClark.Students.STATEU

ABelcher.Staff.STATEU

KAlesanto.Staff.STATEU

Members

Owners

Assign Students as Members and Instructors as Owners

Group Policy Templates

File System Factory Automatically Provisions Storage for Students and Instructors

File System Rights Analysis

File System Rights Analysis

OWNER

MEMBERS

File System Rights Analysis

Web Based Quota Manager

Web Based Quota Manager
Policy Configuration

Quota Manager – Help Desk Interface

https://your.server.name.or.ip.address:8009/FSF/HTTP_FSFQuotaMgr

Quota Manager – Help Desk Interface

Green = space available

> 25% of quota

Yellow = space available

< 25% of quota

Red = space available

< 10% of quota

Quota Manager – Help Desk Interface

Employee Data Manager Workflow

Workflow Configuration – Data Manager

Workflow Policy Configuration

Employee Data Manager - Workflow

Admin and Executive Dashboards

Executive Storage Dashboard

Storage Trends
on User and
Group Policies

Administrative Storage Dashboard

Storage Trends
on User and
Group Policies

Technical Components & Usage

What are the requirements?

Any Novell supported version of NDS® or eDirectory™

(6.xx, 7.xx, 8.xx, 85.xx, 8.6.x, 8.7.x)

NetWare 5.0 SP6a or later

NetWare 5.1 SP4 or later

NetWare 6.0 SP1 or later

NetWare 6.5 or later

NetWare 4.x SP9 or later

NetWare 5.0 SP6a or later

NetWare 5.1 SP4 or later

NetWare 6.0 SP1 or later

NetWare 6.5 or later

NetWare 6.0 SP1 or later

NetWare 6.5 or later

NDS/eDir

FSF_Event

FSF_Engine

The State Machine Architecture

DS is replicated.

Servers go down for maintenance or other reasons.

Routers die.

Air Coolers fail.

Fiber is dug up on occasion.

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor gloom of delayed DS synchronization shall stay this system from the swift (or eventual) completion of its appointed tasks…”

…That’s real life.

State and the Process Queue

Server E

FSF-ENGINE

Server R1

Server R2

FSF-EVENT

FSF-EVENT

Transaction #

Event Type

Status State

FDN

ObjectCreated

EventTriggered

TargetPath

ObjectDeleted

…

Novell File System Factory
Best Practices

Best Practices – Planning & Requirements

Planning for FSF install

Non-expiring License – ‘Smart Cert’ based

Easily replace a trial license with a non-expiring license.

Install from a Client32-based workstation

Decide on one ‘FSF Engine’ NetWare server

Decide which replica servers will run the ‘FSF Event Monitor’

Sample FSF Engine Server

NetWare Certified Server (i.e. Dell PowerEdge 2650 or Compaq Proliant DL320)

CPU: Current Generation; i.e. P4, 2 Ghz

RAM: 1 GB

Disk: 1 MB per 1000 users … so ~ 50 MB for 50,000 users

Best practice NDS/eDirectory?

NDS/eDir

Health check – TID 10060600

Know DS partition & replication design

Ideal if DS synchronizing within a few minutes

Mixed DS compatibility TID 10066591

Best performance if the Engine server holds a copy of FSF policy objects

Replica on FSF engine with FSF policy objects

Novel supported versions of NDS® or eDirectory (6.xx, 7.xx, 8.xx, 8.5.xx, 8.6.x, 8.7.x)

Selecting a NetWare Server(s)

FSF Event instance – At least one server per DS partition

Make sure you have all objects covered to capture events

Avoid Long sync delays (days or weeks)

Run FSFConfig.exe to add/remove FSFEVENT to/from servers.

FSF_Event

NetWare 5.1 SP6 or later

NetWare 6.0 SP4 or later

NetWare 6.5 or later

Best practice - FSF Event Monitor

FSF_Engine

NetWare 6.0 SP4 or later

NetWare 6.5 or later

Selecting a Netware Volume: Traditional or NSS, Default path <server>\SYS\Factory

FSF Engine should loap ASAP

Audit logs are configurable – days

Distribute FSFEvent.NLM to same volume (FSFConfig.exe)

Dedicated vs Non-Dedicated Server

Best practice - FSF Engine

Engine NLM

Design Example
Centralized Management

CHS

CAE

GVL

Event NLM

RW - GOV

RW - CHS

RW - CAE

RW - GVL

Event NLM

M - GOV

M - CHS

M - CAE

M - GVL

GOV

VOL1:\HOME

VOL1:\GROUPS

RW - CHS

RW - CAE

RW - GVL

VOL1:\HOME

VOL1:\GROUPS

GOV

GVL

EDIR-02

EDIR-01

CHSFS1

CAEFS1

GVLFS1

\BSMITH

VOL1:\FSFTEMPLATES

CAE

CHS

GOV

FSFPOLICIES

USER

GROUP

-OWNER-

-MEMBER-

-GROUP-

GVL-USERS

VOL1:\HOME

VOL1:\GROUPS

Approach

Customer situation

Current hardware was unreliable

Needed automated process for migrating 67,672 student home directories

Needed to migrate home directories from Netware 5.0 to Netware 6.0 Cluster

Minimize downtime for students.

Business results

Leveraged existing investment in Netware and eDirectory

Migrated personal storage for all 67,672 students to new SAN

Automated storage clean up when students graduate

No Network downtime

Saved time & resources by implementing a comprehensive packaged solution

Novell File System Factory

Netware 6.0 with Novell Clustering Services

Installed SAN and created File System Factory Polices to point to new storage

Ran Check Mode prior to migration

Performed migration of student home directories

Novell Nsure Case Study:
University of Northern Illinois

Approach

Customer Situation

40,000 students & 6000 faculty and staff

Constant student turnover

Identities duplicated in multiple applications

Needed to reduce cost and time associated with student account management.

Life-Cycle student and collaborative file system management

Based on SIF Standards

Discovery and Requirements Assessment

Establish an authoritative source for identity information

Create a directory-based provisioning framework

Implement Identity Based Storage Management

Business Results

Automated Provisioning for Student Identities

Life-Cycle student and collaborative storage

Secure Access Portal for faculty.

Personalized delivery of information
to faculty.

Novell Nsure Case Study:
Charleston County School District

Approach

Customer situation

Needed automated process for managing personal and group storage

Considered in house custom development

Solution must support storage creation and clean up for 35,000 students

Researched packaged solution that would meet requirements

Business results

Leveraged existing investment in Netware and eDirectory

Provided personal storage for all 35,000 students.

Automated storage clean up when students graduate

Saved time & resources by implementing a comprehensive packaged solution

Opted to implement Novell File System Factory

Back fill operations allowed the university to immediately start managing student storage

Added new storage to the eDirectory Tree and immediately provided storage based on File System Factory policies.

Novell Nsure Case Study:
University of Kentucky

Install, configure, go …

… easy!!

Demonstration

The Big Things To Remember..

This product exists because an overwhelming number of customers, integrators, and Novell field personnel indicated that they needed something like this.

Many customers had input into the design and feature set in this version as well as testing. Thanks to those people!

Performance as well as easy install and management are Job 1.

Visit www.novell.com/products/filesystemfactory

Visit www.filesystemfactory.com

Discuss on the FSF forum at http://support.novell.com/forums/

Send product questions/suggestions to FSFDev@novell.com

For More Information

Although these driving forces are different in many ways, and although they affect many different parts of your business, they all share an important common thread – they are all linked to identity.

A comprehensive identity driven storage management solution can help you solve your storage management needs across your enterprise and address each of these areas as they relate to storage management.

By provisioning network storage for its users, organizations can deliver a valuable resource to its constituents. If that storage is on NetWare, users can access that storage from a variety of platforms using a variety of access methods.

Relieving Storage Headaches

File System Factory™ will pick up where you left off with regard to storage. It can continue to manage user and group home directories for the remainder of their life cycle. File System Factory™ can begin managing home directories for existing user and group objects even after the object was created. Just point File System Factory™ to a volume and it will take care of the rest of the life cycle for you. Even if the users and groups have existing objects and home directories, just match up the policies and you are on your way to full life cycle file system management.

File System Factory provides and manages storage even on older versions of NetWare. Furthermore, it supports most popular namespaces—including the Long, Macintosh and UNIX namespaces. As a result, whether your users access their files on NetWare 4.2 using Novell Client software or on a NetWare 6-based Storage Area Network (SAN) using Mac OS, you won't have to rip and replace your existing infrastructure.

Creating home directories is just one of the things that File System Factory™ can do for you.

It can manage growth of your disk subsystem.

It can automate the creation, management, and cleanup of collaborative storage.

In an business setting, this means automatic collaborative storage for all your working groups.

In education, disk space for all your classes.

Traditional and Novell Storage Services

File System Factory™ works with traditional NetWare volumes, volumes based on Novell Storage Services (NSS), or volumes backed by Novell Cluster Services.

Real World

There are other potential problems in the real world. Target servers die, volumes dismount, routers are rebooted, and backhoes dig up communication links. Because of this real world that most customers live in, the action engine in File System Factory™ is built on transactional state machine architecture to ensure that Policies are applied when events happen, no matter what.

Load Balancing

Home Directory Multi-Server Distribution and Space Balancing
A user or group policy contains a set of path definitions that inform File System Factory of where to place Home Directories. This information along with container-based policies determines which server user and group home directories will be created. These policies also determine how the home directories will be distributed. File System Factory™ includes Space Balancing technology, which directs home directories to the volume, which is growing least rapidly.

Load Balancing distribution algorithms consist of:

Random home directory distribution

Space usage distribution

Even quota distribution

More to come

Data Migration

File System Factory™ contains safeguards to ensure “seamless” migration of the data by taking the necessary precautions to avoid these and other situations and educate the user about the migration process.

Cleanup

Another valuable aspect of File System Factory™ that makes it unique is its ability to automatically cleanup user and group disk space based on events in the Directory. The design of File System Factory™ is such that the engine is still able to locate a specific user’s home directory after the user has been deleted. A Policy definition allows the Administrator to specify when (or if) the disk space owned by an object is to be automatically deleted when the object is deleted from the Directory.

The Not Too Distant Future

Committing itself to the cross-platform mission and strategy of Novell, File System Factory will be going cross platform with all the same features and functionality. Stay turned for details.

Users consider personal storage space an inalienable right. However, providing and managing storage for each user and group on your network can become a major headache for your overburdened IT department. Fortunately, with File System Factory, you can provide the storage users expect (and genuinely need) while significantly reducing the headache—and cost—of creating and managing that storage.

File System Factory is file-system management software that unites two legendary Novell® products: eDirectory™ and the NetWare® file system. Based on your business policies, File System Factory automatically creates directories for users and groups. It then automatically manages these directories and—just as importantly—deletes the directories when network access is terminated.

File System Factory unites the NetWare® file system that is an integral part of many real-world eDirectory implementations with the eDirectory automation that these identity provisioning solutions provide. File System Factory can benefit all organizations that desire to have home directories these include:

New Tree – No User Home Directories

If you are just starting out, File System Factory™ can give your new users managed home directory space with little effort on your part.

Existing Tree – No User Home Directories

If you already have user accounts in your tree, but have not taken the steps to give them home directories, File System Factory™ can automatically give your existing users managed home directory space.

Existing Tree – Existing User Home Directories

If you already have user accounts in your tree and they have home directories, File System Factory can begin managing your existing home directories as well as provision and manage any new ones.

One of the most powerful components of File System Factory™ is its ability to create and manage collaborative (group) storage. Networks primarily exist for the purpose of sharing information with others; making it easy for people to work together on projects. Organizations can now drive collaborative storage creation, management, and deletion as a provisioning process using any tool or process that can create groups in the Directory.

The mission of File System Factory™ is to provide a Policy-based storage management subsystem targeted for medium to large installations that completely automates the load balanced creation, management, and deletion of personal and collaborative disk space.

File System Factory is all about getting a complex job done fast and efficiently.

Removing the many IS hours that currently go into disk storage management.

Apply company’s LAN storage policy in an electronic manner to simplify the life of the NW administrators

Benefits

Event- and policy-based actions reduce management overhead

Automatic provisioning of personal and collaborative storage saves time and money

Automatic data migration when users or groups move reduces the burden on IT resources

Automatic clean-up frees valuable storage space for new users

Ability to work with existing networks keeps implementation costs low

File System Factory makes it easy to keep up with a busy, large-scale organization. It features a Global Event Subsystem that prevents duplicate event processing and includes templates to streamline administration. And its Web-based policy management feature provides maximum flexibility: administrators can modify policies to create and delete file systems, apply quotas, set trustee assignments and do much more, all from the convenience of the nearest Web browser.

File System Factory™ is your home directory life cycle solution. Providing you the automated power and ease of configuration making your file system management a past worry. Your users will love true Zero Day File System Access. You will love Zero Day removal, no more clean up worries.

File System Factory™ is tied directly to eDirectory in that it takes action based on events in eDirectory, no matter if DirXML, Identity Manager, LDAP, UIMPORT, ConsoleOne, custom code, or anything else initiated the event. You control FSF actions using policies that are stored in the Directory itself, much like ZenWorks® policies.

File System Factory™ will work with an organization’s current network and user provisioning process, even if it involves custom code, batch processes, or manual data entry. File System Factory™ makes it simple for an organization to migrate to a newer provisioning process such as those mentioned above. If your current provisioning process includes the creation of home directories for users, you may be unable or reluctant to take advantage of new technology such as DirXML or LDAP because you would lose the home directory creation in the end. File System Factory™ can also be valuable resource in adding an additional provisioning process.

Besides being independent of account creation and deletion technology, FSF is also independent of management technology. This allows departmental administrators or helpdesk personnel to adopt and use newer management tools and procedures without concern for file system management. This also may aid in securing the data in that these administrators may no longer actually need access to it.

Since the data is now controlled by policy, organizations may rest assured that the data is being managed appropriately. There are numerous further benefits here tied to new government regulations over data management.

In recent years, Novell® customers have seen a great deal of effort put into transitioning eDirectory by building interfaces that automate the management of user accounts in eDirectory. Tools such as Identity Manager allow identity provisioning and exchange between the Directory and a myriad of external data sources and applications. File System Factory™ now enables Identity Manager customers that currently use NetWare for file and print to do so in new and dynamic ways by providing new levels of automation and management opportunities that previously have not been possible.

The mission of File System Factory™ is to provide a Policy-based storage management subsystem targeted for medium to large installations that completely automates the load balanced creation, management, and deletion of personal and collaborative disk space. FSF takes the headaches out of storage allocation, management and cleanup on networks with large and dynamic user populations. File System Factory™ integrates with your current Directory provisioning process, independent of the method, to deliver a fully automated and managed NetWare file system integration solution.

This means that you create and manage objects in the Directory in any way that you wish; and File System Factory™ will handle the rest with respect to file system creation, management, and cleanup. This also means that any existing DirXML or Identity Manager driver can drive user and group storage provisioning without modification!

In recent years, Novell® customers have seen a great deal of effort put into transitioning eDirectory by building interfaces that automate the management of user accounts in eDirectory. Tools such as Identity Manager allow identity provisioning and exchange between the Directory and a myriad of external data sources and applications. File System Factory™ now enables Identity Manager customers that currently use NetWare for file and print to do so in new and dynamic ways by providing new levels of automation and management opportunities that previously have not been possible.

The mission of File System Factory™ is to provide a Policy-based storage management subsystem targeted for medium to large installations that completely automates the load balanced creation, management, and deletion of personal and collaborative disk space. FSF takes the headaches out of storage allocation, management and cleanup on networks with large and dynamic user populations. File System Factory™ integrates with your current Directory provisioning process, independent of the method, to deliver a fully automated and managed NetWare file system integration solution.

This means that you create and manage objects in the Directory in any way that you wish; and File System Factory™ will handle the rest with respect to file system creation, management, and cleanup. This also means that any existing DirXML or Identity Manager driver can drive user and group storage provisioning without modification!

In recent years, Novell® customers have seen a great deal of effort put into transitioning eDirectory by building interfaces that automate the management of user accounts in eDirectory. Tools such as Identity Manager allow identity provisioning and exchange between the Directory and a myriad of external data sources and applications. File System Factory™ now enables Identity Manager customers that currently use NetWare for file and print to do so in new and dynamic ways by providing new levels of automation and management opportunities that previously have not been possible.

The mission of File System Factory™ is to provide a Policy-based storage management subsystem targeted for medium to large installations that completely automates the load balanced creation, management, and deletion of personal and collaborative disk space. FSF takes the headaches out of storage allocation, management and cleanup on networks with large and dynamic user populations. File System Factory™ integrates with your current Directory provisioning process, independent of the method, to deliver a fully automated and managed NetWare file system integration solution.

This means that you create and manage objects in the Directory in any way that you wish; and File System Factory™ will handle the rest with respect to file system creation, management, and cleanup. This also means that any existing DirXML or Identity Manager driver can drive user and group storage provisioning without modification!

File System Factory policies are based on full life-cycle management of storage.

Polices are created and pointed to one or more storage systems. These may be different locations on the same volume, different volumes, different servers, a cluster, a SAN, or any combination. Other attributes of the policy are defined that cover storage creation, management, and cleanup.

The policy is then assigned to the tree at some level. Just as with ZenWorks® policies, FSF policies may be assigned to containers, groups, or even individual users. The same inheritance model applies. In this example, the policy is assigned to the Atlanta container. At this point, FSF is ready to provision storage.

When BSMITH is created in the tree, FSF will intercept the event in eDirectory and apply the appropriate policy to provision the storage. The load-balancing algorithm defined in the policy will be used to select a location, the storage will be created, the rights and quota will be assigned based on the policy, and optionally the user home directory may be pre-populated with a set of files and directories from a template pointed to by the policy.

At that point, the user storage is managed for the life of the user based on many types of events that may occur such as a rename or a move.

For example, if BSMITH were to be renamed to BJONES (possibly due to a marital status change), then FSF would take action to rename the home directory accordingly.

When the user is deleted, the user’s storage will be automatically cleaned up according to the policy definition. This may be never, immediately, or after some defined amount of time, such as 90 days. The newest version of File System Factory includes a workflow subsystem, which may according to the policy allow the employee’s manager (defined using eGuide) to review the data, reassign it to another employee, or store it in a vault for later use or reassignment.

Deletes, renames, moves

Managed for the life of the user

Scenario 1: New Tree – No User Home Directories

If you are just starting out, File System Factory™ can give your new users managed home directory space with little effort on your part. Follow these steps:

Decide how you are going to create the user objects and where you are going to put them in the tree.

Decide which servers and volumes will hold the user home directories.

Create a File System Factory™ Policy and point it to the servers and volumes that will hold the user home directories. Associate the Policy with the container(s) that will hold the users.

Create the users using any method. Home Directories will be automatically created and assigned for all users.

Use template to populate each home directory with documents

Any new accounts added to the associated containers will have the Policy applied and be given new managed home directories.

Also, when you delete any existing or new accounts, the home directory space can automatically be cleaned up immediately or after a determined period.

File System Factory policies are based on full life-cycle management of storage.

Polices are created and pointed to one or more storage systems. These may be different locations on the same volume, different volumes, different servers, a cluster, a SAN, or any combination. Other attributes of the policy are defined that cover storage creation, management, and cleanup.

The policy is then assigned to the tree at some level. Just as with ZenWorks® policies, FSF policies may be assigned to containers, groups, or even individual users. The same inheritance model applies. In this example, the policy is assigned to the Atlanta container. At this point, FSF is ready to provision storage.

When BSMITH is created in the tree, FSF will intercept the event in eDirectory and apply the appropriate policy to provision the storage. The load-balancing algorithm defined in the policy will be used to select a location, the storage will be created, the rights and quota will be assigned based on the policy, and optionally the user home directory may be pre-populated with a set of files and directories from a template pointed to by the policy.

At that point, the user storage is managed for the life of the user based on many types of events that may occur such as a rename or a move.

For example, if BSMITH were to be renamed to BJONES (possibly due to a marital status change), then FSF would take action to rename the home directory accordingly.

Moves will be discussed on the next slide.

When the user is deleted, the user’s storage will be automatically cleaned up according to the policy definition. This may be never, immediately, or after some defined amount of time, such as 90 days. The newest version of File System Factory includes a workflow subsystem, which may according to the policy allow the employee’s manager (defined using eGuide) to review the data, reassign it to another employee, or store it in a vault for later use or reassignment.

Deletes, renames, moves

Managed for the life of the user

Scenario 1: New Tree – No User Home Directories

If you are just starting out, File System Factory™ can give your new users managed home directory space with little effort on your part. Follow these steps:

Decide how you are going to create the user objects and where you are going to put them in the tree.

Decide which servers and volumes will hold the user home directories.

Create a File System Factory™ Policy and point it to the servers and volumes that will hold the user home directories. Associate the Policy with the container(s) that will hold the users.

Create the users using any method. Home Directories will be automatically created and assigned for all users.

Use template to populate each home directory with documents

Any new accounts added to the associated containers will have the Policy applied and be given new managed home directories.

Also, when you delete any existing or new accounts, the home directory space can automatically be cleaned up immediately or after a determined period.

File System Factory policies are based on full life-cycle management of storage.

Polices are created and pointed to one or more storage systems. These may be different locations on the same volume, different volumes, different servers, a cluster, a SAN, or any combination. Other attributes of the policy are defined that cover storage creation, management, and cleanup.

The policy is then assigned to the tree at some level. Just as with ZenWorks® policies, FSF policies may be assigned to containers, groups, or even individual users. The same inheritance model applies. In this example, the policy is assigned to the Atlanta container. At this point, FSF is ready to provision storage.

When BSMITH is created in the tree, FSF will intercept the event in eDirectory and apply the appropriate policy to provision the storage. The load-balancing algorithm defined in the policy will be used to select a location, the storage will be created, the rights and quota will be assigned based on the policy, and optionally the user home directory may be pre-populated with a set of files and directories from a template pointed to by the policy.

At that point, the user storage is managed for the life of the user based on many types of events that may occur such as a rename or a move.

For example, if BSMITH were to be renamed to BJONES (possibly due to a marital status change), then FSF would take action to rename the home directory accordingly.

Moves will be discussed on the next slide.

When the user is deleted, the user’s storage will be automatically cleaned up according to the policy definition. This may be never, immediately, or after some defined amount of time, such as 90 days. The newest version of File System Factory includes a workflow subsystem, which may according to the policy allow the employee’s manager (defined using eGuide) to review the data, reassign it to another employee, or store it in a vault for later use or reassignment.

Deletes, renames, moves

Managed for the life of the user

Scenario 1: New Tree – No User Home Directories

If you are just starting out, File System Factory™ can give your new users managed home directory space with little effort on your part. Follow these steps:

Decide how you are going to create the user objects and where you are going to put them in the tree.

Decide which servers and volumes will hold the user home directories.

Create a File System Factory™ Policy and point it to the servers and volumes that will hold the user home directories. Associate the Policy with the container(s) that will hold the users.

Create the users using any method. Home Directories will be automatically created and assigned for all users.

Use template to populate each home directory with documents

Any new accounts added to the associated containers will have the Policy applied and be given new managed home directories.

Also, when you delete any existing or new accounts, the home directory space can automatically be cleaned up immediately or after a determined period.

Existing tree with users no storage!

Scenario 2: Existing Tree with Users

If you already have user accounts in your tree, but have not taken the steps to give them home directories, File System Factory™ can give all or some of your existing users managed home directory space.

All you have to do is assign a File System Factory™ Policy to your containers and issue a “Backfill” command via the web.

Plus, any new users that you add later will automatically be assigned space.

Also, when you delete any existing or new accounts, the home directory space can automatically be cleaned up immediately or after a determined period.

Scenario 3: Existing Tree with Users that already have Home Directories

If you already have user accounts in your tree and they have home directories, File System Factory™ can begin managing your existing home directories.

Plus, any new users that you add later will automatically be assigned space.

Also, when you delete any existing or new accounts, the home directory space can automatically be cleaned up immediately or after a determined period, even if the space was not originally assigned by File System Factory™.

In a distributed environment, multiple policies may be created and assigned to different servers.

Consider the following:

Situation: A school district using a hierarchical tree structure would like to provide network disk storage for all students such that the disk storage is always available to the student as they are promoted and move from school to school in the district. Servers are located in each school with T-1 connectivity back to the district office. The data needs to be on the server at the school that each student attends.

Solution: Create a hierarchy in eDirectory such that each school is represented by its own container. Create a policy for each school and assign it to the school container and configure it so that it points to the server at the school. Create the students in the appropriate container based on the school. When students are promoted, say from the Middle School to the High School, moving the user objects to the High School’s container will be seen by FSF as a change in policy and will trigger FSF to migrate their data from the server at the middle school to the server at the high school.

Again, here we are using policy assignments to containers. In a more flat tree structure, policies may be assigned to groups or even individual users depending on the required level of granularity.

Scheduling and Throttling

Given the school scenario above where data is being moved between schools over T-1 connections, it is feasible to expect that this operation could use all of the bandwidth available, leaving little for another work that might need to go occur. To combat this problem, each File System Factory™ policy has a configurable throttle attribute that is used during data migration to limit bandwidth usage.

While the throttle attribute is very useful, there may be times of the day on certain days of the week when the administrator does not want data to migrate. In the policy definition, the administrator has the capability of selecting the times that are valid for moving data. This configuration is granular to the hour and is represented for each day of the week. Therefore, the administrator could define a policy where data migrations only occur on the weekend and Tuesday and Thursday between 1 am and 5 am.

“Seamless” Data Movement

Moving data on the network is a non-trivial operation. It must be conducted in such a manner to ensure that the user that owns the data and the integrity of the data itself is not impacted.

Simply copying the data to the new location and deleting the data in the old location is not good enough. What if files are open during the move process or the user is logged in or logs in during the process? What if others share access to the storage? How is the user cognizant of the fact that a migration of his files is in progress?

File System Factory™ contains safeguards to ensure “seamless” migration of the data by taking the necessary precautions to avoid these and other situations and educate the user about the migration process.

For example, File System Factory™ will defer migration of data for a user that is logged in to the server holding the home directory until the user is no longer logged in. Once migration begins the user’s Home Directory attribute will be temporarily changed to point to a PROXY location that contains information about the move process.

One of the main goals of File System Factory is to be able to begin making an appreciable difference in ANY organization no matter what situation relative to storage management the organization may be in. This means that we must be able to help:

- provision storage for preexisting users in the tree.

- begin managing user storage that already exists in its current location.

- migrate user storage to new storage locations.

This is done with an operation called “Backfill”. FSF is managed using a browser through the NetWare Remote Manager (NoRM) interface. Backfill is one of many operations available in the interface.

Remember that a given policy that points to one or more storage locations on the network. If the policy that covers a given user changes, and the new policy points to different locations than the original policy, File System Factory™ will move the user data so that it resides in a location pointed to by the newly applicable policy definition.

During a backfill operation, storage will be created according to the policy for any users that do no have a home directory.

For those users that already have storage on the network, FSF can begin helping out immediately.

During a full backfill operation, the administrator has the capability of selecting the “Enforce Policy Paths” option. If the “Enforce Policy Paths” option is not selected, FSF will catalog the existing storage location and begin managing the storage according to the policy. If this option is selected, this will instruct File System Factory™ to fully analyze the location of each user’s home directory. If the directory is not in a location pointed to by the applicable policy, the data is moved to a location specified by the policy.

Many customers have used FSF to migrate user storage to Clusters and SAN storage systems. Again, all attributes and capabilities of FSF related to scheduling and throttling as well as “seamless” data movement apply.

This is a very powerful feature of File System Factory™ in that it may be used to move user data to a different volume or server.

Consider the following 2 “Enforce Paths” scenarios:

Scenario #1:

Bob has home directories for 20,000 users on 8 NetWare 4.11 servers. He would like to move everyone to a new set of 4 NetWare 6.5 servers.

Bob should create a File System Factory™ policy that points to the 4 NetWare 6.5 servers. He should then assign that policy to the containers holding the user objects. Finally, he should perform a full backfill operation against the containers using the “Enforce Path” option.

All users home directories will be moved from the 4.11 servers and load balanced across the 6.0 servers. All trustee assignments and file system attributes will be moved seamlessly. Bob can even define a schedule for the migration and set bandwidth throttling parameters so that network and server performance will not be affected during normal business hours. See the section on scheduling below for more information.

Scenario #2:

Ann is the administrator of a network with 7,500 employee user accounts. Ann has not given the majority of her user’s home directory storage. She would like to do this now using 5 NetWare 5.1 servers that she runs. She is somewhat hesitant about doing this now given that she anticipates installing a 3-node NetWare 6.5 server cluster connected to a SAN in about eight months.

Part 1: Ann should not wait. She should define a Policy pointing to her 5.1 servers. Then associate the policy with her users. Lastly, she should issue a full backfill operation against the containers holding her users. In a flash, all of her users will have managed disk storage on the network where they can be productive for the next eight months.

Part 2: Eight months later, Ann has her new cluster and SAN installed. She should then modify her Policy that she defined in Part 1 above by adding path definitions so that it points to the SAN-connected cluster. She should remove the path pointers to the 5.1 servers. Finally, she should run a full backfill operation against the user containers using the “Enforce Path” option.

All user home directories will be moved from the 5.1 servers to the SAN-connected cluster seamlessly. Ann can then decommission the 5.1 servers or use them for some other purpose.

One of the main goals of File System Factory is to be able to begin making an appreciable difference in ANY organization no matter what situation relative to storage management the organization may be in. This means that we must be able to help:

- provision storage for preexisting users in the tree.

- begin managing user storage that already exists in its current location.

- migrate user storage to new storage locations.

This is done with an operation called “Backfill”. FSF is managed using a browser through the NetWare Remote Manager (NoRM) interface. Backfill is one of many operations available in the interface.

Remember that a given policy that points to one or more storage locations on the network. If the policy that covers a given user changes, and the new policy points to different locations than the original policy, File System Factory™ will move the user data so that it resides in a location pointed to by the newly applicable policy definition.

During a backfill operation, storage will be created according to the policy for any users that do no have a home directory.

For those users that already have storage on the network, FSF can begin helping out immediately.

During a full backfill operation, the administrator has the capability of selecting the “Enforce Policy Paths” option. If the “Enforce Policy Paths” option is not selected, FSF will catalog the existing storage location and begin managing the storage according to the policy. If this option is selected, this will instruct File System Factory™ to fully analyze the location of each user’s home directory. If the directory is not in a location pointed to by the applicable policy, the data is moved to a location specified by the policy.

Many customers have used FSF to migrate user storage to Clusters and SAN storage systems. Again, all attributes and capabilities of FSF related to scheduling and throttling as well as “seamless” data movement apply.

This is a very powerful feature of File System Factory™ in that it may be used to move user data to a different volume or server.

Consider the following 2 “Enforce Paths” scenarios:

Scenario #1:

Bob has home directories for 20,000 users on 8 NetWare 4.11 servers. He would like to move everyone to a new set of 4 NetWare 6.5 servers.

Bob should create a File System Factory™ policy that points to the 4 NetWare 6.5 servers. He should then assign that policy to the containers holding the user objects. Finally, he should perform a full backfill operation against the containers using the “Enforce Path” option.

All users home directories will be moved from the 4.11 servers and load balanced across the 6.0 servers. All trustee assignments and file system attributes will be moved seamlessly. Bob can even define a schedule for the migration and set bandwidth throttling parameters so that network and server performance will not be affected during normal business hours. See the section on scheduling below for more information.

Scenario #2:

Ann is the administrator of a network with 7,500 employee user accounts. Ann has not given the majority of her user’s home directory storage. She would like to do this now using 5 NetWare 5.1 servers that she runs. She is somewhat hesitant about doing this now given that she anticipates installing a 3-node NetWare 6.5 server cluster connected to a SAN in about eight months.

Part 1: Ann should not wait. She should define a Policy pointing to her 5.1 servers. Then associate the policy with her users. Lastly, she should issue a full backfill operation against the containers holding her users. In a flash, all of her users will have managed disk storage on the network where they can be productive for the next eight months.

Part 2: Eight months later, Ann has her new cluster and SAN installed. She should then modify her Policy that she defined in Part 1 above by adding path definitions so that it points to the SAN-connected cluster. She should remove the path pointers to the 5.1 servers. Finally, she should run a full backfill operation against the user containers using the “Enforce Path” option.

All user home directories will be moved from the 5.1 servers to the SAN-connected cluster seamlessly. Ann can then decommission the 5.1 servers or use them for some other purpose.

Policy Attribute Changes

The attributes of a Policy may be modified at anytime using the File System Factory™ web interface; after which any eDirectory events on objects that use that policy will result in the new values being applied. No policy attribute change will be automatically retroactive against files systems affected by the policy. Backfill operations may be used to retroactively apply certain policy changes.

Collaborative Storage Management

The first thing that most likely comes to mind when thinking about automated storage management in a medium to large installation is the management of user home directories. File System Factory™ can perform that duty for you with little effort on your part and still fit into your account provisioning strategy.

However, one of the most powerful components of File System Factory™ is its ability to create and manage collaborative (group) storage. Networks primarily exist for the purpose of sharing information with others; making it easy for people to work together on projects.

Collaborative Storage in Business

In business environments, the HR system can be used as a tool to drive the creation and automatic membership/owner management of departmental and divisional groups. File System Factory™ adapts to this environment where workers would be defined as members of the group and managers would be defined as owners of the group.

Even without any automation driving group management, File System Factory can relieve much of the burden of creating and maintaining shared disk space on the network since it does all the labor intensive work in the background.

Administrators have the ability to delegate authority to create groups to departmental staff and still provide disk space to the groups without granting staff administrative rights to disk volumes or servers objects. The application of Policies with quotas that you define can keep disk usage by departments in check. Using an appropriate template definition that you put into place can prevent rouge rights assignments targeted outside of the scope of the working groups for increased security.

Collaborative Storage in Education

In an educational environment, the student database can be used as a tool to drive the creation and automatic membership/owner management of classes. File System Factory™ adapts to this environment where students would be defined as members of the group and teachers/instructors would be defined as owners of the group.

In a typical environment, the manager of a working group determines that it would be nice to have a directory on the network for the group to use to share data. He or she goes to the network administrator and makes the request. The administrator must perform a list of actions to fulfill this request. This involves:

Creating the group object.

Adding the members to the group object.

Deciding where to put the storage for the group.

Creating the disk space for the group.

Optionally creating a set of subdirectories in the storage.

Communicating with the manager to determine which parts of the storage the group should have access to and what access to give.

Giving the group appropriate access.

Communicating with the manager to determine which parts of the storage the manager should have special access to.

Giving the manager appropriate special access.

Repeatedly performing steps 5-9 throughout the life of the group and storage.

File System Factory™ automates steps 3-10 of the above list though the use of Policies, template processing, and NDS event monitoring.

Organizations can now drive collaborative storage creation, management, and deletion as a provisioning process using any tool or process that can create groups in the Directory.

Now, suppose that 10 students are added as members:

JSmith.Students.STATEU

MRoberts.Students.STATEU

NFrost.Students.STATEU

PJones.Students.STATEU

RBrooks.Students.STATEU

SSmith.Students.STATEU

STimms.Students.STATEU

TJones.Students.STATEU

TSmythe.Students.STATEU

WClark.Students.STATEU

And the following 2 instructors are added as owners:

ABelcher.Staff.STATEU

KAlesanto.Staff.STATEU

The resulting directory for Spanish 340 Section 1 would look as follows

The directory structure layout for the template is constructed so that the following can occur:

There is personal storage space for each instructor.

Each class has a web presence.

There is a common folder that everyone can see.

Each student will have a personal directory for turning in class assignments.

Each student will have a personal directory for receiving graded work or specific files from the instructor(s).

Removal of members or owners of the group will not delete the disk space assigned to that user. However, the user will no longer have rights to the disk space. This makes it simple to add the member back and allows the data owned by that user to be retained for the sake of the group.

Trustee Management with Group Templates

Just as member and owner modification can have an impact on the file system structure of the disk space assigned to a group, trustee assignments can be dynamically managed.

Static trustee assignments can be made to any file or directory in the template and these will be copied or applied to each set of directories created as a result of the application of the Policy. For example, you may wish to have a proxy user (APACHEUSER.SYSTEMS.STATEU) associated with a web server to have rights to a specific directory (PUBLIC.WWW) in the file system for each group.

Static trustee assignments copied to the disk space for each group, while powerful, are probably not sufficient for all needs you may have. Therefore, File System Factory™ supports dynamic as well as static trustee assignments to any file or directory in the template.

With dynamic trustee management, there are two types of controls. Firstly, the group object itself may be given specific rights within the file system associated with the group. Secondly, changes to the members and owners attributes of the group result in changes to the trustee assignments on the file system associated with the group.

Dynamic trustee assignments are controlled using objects with special NDS common names for group, member, and owner. When setting up the trustee assignments on the template, the name of the container holding the specially named objects does not matter. If the common name of the object is “-group-”, “-member-”, or”-owner-”, then the substitution will take place when applied to the group disk space.

Quota Manger is a new feature in File System Factory™ 1.2. It includes a separate external interface to allow a specified user (for example a help-desk administrator or support personnel) to increase users’ quotas upon request, without having to have rights to the file system.

File System Factory™ adds an attribute to the Organizational Person class called cccFSFactoryHomeDirectoryQuota. A help-desk administrator or support person is given the Write right to this attribute on the users he or she is to manage, and this attribute enables them to be a quota manager on those users who have policies with quota management enabled. The steps for using quota manager are as follows:

Enable and configure Quota Manager on each policy covering users where quota management is desired. Be sure the users are covered by the policy. If the policy was applied after the users were created, a backfill may be required to include those users in the FSF database.

Set up the rights for the user(s) to be the administrator of the disk space quotas.

Manage user disk space quotas using the external Quota Manager Interface

Quota management is enabled at the policy level. To activate, simply go to the Quota Manger Control, found on the user properties page of any File System Factory™ policy

Options can then be set to determine how the quota can be managed. Choosing no maximum will allow the quota manager to continue to increment the limit until the volume space is exhausted. Otherwise, an upper limit maximum may be set. The other option determines how the quota is raised by the manager. A predetermined amount can be set, and the administrator will be able to raise a user’s quota by that amount until it reaches the maximum (if set.) Otherwise the administrator will be able to type in the new user quota.

Users in eDirectory can have the rights set to use Quota Manager. Organization Roles, groups, or other object that use security equivalence can be used as well. To make an object the quota manager, select the portion of the tree where the users exist that the quota manager will be allowed to manage. Remember these users must be managed by FSF policies with quota management enabled. Set the attribute rights of the desired object for the attribute cccFSFactoryHomeDirectoryQuota to Write. This can be set for the whole tree, for an organization or organizational unit, or all the way down to an individual user, if desired. Because this feature uses eDirectory rights, the traditional inheritance applies, including the use of inherited rights filters.

Once quota management has been enabled on a policy and a user has been identified as a quota manager, the quota management tasks can be performed in a separate user interface.

It will be necessary for the user to log in. If the user is in the File System Factory™ index, the common name will be sufficient; otherwise a fully distinguished name is required.

Once logged in, the initial screen requires the help-desk administrator or other designated quota manager user to enter a username to manage. This can be a full name or a standard search string, such as bob*. This will return a list of users in the tree which match the search spec (or username) and are managed by FSF policies which have quota management enabled.

Each user will have a stoplight indicator showing what percentage of their directory quota is in use. The stoplights are based on directory space available and go from green to yellow to red based on the following percentages:

Green = space available > 25% of quota

Yellow = space available < 25% of quota

Red = space available < 10% of quota

Click on the stoplight to manage the user’s quota.

From the “Home Directory Statistics and Quota” page the quota administrator will be able to manage the quota based on the policy settings. If an increment interval has been set, the manager will be able to add the default amount by clicking the button. If no interval has been set, the manager will be able to manually type in the new quota. In addition to the quota information, the manager can view file statistics based on file extension. Statistics include the size of the largest file, the number of files and subdirectories, and a list indicating number of files by extension, and sorted by size.

Workflow is a new feature in File System Factory™ 1.2. It includes a separate interface to allow managers to determine what should be done with the home directory of a deleted user. The intent of this subsystem is to allow policy definitions by which File System Factory™ can queue storage for deleted employees up to their manager when they leave the organization.

This mechanism leverages the eDirectory attributes managed by the Organizational Chart function in eGuide™. The screen shot below shows that Sue Jensen and Tom Stuart both report to Bob Smith in the Engineering organization. If the File System Factory Policy governing storage for Tom is configured, when Tom leaves the organization, his home directory contents will be queued up to Bob, who can then inspect the contents, approve the deletion, vault the data, or assign it to another individual at that point or at a later date; perhaps when Tom’s replacement has been hired.

If you enable workflow for the policy, then the deletion of any user object covered by the policy will trigger the queuing in the workflow subsystem. As the administrator, you have the option of restricting how long the deleted employee’s manager has to do something with the data. As shown above, a number of days or indefinitely may be specified.

When a user covered by a policy with workflow enabled is deleted, the workflow process takes over.

If the deleted user does not have a manager defined in eGuide™, then deletion process will proceed for that user according to the policy as if workflow were not enabled.

When workflow processing has completed, either by the manager approving the deletion or by the approval period specified in the policy expiring, the deletion of the home directory according to the policy will take place.

Much like the Executive Dashboard and Quota Manager components of File System Factory™ 1.2, the end-user interface for the Workflow component is external to the NetWare Remote Manager interface. Most administrators do not want end users seeing or touching the Remote Manager, so there is a separate interface that employee managers will use to attach and manage data that has been queued to them.

Once logged in, the employee manager will view all workflow entities which have been assigned to him and can then perform operations on them. The documentation in the user interface will detail these operations.

Executive Dashboard is a new feature in File System Factory™ 1.2. It includes a separate interface to allow specified users to view statistics and generate reports based on the storage managed by File System Factory™.

To secure the Executive Dashboard, File System Factory™ uses Security Equivalence to determine who has rights to login to the Executive Dashboard. To accomplish this, File System Factory™ supports any object type that supports security equals to (e.g. group and organizational role objects).

You may also designate one user as the security principle. If you choose this option, only this user will have access to the Executive Dashboard.

You must run the File System Factory engine component on at least one server in your Novell® eDirectory™™ tree. The engine component supports the following NetWare® servers:

NetWare 6.0 with Support Pack 2 or later

Minimum event services requirements

The File System Factory event services component must be running on at least one server in each eDirectory replica ring. The event services component supports the following NetWare servers:

NetWare 6.0 with Support Pack 2 or later

NetWare 5.1 with Support pack 4 or later

NetWare 5.0 with Support Pack 6 or later

Minimum home directory requirements

File System Factory can create user, group and File System Factory directories on any of the following NetWare servers:

NetWare 6.0 with Service Pack 2 or later

NetWare 5.1 with Service Pack 4 or later

NetWare 5.0 with Service Pack 6 or later

NetWare 4.11 with Service Pack 9 or later
Note: Long file name support must be loaded for all targeted volumes

Transactions and the Engine State Machine

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor gloom of delayed DS synchronization shall stay this system from the swift completion of its appointed tasks…”

Because NDS/eDirectory is a replicated, loosely consistent database, taking live action on NDS events in real-world network situation is challenging. For example, the engine may be notified of the creation of a new user, but the replica that the engine NLM is using for referrals may not know about the user yet. Or maybe he does and the engine can go ahead and use server-to-server communications to create the home directory on a target server, but the application of the quota or the ACL fails because the replica being used by the target server does not know about the user yet.

There are other potential problems in the real world. Target servers die, volumes dismount, routers are rebooted, and backhoes dig up communication links.

Because of this real world that most customers live in, the action engine in File System Factory™ is built on transactional state machine architecture to ensure that Policies are applied when events happen, no matter what.

Because NDS/eDirectory is a replicated, loosely consistent database, taking live action on NDS events in real-world network situation is challenging. For example, the engine may be notified of the creation of a new user, but the replica that the engine NLM is using for referrals may not know about the user yet. Or maybe he does and the engine can go ahead and use server-to-server communications to create the home directory on a target server, but the application of the quota or the ACL fails because the replica being used by the target server does not know about the user yet.

There are other potential problems in the real world. Target servers die, volumes dismount, routers are rebooted, and backhoes dig up communication links.

Because of this real world that most customers live in, the action engine in File System Factory™ is built on transactional state machine architecture to ensure that Policies are applied when events happen, no matter what.

Each transaction consists of a series of steps or states. The engine contains a Process Queue that is backed by the file system of the local server. Each transaction on the Process Queue contains the state or progress of the given transaction. If there is some situation that is holding up completion of a particular transaction, the engine will move on to the next transaction in the list. When it comes back around to the transaction that was experiencing the delay and processing will continue. The process queue is rebuilt from the file system each time the engine is restarted.

In the end, File System Factory™ is built so that you can trigger several thousand transactions and then disconnect the net connection or even push the reset button on any server running any File System Factory™ component or any target server without cause for concern.

File System Factory™ contains an event services component (FSFEVENT.NLM) that intercepts relevant User and Group events in the Directory and sends them to the action engine component (FSFENGIN.NLM) for processing.

The event subsystem is built on top of the AuditLogin™ event and transactional consolidation engine which has years of proven reliability and performance. The event consolidation engine provides the ability to receive events from multiple sources simultaneously and make sense of them.

The event services component of the system contains a caching subsystem so that events will be cached locally if they cannot immediately be sent into the consolidation component. This system assures that all events eventually make it to the consolidation component in the correct order.

Therefore, you may run the event auditing NLM (FSFEVENT.NLM) on multiple servers simultaneously and have them all send their events into a single server running the action engine NLM (FSFENGIN.NLM) and be assured that the events will be delivered.

The problem of auditing Directory events on multiple servers simultaneously usually arises when multiple audited servers hold a replica of the same partition. The result is that the same event will be intercepted by each of the instances of the event monitor that is on a server auditing the same replica ring and be sent in to the consolidator engine multiple times. The problem is exacerbated by delays in Directory synchronization and network outages.

The File System Factory engine global event system component contains proprietary analysis methodologies along with an event database on the local system that ensures that any event is only acted on only once.

Why Global Events?

An alternative to implementing a Global Event System is to require the event-monitoring component to run on a server that holds a replica of every partition that contains relevant objects.

NDS/eDirectory is a scalable, replicated database that allows administrators to define partitions and replicate the database in ways that make sense for the given network topology and hardware that is in place. This flexibility is one of the attributes of NDS and eDirectory that makes it a winner. The introduction of a software product requiring at least one server to hold a replica of all partitions removes some of this flexibility and is often a challenge in customer environments where the tree and network is not designed to facilitate this.

You may already have a network that can support a single replica server requirement. If so, you have the option of only running one instance of FSFEVENT.NLM. However, you may find that running multiple instances results in faster actions on events and the insurance policy that says you will not miss any events even if a server fails or a replica becomes corrupted.

Monitored Events

For improved performance, the event monitor in File System Factory™ streamlines the process by only monitoring for and sending events to the Engine that might be relevant to a Policy or template. Currently, the following events are monitored:

User

Add Object

Delete Object

Rename Object

Move Object

File System Factory™ Policy Assignment

Group

Add Object

Delete Object

Rename Object

Member Attribute

Add Member

Delete Member

Owner Attribute

Add Owner

Delete Owner

2003-12-08T12:43:39