Creating a new Network ServaNT tree

We will take you through the process of creating a new tree in 7 steps.

Step 1

When you start to work with Network ServaNT without a tree file, you will see an empty frame window. To start creating a new tree, select menu option File > New. An empty tree window will be displayed.

Step 2

Select menu option Tools > Add tree part to start creating a new tree.

Step 3

The Add tree part dialog will be displayed. The Add tree part dialog displays a list of possible tree objects to extent the currently selected tree object. NT is based on domains, and most network objects belong to a domain. Therefore you can only selects domains as parent objects for a new, empty tree. All other objects, like users, servers and workstations, will become child objects of the parent object ‘Domains’.

The options in the Add tree part dialog determine how the selected object will be inserted in the current Network ServaNT tree:

Add as child
The default option will make the selected object in the Add tree part dialog a child object of the currently selected (parent) object of the tree. If the selected tree object already contains a child object, the new child object will be inserted at the same level in the tree and it will become the first child object. If the currently selected parent object is Servers, which already has Services as a child object and you are inserting a new child object Shares, Shares will become the first child object and Services the second child object of the parent object Servers.

If you disable this option, the new object is inserted at the same level in the tree, just after the selected object. Note that changing this option also changes the possible choices in the list of tree parts. Refer to the option Show all possible tree objects for more information.

Show headers
Inserts a header for new objects in the tree. By default, this option is enabled. Since a Network ServaNT tree may contain a number of different objects in a single window, it makes sense to display a header line for each object.

Show introduction header text
If you select this option, an extra level with an introduction text will be added to the tree. A default introduction text is displayed at the bottom of the dialog but you can specify any other text as well.

Collect data on dialog return
This option is enabled by default. Network ServaNT will collect the data of the new object immediately after you have pressed the “OK” button.

Use background data collection
This option is enabled by default. Network ServaNT will collect the data of the object in a background thread, allowing you to continue working.

Show all possible tree objects
This option deals with the various types of child objects that can be added to the selected parent tree object. In most cases it only makes sense to extent a parent tree object with a child object, if they have some sort of ‘input-output’ relationship. For example: the parent object domain can contain child objects, like users of the domain, groups of the domain and so on. In this case, the domain name is the input to find the users and groups of the domain. By default this option will be disabled. This means that you only will see child objects which need input of the selected parent object.

If this option is enabled, the dialog list will show you all types of objects which are supported by Network ServaNT.

Example
Suppose that a Network ServaNT tree shows all shares of a server of a domain. Now you select a share and add a new tree part by selecting the menu option Tools > Add tree part. When the option Show all possible tree objects is not selected (default choice), the possible new child objects for the parent object share are:

The Access Control List (ACL) of the share.
The open files of the share.
The files and directories in the share.

It makes apparently no sense to add, for instance, the services as a child object to the parent object shares of the server. If you enable this option, however, you are allowed to add services to the tree as a child object of shares, because the required input data (name of server) is available.

Step 4

To add the tree part, select the object from the list and press the OK button. When you have enabled this option, the data will be collected immediately. The result is a window with all domains of the current network.

Step 5

Now you can select an object from the tree, and again select the menu option Tools > Add tree part. The tree part dialog now shows all types of objects that can be added to a domain.

Step 6

When the new tree part is added, Network ServaNT collects the information. Note that the new object is also added to the other parent-objects, e.g. the other domains. When you open another domain, the same type of information is collected for this domain.

Step 7

To save the definition of a Network ServaNT tree file, select menu option File > Save or press the corresponding menu toolbar button.