Tips & Tricks - SpaceGuard SRM
4. Automatic Quota User Assignment
Hundreds of organizations worldwide use SpaceGuard
SRM to proactively manage disk space. With the plethora
of media available for free on the Internet today
users are often enticed to become file hordes. Without
directory quotas any single user could easily consume
all available disk space on the file server. SpaceGuard
SRM controls disk space and puts personal file management
in the hands of the user, thus removing administrative
burden. |
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| Before any software solution can be put to effective
use it must be configured properly. The most common
application for SpaceGuard SRM is home directory
quota assignment. In many instances home folder names
often correspond to the name of the user they belong
to. SpaceGuard SRM leveraged this idea and used it
to ease quota creation. This was done using a keyword
called %RELATIVE_QUOTA_DIRECTORY%, it uses the name
of the folder the quota has been applied to as input.
The %RELATIVE_QUOTA_DIRECTORY% keyword is then specified
as the target for actions, e.g. revoke access for <DOMAIN_NAME>\%RELATIVE_QUOTA_DIRECTORY%.
The only caveat is this concept does not work for
any scenario where the folder name that quota has
been applied to doesn’t correspond with a username;
in such cases targets for each quota need to be entered
manually. |
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| As of version 5.4 target specifications for SpaceGuard
SRM actions has been vastly improved. It is now possible
to have SpaceGuard SRM automatically determine the
target for popup, email, and revoke write access
actions, making the product even easier to configure
and implement. SpaceGuard SRM automatic target discovery
is enabled out-of-the-box. The product uses one of
four different methods to automatically determine
targets. The method that SpaceGuard SRM chooses depends
on method ordering and successful discovery. |
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Let’s take a close look at Automatic
discovery: |
| Open the SpaceGuard SRM client and use the “Browse
Network” tree to navigate to the machine running
the service. Right-click the machine and choose “Service
Management/User Assignment…” the following
dialog will appear: |
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| Methods that are in the “Available Options” pane
are NOT selected and will not be used by SpaceGuard
SRM. Methods in the “Selected Options” pane
are what SpaceGuard SRM will use to determine automatic
target for every quota. Order is very important,
the product will attempt automatic discovery starting
with the first (top) method. If that method is successful
automatic discovery is complete; if the method fails
the product will try the next method and so forth.
After automatic discovery has completed the targets
SpaceGuard SRM discovered will be displayed in the “Account” column
of the “Quota overview” window. |
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The following describes each method in detail: |
| AD/SAM: It is important to note that this method
should only be used for home directories. SpaceGuard
SRM will take the path the quota has been applied
to and will search the Active Directory/SAM for a
matching home directory entry. If a matching entry
is found automatic discovery is complete. |
| ACL: SpaceGuard SRM will analyze the ACL of the
directory the quota has been applied to. The FIRST
ACL entry found is used as the target. During the
analysis entries for well-known accounts such as
Everyone and Administrators are filtered out. |
| Owner: SpaceGuard SRM will analyze the ACL of the
directory the quota has been applied to and will
use the owner of the directory as the target. It
is important to note that this method almost always
results in success but the target is not always correct
since administrators own most folders. |
| Rel Dir: This method uses the %RELATIVE_QUOTA_DIRECTORY%
keyword. The name of folder the quota is applied
to is used as the target. |
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| It may not be apparent as to which method is the
best to use for your environment. In such cases the
User Assignment test feature should be used. This
provides a way to preview the targets SpaceGuard
SRM will automatically discover without having to
implement actual quotas. To use this feature select
any one of the four methods and click “Test”,
the following dialog will appear: |
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| Navigate to the directory that automatic discovery should be tested against and
click “Resolve.” SpaceGuard SRM will display the target it discovered. |
| Now that automatic discovery has been setup alerts
need to be configured to use it. The popup, email,
and revoke write access alarm action dialogs all
have an option similar to the following: |
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Select the option that does not require manual
input and SpaceGuard SRM will use what it discovered
automatically as the target.
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| Please contact support@tools4ever.com with questions
regarding automatic discovery. |
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