In the last part of my File Server Resource Manager series, I’ll discuss the File Management Tasks feature that allows you to apply actions to files based on classifications or other attributes.

File Management Tasks in (File Server Resource Manager) FSRM allow you to expire (or possibly a better term would be archive) files, encrypt files, or run custom commands based on file classifications, timestamps associated with a file (last accessed, last modified, etc.), and file location.

File Expiration

The first file management task we’ll create is a file expiration. In the FSRM administrative tool, go to File Management Tasks and click on Create File Management Task.

Create File Management Task

Create File Management Task

In the General tab, set a Task name and ensure the Enable checkbox is checked.

Enable task

Enable task

In the Scope tab, set the folders that will be included in the task.

Scope

Scope

In the Action tab, set the Type to File Expiration and set an expiration directory.

Expiration directory

Expiration directory

In the Notification tab, you can set email notifications that will sent to IT personnel and/or end users that will be affected by this task. Like many of the built-in email templates in FSRM, you’ll want to customize the messages if you’re planning on using them so end users aren’t confused by why they’re receiving the message.

Email notifications

Email notifications

In the Report tab, you can determine whether or not you want a report available for IT to see what files are expired. It goes without saying that you probably want to leave this enabled.

Reports

Reports

In the Condition tab, you can determine what rules will determine which files are archived. In the example, I’ve set files to expire after they haven’t been accessed for six months. The Condition tab also allows you to set days since the file was created, days since last modified, file name patterns, and file classification properties.

Conditions

Conditions

Last but not least, in the Schedule tab, set your schedule. Personally, I’ve found that running this task weekly is more effective that running it monthly; but, your mileage may vary depending on the amount of data you have and on your organization’s needs.

Schedules

Schedules

Encrypting Files with RMS

The process for creating a task to encrypt files based on RMS (Rights Management Services) is very similar to expirations. In the Action tab, set the Type to RMS Encryption. Since this series is about FSRM, I’m only touching on this subject briefly to show that if you’re running RMS, you can encrypt files in FSRM based on RMS templates (or manual settings).

RMS Encryption

RMS Encryption

Custom Action Types

Like expirations and RMS encryption, Custom tasks are also set on the Action tab. Custom tasks allow you to use executables or scripts to run actions against files. As an example, you may decide that rather than moving old files with an expiration task, that you want to create zip files of old files and place them in a user’s home directory.

Custom tasks

Custom tasks

7 Comments
  1. Arun kumar 7 years ago

    Is their any way to trigger the mail if some user modify the permission of a particular folder also we want a report who accessed the folder or who modified the folder

    • Author

      With FSRM, not that I’m aware of. You could enable auditing, but you’d still need to parse the Event Log to pull out who made the change and then use something like PowerShell to email it out.

  2. David 7 years ago

    Regarding the Exipration Directory…  when moving files into this location, does the full path to the file get created there as well?

    For instance, there’s a file, “readme.txt” that hasn’t been accessed in a long time, so this gets moved.  What if there’s another file in that folder named “readme.txt”, how would the collision be treated?

  3. YoongHon Chan 7 years ago

    Is there anyway to trigger mail, when somebody copy files more than size of threshold value (example: 100mb)?

  4. Nasir 7 years ago

    Total Size of Hard quota does not greater than HDD Size.

  5. Greg Knee 6 years ago

    Kyle,

    This is a tremendously helpful blog and has saved me considerable time – thank you.

    I am considering implementing File Expiration but I had a question or two. Does the ‘expiration’ target folder need to exist prior to execution and does the expiration process recreate the folder structure of the existing location?

    I’m asking because I’m looking at a considerable amount of data – terabytes – that my pack rat users have accumulated and easily 90%+ has not been touched in 2 years or more. I just want to be prepared in case the files are moved into one folder no matter the original structure so I don’t create a bigger mess than I already have.

  6. Paul 6 years ago

    Hey Kyle,

    Great stuff. Thanks!

    newbie with FSRM and hoping you can save us even more time…

    Is there an easy way to use Storage Reports to find duplicate Folder names only?

    Thanks again,

    Paul

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