Sharing Files on Your Network

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in Feb 2005, and was updated by Kevin Lo, a technology analyst of TechSoup Global.

A file server is simply a computer where users keep and share their data, other than their workstations. While ideally it would be running a server-class operating system, all operating systems have basic file-sharing capabilities. Creating a file structure that make sense to users on this machine will save time and headaches down the line. This article provides a few tips to make sharing effective and easy for your nonprofit. Although this article uses examples and terminology from Windows, the concepts and techniques are applicable to almost all flavors of operating systems.

Just as you would organize paper files in a filing cabinet, your server should be arranged in such a way that all users of an organization can can easily get at what they need without having to search extensively. If you don't have a file server already, the first step should be planning. Sit down with your users to find out how they use the file server on a day-to-day basis, and more importantly, what sorts of things they'd like to do. Use this information, along with the pointers here, to plan out your implementation and to build and maintain a reliable and user-friendly server.

Physical Drives and Partition Organization

Most file servers have multiple physical drive partitions (parts or sections of a hard drive), depending on the number and configuration of disk drives. There are many different philosophies to hard drive organization, but creating two partitions, one for the operating system (OS) and applications and another one for data, usually works best. Creating separate OS and data partitions will keep most hard-drive issues -- things like capacity problems, file corruption, and drive failures -- limited to one partition, making support and recovery much easier.

Please note that partitioning and formatting hard drives is a destructive process, and any existing data will be lost. The rest of this article assumes that you will use multiple partitions, with the operating system and applications on the C: partition and data on the D: partition or drives.

Mirror, Mirror

Another consideration is whether to use RAID, or mirroring. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and it can be implemented using hardware or software, and have different "levels". For example, in RAID 1, a basic mirrored system has two hard drives, each containing a complete copy of all the data on the server. If one drive fails, a second one is ready to go with all the data intact. Though it's not a 100-percent reliable protection against drive failures, with storage costs dropping all the time, and mirroring software built into most modern operating systems, a RAID setup should be a prerequisite for any file server. For a more detailed explanation of RAID 1, check out Wikipedia's article on RAID, or Windows or Mac OS X specific articles.

Directory Organization on the Server

Your file server should bend to meet the needs of your organization, not the other way around. Most often, file servers contain a variety of different data folders at the root (or first) level of the hard drive, such as D:\staff, D:\programs, D:\admin, etc. (see figure 1 below). At first, this may seem like the simplest arrangement, but this setup makes maintenance difficult.

Instead, set up the different folders inside a single root level folder -- such as D:\data -- so that the different data folders end up something like this: D:\data\staff, D:\data\programs, or D:\data\admin (see figure 2 below). With this type of setup, you can maintain multiple folders for your staff to use and preserve a single container on the server for your data.

What follows is one example of a relatively simple file structure. The first level contains a single directory, named "data," which contains all of the different shared folders. Within that first-level folder are two primary folders: "users" and "shared." Within the users area are individual folders for everyone in your organization.

Inside the shared folder are directories for different program areas, such as "admin," "clients," "finance," etc. (see figure 3 below). The idea with this configuration is to provide two types of shares: individual shares for each user, and shares based around the different aspects of the organization's structure, such as finance and client services.

Again, the actual layout of the directory structure should take shape from your organization's arrangement. For instance, if your organization were a puppy rescue group, you'd create a top-level shared area for veterinary clinics with subfolders containing specific information for each dog, with spaying and neutering or vaccination records. When developing your file structure, it's always easier to add shares than to remove them, so start out with a simple setup and expand to a more complicated structure as needed.

Please note that shares are almost always folders, but folders are often not shares. A share (or fileshare, or shared folder) is a network address connected to a specific folder on a server's hard drive. A folder (or directory) is a container for files on a hard drive. Folders can be nested within other folders, creating a hierarchy, often referred to as a tree. Shares can point to any folder within the hierarchy. To make matters even more complicated, shares do not have to have the same name as the folder they point to (though we recommend using the same name for both).

Share and File Permissions

Perhaps the most important part of setting up a file server is creating appropriate folder and share permissions. Permissions are the fundamental mechanism used to secure computer files. They determine who has access to what file (or folder) and what they can do with the file. Each folder should have its own set of permissions, allowing different users and groups of users to have different permissions to access and modify the files in each folder as needed.

Sally is the accountant and needs access to the payroll area, but you don't want anyone else to see that information, so the payroll folder permissions should be set so only Sally and the director can access it. But the organization's phone list is in the staff folder and that folder can be accessed and read by anyone, while only the human resources director has write permissions. The details of setting up users and groups is outside the scope of this article, but check out these Microsoft and Apple articles for specific instructions.

When setting up permissions, you should ask yourself: How concerned is my organization with security and privacy? You probably don't want everyone on staff rooting through the contents of your server, nor do you want a complete lockdown of your data.

The best solution is something in between: an intermediate level of permissions, with users having read and write access to their individual folders. The different shared folders should have different permissions, depending on which users and groups need access to the files contained within. For the most part, the group, not the user would determine the permission level of the shared files.

For instance, anyone from accounting would have access to financial information, while customer service reps would be the only ones with access to customer records. It's much easier to add and remove users from groups than to add and remove users from individual shares.

If possible, you shouldn't give everyone permission to create folders within the shared areas because the more folders at each level, the easier it is to misplace files. A simplified set of permissions is shown with the sample file structure from the previous step.

Once you've set up everything, be sure communicate to staff how and why the shares have been configured. If your users know where files are supposed to go and why, they're much more likely to put stuff where it belongs, keeping clutter down. As part of this process, you should let your users know just what level of privacy and permissions they can expect when working on the server.

Maintaining Your File Server

Now that the server is configured, document the whole setup, including a listing of all shares, user accounts, groups, and relevant partitions. Use this document to train your users, and update it when you make any major changes to the setup. If more than one person is responsible for maintaining the server, be sure to make it clear who is responsible for what. If you find that users are having problems finding or accessing files, help them to create desktop shortcuts to often-used folders. The following are some common maintenance tasks:

• On a regular basis, really clean and scour that file server. Look for out-of-place files, check the permissions on new folders to make sure they match up with the overall scheme, and consolidate multiple folders from the same projects. You should focus this effort on the top levels of the file structure, as this is where misplaced and mislabeled files and folders can cause the most problems.
• Once every few months, go through the file server and archive files and folders, clearing space on the drive for new files and folders. Remove ex-employee's folders, finished projects, and other material that your organization no longer uses.
• You can use the operating system's search function to look for folders and files that haven't been accessed over a specific period of time (one year, three years, or whatever seems appropriate). Collect these "orphan" files and folders and put them in a specific unshared archive folder at first. If after a month or two and no one has come to you looking for the archived files, archive them to tape, CD-R , or DVD-R . Make two copies and store one off-site, in case of disaster.

• From time to time, sift out "junk" files such as personal music collections, picture libraries, and other non-critical items. Use the operating system's search function to find these files and remove them, if appropriate. You can also provide a separate share or even a drive just for these types of files.

Back it Up

 

Although a RAID setup would make drive failures more manageable in terms of recovery, sooner or later, a hard drive will fail, a staff member will delete an important spreadsheet, or a database will get corrupted. Running a daily or weekly backup of any file server is a must. To read more about backing up, check out this TechSoup's article Backing Up Your Data.Once you've configured a backup system, test it to make sure you can restore the data from it.

Conclusion

 

A file server is often a well-used piece of your network, yet one of those components where it is noticed only when it is not available or failed. Ensuring that it is well designed and managed would require some planning, but will save you time in the long run. With a well managed file server your users may even be compelled to share more information with one another, at least the ones that they are permitted to see.