Windows Server 2008 R2 : File Server Resource Manager (part 4)

4/5/2011 5:10:02 PM

Classification Properties

Classification properties are used to categorize files to be used later for file management tasks or reporting. A classification property, as included with Windows Server 2008 R2, includes the following classification property types:

Yes/No
Date-time
Number
Ordered List
String
Multichoice
Multistring

To get a good understanding of how classification can be used, this section and the following sections provide an example of how classification can be used to classify files based on content that includes the word password. To do this, we will create a file property type of Yes/No and create a classification rule to search the E:\ITDept folder for any files containing the word and to classify these files as necessary. To perform this task, we must first create the classification property. Perform the following steps to create the classification property:

1.	Log on to a Windows Server 2008 R2 system with the FSRM service and tool installed, with an account with administrative rights.
2.	Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.
3.	Expand Roles, expand File Services, expand Share and Storage Management, and double-click on the File Server Resource Manager node beneath it.
4.	Double-click Classification Management and select the Classification Properties node.
5.	In the Actions pane, click on the Create Property link to start the creation of the classification property.
6.	In the Create Classification Property Definition window, type Files with Passwords in the Property name section, enter a description, and choose the Property type of Yes/No.
7.	In the Value section, enter a description as desired and click OK to create the classification property, as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7. Creating a new classification property.

Once the new classification property is created, we can create a classification rule that will use this property to classify files that the rule determines to meet the criteria.

Classification Rules

Once the file administrator has created the necessary file classification properties, they can proceed in creating classification rules that will actually process and classify the files that meet the rule criteria, by applying the necessary classification property values to the file collections. To create a new classification rule, perform the following steps:

1.	Log on to the same Windows Server 2008 R2 system that the Files with Passwords classification property was previously defined on, with an account with administrative rights.
2.	Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.
3.	Expand Roles, expand File Services, expand Share and Storage Management, and double-click on the File Server Resource Manager node beneath it.
4.	Double-click Classification Management and select the Classification Rules node.
5.	In the Actions pane, click on the Create a New Rule link to start the creation of a new classification rule.
6.	In the Classifications Rule Definitions window, type in the name of the rule as Classify files with passwords and enter a description.
7.	In the Scope section of the page, click the Add button to define the volumes and or folders that this classification rule will be applied to. For our example, we will apply this rule to E:\ITDept. When the location is specified, all subfolders will be included.
8.	Once the name, description, and file locations are defined, click on the Classification tab and select Content Classifier from the Classification mechanism drop-down menu.
9.	In the Property Name section, select the Files with Passwords property and set the property value to be assigned as Yes, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8. Defining the classification criteria on a file classification rule.
10.	Click the Advanced button to set the additional parameters that will actually be used to determine if the files match the criteria and should be classified with the property defined in this rule.
11.	In the Additional Rule Parameters window, select the Additional Classification Parameters tab. On this tab, administrators can define three different types of criteria used to search with a files content. These three types are as follows: RegularExpression— The RegularExpression is the same as is used with .NET programming and can be used to find complex or multiple types of data formats, for more complex searches. String— The String type is used to find a very specific string, such as password that will not be dependent on the case of the string, although the string must be an exact match. For example, the string password will not match passwords, as that is a different string. StringCaseSensitive— The StringCaseSensitive is the same as the string, in that the entire string must be an exact match, but the case must match. For example, the StringCaseSensitive string of Password will not match the string password.
12.	For our example, we will specifically look for the word password and will not care about the case. In the Name section, type in String and in the value type in password, as shown in Figure 9. Click OK when completed. Figure 9. Defining the additional content parameter for content classification by string.
13.	Back on the Classification Rule Definitions page, click OK to complete the rule creation.

Once the rule is created, it can be scheduled or run manually. To run all of the rules manually, in the tasks pane, right-click on the Classification Rules node and select Run Classification with All Rules Now. Follow the steps to select the type of report that will be generated and whether the administrator will wait for the classification to complete and display the window or to have the process run in the background. If a schedule or a manual run is performed, any files that meet the properties of any enabled classification rules will be classified, unless these files have been previously classified.

File Management Tasks

File Management tasks is a new feature within the FSRM console. File Management tasks can be run out of the box on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system, to either expire classified files that meet a certain criteria, by moving these files to a designated folder location, or to perform a custom task. This can be a handy tool to automatically move files that have not been accessed in an extended period of time. Or, in the case of sensitive data, such as files that might contain passwords, this tool can be used to create a custom script to move the classified files to a designated, secured folder, and leave a link or note in the original location to instruct any users on how to regain access to that file. Of course, this logic would need to be created by an administrator because this functionality is not included out of the box. As an example, to create a new File Management Task to move files that have not been accessed in over a year, perform the following steps on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system with the FSRM service and tool installed:

1.	Log on to a Windows Server 2008 R2 system with the FSRM service and tool installed, with an account with administrative rights.
2.	Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.
3.	Expand Roles, expand File Services, expand Share and Storage Management, and double-click on the File Server Resource Manager node beneath it.
4.	Double-click File Management Tasks node beneath the File Server Resource Manager node.
5.	In the Actions pane, click the Create File Management Task link to start the process.
6.	In the Create File Management Task window, on the General tab, type in a task name of Move Data not accessed in 1 year and enter a description as desired.
7.	In the Scope section, click the Add button to locate and add the folder, folders, or volumes to this task.
8.	Click on the Action tab and for action type, choose File Expiration, and in the expiration directory, type or browse to a volume and folder location to where the files that meet this criteria should be moved.
9.	Click on the Notification tab and click the Add button to add notifications to users and administrators so they can be notified of when particular files will be considered expired and moved to the expiration directory, as shown in Figure 10. Figure 10. Defining the notification settings for a File Management Task.
10.	Back in the Create File Management Task window, click on the Condition tab and check the Day Since File Was Last Accessed check box and enter a value of 365.
11.	In the Effective Starting section, enter the date that files will actually begin expiration; this date should be more than the amount of days included in any notification.
12.	Click on the Schedule tab, click the Create button and create a new schedule. Click OK until the windows are closed to complete the creation of the file management task. Depending on the date chosen for the effective date, a pop-up might open stating that the effective date must be pushed forward to ensure that users are notified in advance before their data is moved.

Once the task is completed, it will run on the designated schedule and will begin notifying administrators and users when files will be moved. One important point to consider is that once a file is expired and moved, there will be no indication of where or when that file was moved when users go to the original location of the expired file. Much more can be done with file management tasks, including performing custom actions on files that have been previously classified, and it is recommend that any organization wanting to leverage this new File Classification Infrastructure test it thoroughly on copied data in an isolated lab network.