File Server Consolidator

Photo Credits:Gaetan Lee

Brian has just finished a monthly report. Before he sends it to his boss, he asks a coworker, James, to review it:

B: “James, would you please take a look at my monthly report?”

J: “Sure. Where is it?”

B: “It’s in the Drafts folder on the G drive.”

J: “Are you sure it is on drive G? I don’t see the folder named Drafts. There are only budget related folders.”

The company Brian and James work for uses many file servers. Each of them publishes many pools with folders and files. To access the folders and files more easily, users map them with different drive letters.

Brian and James both used letter G to map a network drive, but they used it to map two different network drives. No wonder they each see a different picture when they open their own drive G!

Have you ever been in the situation like that? Some users who work on many projects make use of almost all letters in the alphabet! Can you imagine how difficult it is to collaborate in an environment like that?

A time comes when you have to start with folder reorganization on your file servers. This is also the right time to standardize how network drives get mapped. When all users use the same drive letter to access a shared drive it is much easier to refer others to a specific file.

Which Letters to use for Standard Network Drives

This largely depends on the level you managed to simplify your shared folders. In general it is better to use a letter you can associate to the purpose of the drive.

Most organizations offer users a private space on a file server, known as “home folder”. You can automatically map each user’s home folder as drive H (for home). Some organizations prefer letter P (for personal).

If you managed to consolidate all your shared folders to one folder pool, you can map it with letter G (for group) or S (for shared). Some companies use letter W (for work-group).

Organizations that utilize corporate identity formats can prepare a special folder share with templates and map it as drive T (for templates). It can contain standard templates for memos, fax, orders, presentations, etc. for company-wide use.

If you haven’t used the letter S to map a shared group drive, you can use it to map a drive with useful programs (S for software). You can also use letter U (U for utilities).

Standardize Drive Letter for CD and DVD Drives

It might be useful to standardize a drive letter for CD or DVD drives. All computers could be set up to have a CD or DVD drive available under letter X. This could simplify life for authors of installation scripts. It is also convenient for users because a DVD drive will be under the same letter on all computers, independently of the number of local hard drives and partitions.

Lets say you have decided to put your file servers in order. You are going to migrate them, consolidate them or just restructure the folders. We IT professionals like it when it is not necessary to involve users. We like to buy better, bigger, faster machines and move data there, hoping the only thing the users will notice is better speed and more space. There is nothing wrong with that. But do you really have to move all the data? Is it really necessary to keep all those files forever? There might be files that nobody has opened for years! Wouldn’t it be great if you could just delete them? But how do you know if you can delete a file that hasn’t been opened for eight years? It might make sense that you can, but what if the law requires that you have to keep it for ten years? Unfortunately, only the owner of this file knows that information, and so it becomes necessary to involve users.

Involve Users

When you really want to clean up your file servers you have to involve users. They have to give you the information on which folders should be preserved and where they should be placed. I know it sounds like a big hassle if there are many users, but you do not have to work with each user individually. Instead, meet with key users or department heads and explain the details to them. Provide them with all the information material they need to inform others, then ask them to forward the information to their subordinates.

Get Management to Support You

As with all important changes in the company, it is very important to have top management support. Explain to them the problem you are solving and the benefits of the changes. Usually it is not difficult to persuade management to give their support. They also feel the pain every day when they try to find files on file servers. Users will generally take the project much more seriously if top management introduces it to them. It is a good idea to prepare an introductory e-mail message and ask the manager to send it to all the users.

Carefully Prepare the Timeframe and Deadlines

You have to give the users enough time to prepare the information you will need. When deciding on a deadline, keep in mind that it usually takes several weeks to get all the information. Some users will be very busy on their projects. Some will be out of the office and won’t be able to prepare the information for you as quickly as you would like. On the other hand, you don’t want to give them too much time. The more time you give them the more they will procrastinate. Often people collect the information you need only after being reminded several times. You should be prepared to receive most of the information just before the deadline. Schedule the deadline at least a week before the folder restructuring will actually take place. Expect also that some users will miss the deadline. Of course, no data should be lost and you will have to migrate their folders too.

Keep Users Informed

Inform the users regularly about the status of the information collection. If possible, display graphically which folders will be migrated and which folders will be deleted. If you can prepare a tree view of the source folders it will be very illustrative to them. Mark bold all the folders for which you have received the necessary information. This will get the users’ attention when they see that a folder they use is not going to be migrated. Then they will make sure you get the necessary information.

Make a Backup and Test It

No matter how much time you give to users, there will always be some files that they won’t tell you about. Make sure to make a backup to tape or other media before you move the data. It is very important to test that backup. If you are going to delete the source folders after the folder reorganization you have to make sure you can get the data from the backup.