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In this video I show you how to build a workgroup file server
I will introduce the basics then add some tips to make it easier for you to manage shared data
File server I use Windows Server operating system, it is true for most versions of Windows Server operating system
Let's say I build a file server for two groups named Group 1 and Group 2
Each group has two people, group 1 has James and Mary, group 2 has Robert and Jennifer
First of all I create accounts for 4 people, that is James, Mary, Robert and Jennifer
Next I create two groups as mentioned
Group 1 has 2 members, James and Mary
Group 2 has 2 members, Robert and Jennifer
The purpose of the video is that the members of group 1 cannot access the data of group 2 and vice versa
More specifically Robert and Jennifer cannot access James and Mary's data and vice versa
After creating the user and group I create the respective folders for each group
In partition D I create a new folder named DATA
In the DATA folder I create two subfolders named Group 1 and Group 2
The folder named Group 1 belongs to group 1 and the folder named Group 2 belongs to group 2
After creating the folders I share a folder called DATA so that people can discover it over the network
For the folder named DATA, I set it up to allow anyone to change it
Next I set permissions for the folder named Group 1
This is the folder of group 1 so James and Mary have edit permission to this folder
You removed the default permission settings for this folder
Then remove the group named users from the list of groups
Next I add groups named Group1 and Group2 to the list of groups
group 1 and group 2 have different permissions for the folder named group 1
Group 1 has edit permission to the folder named Group 1
And group 2 has no permissions to the folder named Group1
So James, Mary have the right to edit, read and delete for the folder named Group 1, but Robert and Jennifer do not.
Same for the folder named Group 2
Robert, Jennifer has the right to edit, read, delete, create new for this folder
And Mary and James don't have any rights to the folder named Group 1
For the folder named Group 2 I remove the group named users from the list
Then I add groups named group 1 and group 2 to the list of groups
Next I set edit permission to group 2
Then set deny all permissions of group 2 for this folder
Now from another computer on the intranet I access the file server by name
You can use the ip address instead if you want
Here I use James's account in group 1
Because James is in group 1, he can only access the folder named Group 1 and is blocked from accessing the folder named Group2
The same thing happened to Mary
In contrast, Robert and Mary can only access the folder named Group 2 and are blocked when trying to access the folder named Group 1.
Going back to the file server, I installed a few more things to make it easier for you to manage shared folders
I install Branch cache for network file and install File Server Resource Manager
How do these settings help you, watch the video to find out
Successful installation
I want the members of group 1 to not be able to discover the folder named Group 2 and vice versa
To do so, do the following:
For the folder named DATA you just shared you set up as follows
You tick Enable access-based Enumeration
With this setup Jennifer, Robert can't discover the folder named group 1 because they don't have any permissions for this folder
In contrast James and Mary only discover the folder named group 1 and cannot discover the folder named group 2
because they have only set edit permissions to their folder
I tested with Robert's account in group 2 and only discovered the folder of group 2
The folder where his group is set to edit permissions
Robert can add new files, edit files and delete files if he wants
Next I will set it up so that everyone can access the data even if they are not connected to the server
To do that, map the network drive to the client computer
Here I work with Robert's account of group 2
After mapping the network drive you set it to always available offline
The files will be downloaded to the client and synchronized with each other
When the client is not connected to the server you can still access the files because it has already been downloaded to your computer.
When the client connects to the server, the changes are synced to the server
This is very convenient when you work in another place and still access your data and sync it when connected to the server.
Robert will disconnect from the file server
Then he created a new file in the folder called Group 2
Because Robert lost connection to the file server, the new file was not uploaded to the file server
But he can still use the files that were pre-downloaded to his computer
After he reconnected to the file server, his new file was synced to the file server
Isn't it great, Robert is very pleased with this
You can do the same for members of both groups
There's one more thing I'd like to set up for group2's directory
I don't want Jennifer to delete files created by Robert and vice versa
If this happens, it will cause unexpected data loss
To do so, you remove each other's data deletion permission for the folder named group 2
I set the above permissions for group 2
Now Jennifer will go to the folder named Group 2 and try to delete the file created by Robert
This is a file created by Robert
Jennifer cannot delete files created by Robert, she can only delete files created by herself
Likewise, only Robert can delete the file he created and Jennifer cannot
Storage space on file servers is limited so you should set up usage limits for groups
Next, I will set a quota for the folder of group 1
Here the file server already has templates for you to use
But I don't want to use existing templates so I create a new one
I have created a new limit of 300MB, with the folder set up, this limit can only upload up to 300MB
This is how you optimize file server resources
I'm going to set the limit just created for the folder named Group 1
If everyone uploads multimedia files, it will take up a lot of storage resources
Or people upload executable files that can spread computer viruses
Next I will prevent group 1 members from uploading audio and video files
James and Mary also cannot upload files with the extension exe
Next is the setup to generate reports and log events
As such I have set some restrictions on group members 1
They can't upload more than 300MB of data
I will check with James's account
James uploads winrar software installation file
Unable to upload because this is an executable file with the extension exe
But he can upload text files, because it's unrestricted
James keeps uploading video files
But he can't upload audio and video files as set up in the previous step
The same goes for Mary, because she's in the same group as James
Group 2 members can upload executables and media because I have not set a restriction on the folder named Group 2
Do you want to know how much space groups have used for their folders
To know that you create reports as follows
There are many types of reports that can be generated but I only generate usage quota reports for the folders of the two groups
You set the path to a folder named DATA
Set the report output time
Set a report export date, I want to have a report two days a week, Sunday and Friday
Let's see what the report will look like
Why only report for directory of group 1
Because I haven't set a limit for group 2
Without this report, I wouldn't have set up a quota for bucket 2, it would be dangerous for the file server's storage resources
I will set a limit for the folder of group 2
Thus I introduced the basic steps for building and managing a file server in the workgroup
Do you have anything to add, leave a comment
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