Setting up & managing a file server in 2003

Setting up & managing a file server in Windows 2003

A file server is a computer responsible for the storage and management of data in a central location.
The specifications of a file server would normally consist of a large hard drive, a high CPU rate and decent amount of RAM. However, this may vary depending on the scale of how many requests the computer will be required to handle at once. Network clients can access these files, therefore saving them from having to physically transfer data from one computer to another. Users are able to access files and applications at the same time.

The administrator can configure the machine to be a dedicated fileserver; which would mean that the machine will only be used as a fileserver. Also, a non-dedicated fileserver; which would allow the fileserver to be used simultaneously as a workstation. File servers provide the ability to back up data with ease as everything is stored on one computer. Quotas can be set so that each user will have a certain amount of space on which he/she can save data.

Setting up a File Server

Navigate to the "Configure your server wizard" icon on the start menu and click it to open the configure your server application. Select the "File Server" role from the list and click next.

You will be asked whether or not you want to enable the indexing service (which allows people to search the contents of the file server). My recommendation is that you leave it off so as to better performance. However, this depends entirely on the way users would utilize your file server.

After this screen, click next again to run the "share a folder wizard". In the first screen, you are able to set which folder you wish to share. Type the location in the folder path or press browse to navigate to one.

File Server Management

The file server management console acts as a central administration point for managing shared folders. The following is a list of all the features available to the file server administrator:

Shares - displays the list of shares available to network clients
Sessions - shows who is connected to what share
Open Files - lists all the open files that the network clients are accessing
Disk Defragmenter - allows you to analyze and defragment the hard drive
Disk Management - lets you manage, partition, format and change the drive letter of hard disks

The shares section of the console also gives you the option to backup the contents of the file server. To do this you must click on "Backup File Server" on the right hand side of the window. This will bring up the backup wizard that will require you to make a choice of backing up or restoring files, what data is to be backed up and where the backup should be saved. Once all the choices have been made, the files will be backup up and saved to the location you specified.