Files and folders protecting from users mistakes 1

[bhphoto]

Hi there,

We are a company that are saving very large quantity of client information in PDF’s and they are all sorted each and every file into the client’s name folders, we have multiple users working\Modifying\adding these files and folders and it happens a lot of mistakes by users like deleting or moving files and folders and so on…, therefore I am looking for a solution to this to have these folders more secure, I want the users should be able to create\modify\append BUT they should not be able to delete fiels and folders or moving one folder into another by mistake (maybe it should prompt when doing so?), when using Win2K permissions for this by allowing everything and deny “delete” and “delete subfolders and files” I have a problem like when creating a new folder windows automatically saves the folder with the name “New Folder” and if the user will try to change the name this will go into the category of “deleting” so they will be denied.

Please post your ideas and knowledge here, it is very much appreciated.

Thanks-in-Advanced
JoelB

 

[yizhar]

HI.

The best solution for such problems are backups (there are different kinds of them).
Here are some possible implementations:

* First of all, nothing comes instead of regular daily backup to tape, and tape rotation (keeping history for different points in time).

In addition to daily backups, the following can help:

* Upgrading the file server to WIN2003 can be used with the new shadow copy option. This keeps snapshots of your selected folders for that purpose.

* An Undelete utility for servers. There are several such utilities, they all can do great job for protecting your files, at the costs of software purchase and disk space.

* Other snapshot utilities, including my own MMM utility from my signature. You can run it on a workstation taking snapshot of your file server and keeping deleted/modified files in a dedicated folder. No cost for software but disk space is needed.

* "Human Engineering" can also reduce such problems.
An email to all employees about how to avoid such problems can minimize them.



Yizhar Hurwitz

http://teachers.sivan.co.il/yizhar

 

[bhphoto]

First of all thanks for your response,
We have a daily backup with a rotation of 30 days but this wouldn’t help me in all scenarios for instance if someone deletes something and no one noticed this within 30 days then I lost this piece of info, therefore I am looking for a solution to restrict more on the users side and to have more control over these accidents, as I said with the options from win 2k server permissions it doesn’t help me much as explained earlier so I am looking for an idea or some product (at a low cost) to solve this ongoing issue.

Thanks
JoelB

 

[yizhar]

HI.

> if someone deletes something and no one noticed this within 30 days ...
You should add a monthly backup (keep a tape for each month) with either yearly rotation or simply collecting this tapes over time (this can also be used as tape refreshing procedure - each month old tape goes out for archive, fresh tape goes in the regular rotation).

The main problem with permissions is that a save operation in most of the applications is actualy a combination of DELETE+CREATE+WRITE (and some times also RENAME involved).

However if applicable then you can try to redesign permissions by groups and by using the special CREATOR OWNER group.
For example you can assign USERS group only READ+CREATE permissions, and CREATOR OWNER = FULL CONTROL.
If users need to edit each other files then it won't be applicable for your organization, but you can try and decide.

> so I am looking for an idea or some product (at a low cost)
I think that the upgrade to Win2003 is reasonable cost because you get other benefits, not only the new shadow copy feature (which is also quite effective in disk space related to other methods).
Have you looked here as well:

http://www.softwareshelf.com/products/execsoftprod.asp?p=40

http://execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp

If you (or someone) else find the magic answer to this problem that most of us are facing, let us know...




Yizhar Hurwitz

http://teachers.sivan.co.il/yizhar