File System Features in Server 2008

I hesitiated blogging about this before fully researching it, but then decided against my better judgement and here I am spewing forth about it. This TechEd session I attended last Monday struck me as extremely interesting because it dealt with the (at least in my arena) little-dealt-with topic of file serving.

This juicy little morsel of ... whatever ... is officially called "File System Resource Manager" and it allows an administrator control over what files are stored on his/her server. Everything I've taught in dealing with user file management has been the use of Quotas which are, you'll remember, a restriction as to how much disk space can be used per individual user. This is all well and good but doesn't give you much control. I mean, who's to say that Amy isn't going to just fill her user account space with a bunch of bomb-making plans and porn? Just because Amy's "files" don't take up more than the amount of space I've allotted, we're OK, right? Mmm, notsomuch.

The File System Resource Manager (FSRM) is installed automatically when you install the File Server role in Server 08. It's run from an MMC, like most utility tools in server and can allow you to control not only how much space each user gets, but how much space each folder is allotted and what types of files can get stored. For example, if I wanted to be hard-nosed about it, I could ban .mp3s on the file server. Or, I could allow only .doc, .xls and .ppt files and ban all others. Or I could give you 500 MB of space, but only 5 MB of it could be used for .mp3 files. The possibilities are endless. Oh, I could also set up custom reports to be e-mailed to either users and/or admins when rules are violated or quotas are close. Depending on how you look at it, Big Brother has one more step on you.

Here's what's really cool: this isn't a new feature. That's right, Cheech, FSRM made its debut in Windows Server 2003 R2. I still haven't played with it though (which is why I hesitated even blogging about it yet). But it seemed like such a cool feature that I just had to share it.