Rollins College Novell Network Policies
A White Paper From the Rollins Network Staff
One of the most common and useful features of computer networks
like Rollins’ Local Area Network (LAN) is the ability to share disk space on
network file servers. A specialized computer called a file server provides the
ability for many people to cooperatively share a large pool of disk space,
affording opportunities for collaboration. The ability to share this space also
makes more sense economically, lessening the need for floppy disks and bigger
hard drives.
The file servers on our LAN provide a repository of storage available in varying
quantities to all computer users on campus, from students to staff to faculty. A
basic understanding of some core concepts involved will hopefully enable the
users of the network to make better use of the resources it provides for
increased interaction, collaboration, and productivity.
To understand how network disk drives work, it is best to begin
by looking back into the 80’s at the birth of PC networking. When PCs only had
DOS and no networks were attached, DOS set the standard by referring to disk
drives by letters of the alphabet, e.g. C: for the hard drive, A: for the
floppy, etc. When networks came along, the means of addressing network storage
needed to be hidden from DOS, since DOS was basically ignorant when it came to
networking. In order to ‘fool’ DOS and allow it to work, network drives were
also assigned drive letters like F:, S:, etc. To DOS, it seemed that all these
were just additional hard drives in the PC.
The networking software was in charge of examining requests to all disk drives
and determining if the disk in question was in the users PC or networked. If the
request was for a network disk drive, the networking software redirected the
request to the network drive, and returned the requested information. DOS and
other application software simply had to be able to handle drive letters all the
way through Z, and the network software handled the rest.
This process of taking shared network storage space and presenting it to the PC
as if it were just another local resource is called drive mapping. A drive
letter for a network resource, like your personal directory at letter H: is
really nothing more than a pointer to a portion of a big, shared disk drive on
the server. To your PC it appears as though H:\ is just another hard disk in
your computer when H:\ actually points to a shared directory on the server such
as Student\Data\users\jsmith.
The entire Novell network file system (with the exception of the R: drive) is
backed up nightly, and once each month a tape is archived to provide long-term
retention of the files as they existed on the last business day of each month.
The nightly tapes are reused monthly, resulting in a rolling store of
approximately a month’s worth of nightly backups on hand at any given time.
Monthly archive tapes are retained for 6 months, and an Annual archive tape will
be retained for each calendar year-end.
This segment contains policies and guidelines for the use of campus-wide file
storage on the Rollins College Novell Network. Of particular importance is the
routine purging of files from the R: drive. (If you log into the network at the
red Novell banner, then you have the R: drive, an H: drive and possible other
network file storage locations. If you do not log into Novell, you don’t have
the R: drive.)
Policy regarding past and future Use of the R: Drive:
The R: drive has been used as a universally accessible area for
storing/sharing files. The R: drive is public, i.e., accessible by all
students, faculty, and staff on the campus network. As such, it provides no
confidentiality, no protection from unintended file deletion, etc.
To manage space and remove dormant files, the R: drive is purged of all files
at the end of each semester (one month after final exams have concluded).
Guidelines for the R: Drive:
Plan ahead and be patient: Due to security concerns and virus checking, files
saved on the R: drive may not be instantaneously available to all network users.
This situation exists particularly when a Faculty/Staff member places the file
on R: and a student attempts to view it, or vice versa. Please alert the Help
Desk if propagation takes longer than an hour.
Keep a copy: Due to the transient and temporary nature of the files placed on
the R: Drive, they are not backed up as part of our regular network
backup routines/tapes. Thus, any backup of a file stored on R: is the user’s
responsibility. Keep a copy on a PC hard drive, zip, web page, other network
drive (See item 4 below.) or diskette. Never store your only copy of a file on
the R: drive unless it is disposable, since anyone with access to R: can delete
it at anytime and the system will delete all R: drive files each semester (one
month after final exams have concluded).
No sensitive information: Since the R: drive is universally accessible, any
file on the R: drive can be viewed, read, modified, copied, or deleted by anyone
on the network. Therefore, no sensitive or confidential data should ever be
placed on this drive. Ask yourself if it’s acceptable to have any students,
staff or faculty read, alter, make copies or distribute your information. If
your data is public enough to pass this test, then R: may be appropriate.
Consider Alternatives to the R: drive: Sensitive information can be e-mailed
as an attachment. This is particularly true when the file only needs to be
shared by one or two others. If two people are sharing a file, e-mailing the
file back and forth may be the easiest option.
Please delete: remove your files when the information is no longer needed on
the R: drive. The policy of purging primarily is due to the tremendous number of
orphaned files left on the R: drive. Many of these are used only once and
abandoned.
Additional disk space on your H:/ drive can be requested by filling out an
on-line
request form. Additional disk space on fox.rollins.edu can also be
requested by completing an
on-line
request form. Generally this request can be filled within 24 hours with the
exception of weekends and holidays.
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