Re: [vox] For the Sysadmins out there

[Jeff Newmiller <jdneMAPSwmil@dcn.davis.ca.us>]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Richard S. Crawford wrote:

> This is a question regarding network policies in general, and it's a simple
> one -- more philosophical than technical.
> 
> Let's say that you're administering a network of about 100 users.  In addition
> to a large shared directory which all users have access to, each user has
> their own directory in the network.  Many files which are used frequently by
> several users are all stored in the shared directory (e.g., correspondence
> templates, tracking spreadsheets, common databases, etc.).

Ok.  I will pretend to be an administrator for a moment... ;)

> Would it be your
> policy, as is apparently the policy of the sysadmin where I'm working right
> now, to encourage users to NOT save important shared documents in the shared
> drive, but in their own user directories -- which, of course, are not shared
> out to the other users?

Quite possibly.

> If so, why?

Potential for multiple writers conflicts.
No-one responsible for organization of files.

Both issues can be addressed, though.

> I really want to know if there is sense
> to this policy before I laugh too loudly.

This sysadmin appears to be trying to keep the shared directory organized
without using access control managment or workflow management software.

I would set things up such that the common shared directory should be
read-only for most people with one or two people managing its content, and
every user should have a "shared" sub-directory into which only they have
write access, but some subset of the other people (possibly all) have read
access.

This allows ad-hoc sharing, while maintaining accountability to people for
the disk space they use.  Unfortunately, not everyone is good at
organizing files, and in the long run some kind of workflow automation may
be needed.

> Is it relevant that this is a Win2K network?

Not particularly, though available multiple writers solutions may be more 
limited.

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