Learning Windows Server 2003

Setting Up File Sharing Services

To configure a machine as a file server, open the Manage Your Server Wizard from the Start menu. Adding a file server role to a machine involves the following tasks.

Configuring the machine as a file server

This process involves turning on file sharing and creating the first shared folder. Windows also creates a few of its own shares by default, which I’ll discuss in more detail as the chapter progresses.

Establishing disk space limits by enabling disk quotas, if necessary

Disk quotas are a simple way to limit and control the amount of disk space your users take up with their data. Quotas monitor and limit a user’s disk space on a per-partition or per-volume basis; quotas do not stretch across multiple disks. The wizard can configure Windows to apply default quota settings that you select to any new users of any NTFS filesystem. This is not required to set up file sharing services, but you might find the feature useful.

Turning on the Indexing Service, if necessary

The Indexing Service reads the contents of most files on the server and makes a catalog of their contents for easy search and retrieval at later points in time. Because the user interface for the Manage Your Server Wizard presents this option, I mention it here, but I cover it in detail in Chapter 13.

Installing the File Server Management MMC console

This console snap-in provides an easy way to create, modify, edit, and generally administer shared folders, and I’ll talk about it ...