Windows Tip Sheet
File Storage Reporting
Generate reports on what your users are storing on your file servers via Windows 2003 R2.
One of the new features of Win2003 R2 is a storage report, which contains details
about what users are storing on file servers. I recently had a reader who'd
heard about this report, but couldn't find a way to run it on his own
R2 servers.
A lot of resources that talk about storage reporting don't mention that
the reporting is a part of R2's new File Server Resources Manager (FSRM)
console; you can install that from Add/Remove Windows Components under the “Management
and Monitoring Tools” component.
Once the console is installed, run it from the Administrative Tools folder
on the Start menu. In the left-hand pane, right-click Storage Reports Management
and click Generate Reports Now. You'll get a dialog box: Go to the Settings
tab and click Add to include a volume in the scope of the report (you can include
folders, too), and check the boxes for the reports you want. Select the appropriate
output formats and click OK.
You'll be asked if you want to wait for the reports or let them generate
in the background; I recommend generating them in the background because they
can be quite large and take a while to produce, especially on a large file server.
When setting up reporting, you had the option to have reports mailed to you,
or you can come back and view them in \Windows\StorageReports\Interactive.
About the Author
Don Jones is a multiple-year recipient of Microsoft’s MVP Award, and is Curriculum Director for IT Pro Content for video training company Pluralsight. Don is also a co-founder and President of PowerShell.org, a community dedicated to Microsoft’s Windows PowerShell technology. Don has more than two decades of experience in the IT industry, and specializes in the Microsoft business technology platform. He’s the author of more than 50 technology books, an accomplished IT journalist, and a sought-after speaker and instructor at conferences worldwide. Reach Don on Twitter at @concentratedDon, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/ConcentratedDon.