A Dynamic File Services pair consists of a primary path and a secondary path that DynamicFS manages as a unit through its filter driver.
Before forming a pair, ensure that you have prepared the storage areas that you want to use as the primary and secondary locations by verifying that your storage setup meets the requirements in this section. Then gather the information you need about the paths that you want to use as the primary path and secondary path.
The filter driver only supports 16 standard pairs per server. (There is no limit to retention pairs.)
To see a list of pairs that the filter driver is managing, do the following:
Right click on the Novell Dynamic File Services Controller
Select > .
The saved file contains a list of pairs that are currently managed by the filter driver.
Consider the following guidelines when choosing paths to use for pairs:
A standard pair’s primary path can reside on any local device. The path should be unique among the pairs defined on the same Dynamic File Services server.
A standard pair’s secondary path can reside on a local device or a remote share. Avoid conflicts related to primary paths for the same or different pairs on the same server. The file structure that is built under the secondary path’s folder is the same as the file structure under the primary path’s folder.
IMPORTANT:Do not nest the paths used by standard pairs. That is, when creating a standard pair, do not specify a path that contains or is contained by any path that is used by another standard pair.
The secondary path is usually empty when you create a standard pair. Both paths can contain data, but if there are duplicate files, only the instance of the file in the primary path is available to the user in the merged view. As an Administrator user (or as a user with Administrator privileges) on the server, you can access the secondary path to rename the duplicate file, which makes it available to users in the merged view.
A retention pair’s primary path can reside on any local device or on a remote share. Avoid conflicts related to primary paths for the same or different pairs on the same server. You can tier files from a standard pair to a retention pair by using the secondary path of a standard pair as the primary path of a retention pair.
A retention pair’s secondary path can reside on any local device, a remote share, or in cloud storage. The path should be unique among the pairs defined on all Dynamic File Services servers in the same tree. The path is a destination folder for the files that are moved to the retention repository via policies or via a manual move. The file structure built under the destination folder is different than that for the pair’s primary path.
The pair setup does not prevent you from using the paths on one Dynamic File Services server as remote share paths for pairs that you create on a different Dynamic File Services server. If you re-use paths, ensure that users can see only the data you intend them to see.
The cloud storage provider’s site must be available when you create a retention pair, and when policies and manual moves are run for the pair.
The Administrator user that creates and manages pairs must have the same file access permissions and credentials on both the primary path and secondary path in each pair.
All user access to a pair must be made through a network share on the pair’s primary path. Use Microsoft Network Sharing to create the share.
For standard pairs, users see a merged view of files in both locations. You can add network shares on the primary device above or below the network share on the primary path. The merged view for a standard pair works from the primary path and downward in the file tree structure. Do not give users direct access to the secondary path, or to any shares on, above, or below the secondary path.
For retention pairs, users see files only on the primary location. The retention data reviewers manage files in the retention repository by using the Web-based Retention Review Service. For information, see Section 12.2, Configuring Reviewers for a Retention Pair.