The Novell Dynamic File Services Retention Review Service provides a Web interface for reviewing files in a retention repository. Reviewers determine the disposition of retained files in accordance your company’s data retention policy. A reviewer can take no action, delete files from the repository, or move files from the repository back to their original location.
The Novell Dynamic File Services 2.2 Retention Review Quick Start provides an overview of the review process for non-administrator reviewers. It familiarizes them with the Retention Review Service and the review process without requiring them to understand Dynamic File Services and how the retention pair is created or managed.
The Retention Review group can have any number of members. Each reviewer assesses retained files independently of the other reviewers. If multiple reviewers concurrently access the repository, their actions are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
A reviewer’s restore and delete actions are not executed immediately. The Retention Review Service creates a one-time action job for the selected files and folders, then queues the job to be executed in turn with any other actions taken for the retained data. The files are removed immediately from the reviewer’s display when the page refreshes, but the action might not be processed until several seconds or minutes later.
Because the review actions are queued, it is possible that a prior action in the queue can override a subsequent action or some portion of an action. For example, if one reviewer deletes a file, and another restores the same file at almost the same time, the resulting action depends on which request is processed first.
The review page is refreshed every 10 seconds to display the current status of the repository. The following states are reported:
Idle: No policies are running. New actions are queued to run within seconds.
Policy run (or Manual Move) is in progress: A normal policy run or a manual move is in progress, which can take several minutes to several hours. Any number of previous actions might be queued behind it.
Restore/Move file job (or Delete file job) is in progress: A restore action job is busy moving files from the repository to their original location in the primary path, or a delete action is deleting files from the repository. The job might be one that was submitted by any of the current or previous reviewers.
When the repository status returns to an idle state, the reviewer knows that all action jobs are complete.
It is not necessary to remain logged in after your actions are queued. It is not possible to stop queued actions.
The Retention Review Service is available on the server where Dynamic File Services is installed and running. Reviewers can access the review site via a Web browser. The Retention Review Service has been tested with the latest versions of these browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9
Mozilla Firefox 12
Google Chrome 19
Before you begin a retention review session, modify your Web browser settings to allow pop-up messages for the target site.
The Retention Review Notification message provides a link to the Web interface for a specific retention pair. The connection is made via the secure HTTP protocol (HTTPS). The URL is in the form:
https://<ndfs_ip_or_dns_name>:<ndfs_port>/folders.html?pair=<retention_pair_name>
Administrators or users with Administrator privileges on the server can initiate a review session from the Management Console.
To access the Retention Review site:
Use any of the following methods to initiate your Retention Review session:
Users with Administrator privileges can use the Management Console. Right-click the server and select to view a list of all retention pairs on the server. Right-click the retention pair and select to go directly to the pair’s retained data.
Members of the Dynamic File Services Retention Review group can follow the link in their notification messages. Launch a Web browser, then click the link in the Review Notification message to open the Retention Review Web interface.
You can also copy the URL and paste it in the Location field of your Web browser.
If you are prompted to do so, accept and install the Dynamic File Services certificate in your Local Computer certificate store.
In the Login dialog box, type your user name and password, then click .
In an Active Directory domain, use your domain credentials. In a Workgroup, use your server credentials for the target server.
On successful login, the list is displayed.
Access is denied if the login identity is not an authorized reviewer. Ensure that your user name is added as a reviewer in the Dynamic File Services Retention Review group, then try again. To log in with a different identity, clear the browser cache to remove your old credentials, then refresh the Retention Review page to access the Login dialog box.
The Delete function purges selected files or folders from a selected retention review folder. The file is no longer available on the storage media, and you cannot use the Restore function to restore it.
A reviewer can delete one or more files, folders, or review folders at a time. Deleting a folder also recursively deletes its contents. It can take a few minutes to completely delete the contents of a folder, depending on how many files and folders it contains.
On a page in the Retention Review Web interface, select the check box next to one or more files, folders, or review folders.
Click .
When you are prompted, click to confirm the deletion, or click to abandon the action.
All delete actions are logged in the Review Transaction History for the retention pair. The history is available to the Dynamic File Services administrators. Contact your administrator if you need a copy of the log files.
The Restore function moves selected files or folders from a retention review folder back to the original path on the primary location. The restored file or folder is no longer available in the review folder.
A reviewer can restore one or more files or folders at a time. Each object returns to its original path on the primary location. Restoring a folder also recursively restores its contents. It can take a few minutes to complete the move, depending on how many files and folders are involved, and the size of the files to be moved.
On a page in the Retention Review Web interface, select the check box next to one or more files, folders, or review folders.
Click .
When you are prompted, click to confirm the restore, or click to abandon the action.
All restore actions are logged in the Review Transaction History for the retention pair. The history is available to the Dynamic File Services administrators. Contact your administrator if you need a copy of the log files.
When you are done with a retention review.
Click to end the session with the Retention Review Service.
Close the browser window to ensure that your login information is not cached.
Firefox and Chrome do not automatically close the browser.