• Promotes high availability for uninterrupted workflow
• Ensures pro-active and cost-efficient network development
• Reduces administration costs
• Minimizes legal exposure
• Heightens cost awareness and user accountability
• Improves data integrity with shortened backup/restore cycles

For close to a decade, Northern has taken the lead in delivering real-world, market driven storage solutions. Northern Storage Suite 2005; the SRM standard.

Northern Storage Suite offers the following features and benefits within a single, easy-to-manage framework:

• Real-time Usage Control – storage policies are implemented and enforced using Northern’s Quota Server technology. This eliminates waste, maximizes capacity, and blocks file types to remove the risk of legal exposure and ensure that storage usage is always under control.
• End User Interaction – end users are provided with the knowledge and tools needed to manage their own storage use, reducing help desk calls and freeing up valuable IT resources.
• Full Reporting Functionality – comprehensive reports and trend analysis, providing you with the insight needed to design, evaluate and tune your storage policies.
• Automation and Optimisation – scheduled/automated operations include, delete, move, copy files, replicate directories or execute programs. This ensures that all storage-related processes are running optimally.
• Spreading Cost Awareness – chargeback technology automates billing based on actual storage use and specific hardware costs. This holds users accountable for their storage use and provides financial incentives for economical use of storage resources.

Quota Server

QUOTAS

• Put disk quotas on individual NT user and Group accounts, as well as on disk objects such as directories, user shares, public shares, drives, etc.
• Forget about manually creating disk quotas since Quota Server automatically spots new users and assigns them disk quotas based on templates.
• Label quotas with up to three free-text fields for identification or for granular management of storage. You can label quotas per, for example, location of user, department, project group IDs, etc. and manage these groups separately.
• Disk objects can be locked/unlocked on an ad hoc basis.
• Completely event based and real-time - Quota Server is called only when a disk object is altered.
• Enforce user quotas regardless of the computer, disk or volume that a user is trying to save to.

QUOTA MANAGEMENT

• Gives administrators a single screen from which to collect and view Quota Server data across the enterprise. The EO provides quick, real-time access to such information as the number of quotas applied, the number of locked quotas, the amount of space used by objects with quotas, and more. EO generates pie charts, graphs and other illustrations giving administrators“at a glance” insights into storage utilization and trends.
• Customize the way Quota Server posts messages to the Event Log and view any events posted to the log in Quota Server’s History View.
• Speed up monitoring of storage and quotas through the Quota Server Status View. The Status View presents the quota situation in intuitive pie charts and diagrams.
• Adapt the user-interface to individual or organization specific requirements through the View Wizard. All default settings can be accessed and modified at any time.
• Monitor Multiple Servers concurrently.
• Benefit from the powerful graphical monitor, which is updated in real-time.
• EFFICIENCY - uses resources economically due to unique real-time architecture.
• SECURITY - Users cannot bypass the disk quota system.
• QUALITY - Only standard APIs are utilized in Quota Server. There are no unauthorized or non-documented modifications of Windows NT or its file systems.

SOLUTIONS MANAGEMENT

• Most of Quota Server's features are designed to aid your introduction and continued management of the storage policy you desire. It is also vitally important that you have full control of the solution itself, Quota Server includes features that provide you with just that control.
• All default settings can be accessed and modified at any time.
• Quota Server can be configured to write warnings in the Event Log.
• An event based architecture, Quota Server is only called when a disk object is altered, ensures real-time monitoring and control, while being economical with system resources.
• Quota Server can be upgraded and maintained remotely.
• Only standard APIs are utilized in Quota Server. There are no unauthorized or non-documented modifications of Windows NT/2000 or its file systems.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Benefit from full Microsoft Operations Manager [MOM] integration - which makes it possible for you to post warnings or information messages to the Event Log.
• Send Popups or e-mails to users on predefined thresholds. Notification functions include SMTP, MS Mail, MS Exchange, WinPopup and command-line based messaging. [Recipients of notifications can be users, Administrators, groups, share users, etc.]
• Have Quota Server automatically send you alerts when drives are near-full.
• Create your own notification templates.
• Implement actions on thresholds. Quotas can be set to pass or be set to perform three different kinds of lock.
• Implement Command-line execution at each of the three thresholds, for use with executing pager software, disk clean-up routines etc.
• Quota Server can connect to databases [via ODBC] to store quota information and storage data.

AUTOMATION

• Allows for quick, automatic, quota configurations and report configurations.
• Create a single policy and immediately implement quotas, alerts, thresholds, notifications and actions across your entire network. [Storage Policies facilitate and speed up the administration of storage and quotas.]
• Implement Storage Policies to prohibit certain file types, for instance recreational or media file types like mp3 or mpeg [either per drive or across the entire network]. A wizard makes the implementation of Storage Policies quick and easy.
• Benefit from full Microsoft Operations Manager [MOM] integration - which makes it possible for you to post warnings or information messages to the Event Log.
• Send Popups or e-mails to users on predefined thresholds. Notification functions include SMTP, MS Mail, MS Exchange, WinPopup and command-line based messaging. [Recipients of notifications can be users, Administrators, groups, share users, etc.]
• Have Quota Server automatically send you alerts when drives are near-full.
• Create your own notification templates.
• Implement actions on thresholds. Quotas can be set to pass or be set to perform three different kinds of lock.
• Implement Command-line execution at each of the three thresholds, for use with executing pager software, disk clean-up routines etc.

ENTERPRISE

• Delegate administrative permissions for different Quota Server items. For example, allow the help-desk personnel to view quotas but not alter their size, etc.
• Use a state-of-the-art user interface that is the fastest on the market, which you can customize according to your needs.
• A single central management console for Disk Quota Settings, Monitors and Options.
• Remote Install - The Remote Install Wizard provides a simple way to automatically distribute or “push” install Quota Server to multiple machines.
• Install Quota Server on your clusters.
  • End-user quota warnings originate from the virtual servers and not from the physical node
  • Set quotas on virtual servers
  • A Cluster Aware resource is shipped with Quota Server, allowing a one time setup of quotas and accurate handling of virtual server fail-overs and moves
• A COM API lets you integrate Quota Server with Visual Basic aware applications such as MS Excel, MS Word, MS Access, etc.
• Send filtered data, such as all locked quotas or all labeled quotas, to certain tables in a database.
• Benefit from easy to use command-line utilities for batch operations.

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Storage Reporter

DRILL-DOWN REPORTING
Northern Storage Reporter offers a great depth of storage information. This information is navigated by clicking on items to increase the level of detail and specificity; drilling-down to the exact information you require.

The best way to demonstrate the flexibility of the drill-down approach is by offering some examples as to how it can be used:

• After identifying that a host is nearing full, move deeper into that host, locate obsolete or unwanted files and delete them.
• View space consumption by user on the host and identify usage patterns that should be changed.
• View a user's storage consumption on the entire network, drill-down to a specific host, or even volume.
• After creating a custom "unwanted file types" group, identify and remove these files from your entire network.
• Check for users who are saving these types of files and take action.
• Use your configured host groups to move from an enterprise overview to geographical, departmental or function specific views.

INSTANT GRAPHICAL VIEWS
The key way in which Northern Storage Reporter provides access to storage data is through its system of intuitive graphical views. These views are constructed by a series of highly flexible ActiveX controls, displayed in HTML pages.

• Usage statistics can be represented as data-rich lists or as graphs, providing a more at-a-glance view.
• Graph options include, column, pie and line charts.
• Refine the data representation, exclude extreme values or irrelevant data for example.
• Data can be rounded or re-sorted to quickly expose the information you require.
• Right-click to view file count, or average file size on any host group, host, volume, etc.
• Maximize any control to get a closer look at graphical or listed data.
• Make use of the hints offered in each control to explore all of their functions.

PRE-CONFIGURED REPORTS
In addition to offering an impressive depth of storage data through its drill-down displays, Northern Storage Reporter also offers a series of valuable pre-configured reports.

• Generic Report Pages
  • Network usage and content page
  • Host Group usage and content pages
  • Host usage and status pages
  • Volume usage and status pages
  • Individual user usage page
  • File Type usage on network, server or volume
• File Reports
  • Files larger than a certain size
  • Files not accessed in the last X (number of) days
  • Files modified before or after a certain date
  • Files created before a specific date
  • File not accessed since a specific date
  • File type growth
  • File types above a certain usage threshold
  • Files by file-extension type
  • Files by type (scans file-header information)
  • Files not backed up
  • Files with hidden streams
• User Reports
  • Files owned by a specific user
  • Files by user
  • Files owned by obsolete user accounts
  • X (number of) top space-consuming users
  • X (number of) top growing users
• Projections
  • Host near-full projection
  • Path near-full projection
• Schedule reports to run at intervals or immediately.
• Have storage reports run across multiple servers or across the entire network.
• Printing options ensure you will only be printing your reports and not a complete copy of the Storage Reporter interface.
• Export storage data to other databases, or applications, Microsoft Excel for example.

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Storage Portal

INVOLVE USERS
Efficient storage management should not be the sole responsibility of the administrator. Involving users in this process is critical to the success of any storage policy.

• Encourage proactive user involvement and increase awareness of storage costs.
• Educate users on storage use and help them to manage their files efficiently, reclaiming space.
• Give users a sense of responsibility for their storage resource use.
• Users are guided to their individual Storage Portal web page, by threshold driven e-mail notifications sent by Northern Quota Server.

USER WEB PAGES
The Northern Storage Portal interface is split into two parts, one geared towards the administrator and the other towards the user. The user web pages open the SRM door for your users.

• Display individual web pages to users, showing them how much storage they use.
• Display this usage as a percentage of their storage quota.
• Web pages are specific to each user, providing lists of the ten oldest and ten largest files owned by that specific user.
• Display a list of files stored in the user's home share that are not owned by that user.
• These lists provide suggestions as to what files could be deleted, moved or archived.
• Give users the option to request an increase in their disk quota.
• Designed in Windows XP style, to ensure high user recognition.
• Customisation options allow you to further increase user recognition by adding your company logo for instance, or even translating displayed texts.

ADMIN CONTROL
Northern Storage Portal is firmly focused on making your users part of the SRM solution. Flexible administrative controls offer various ways to achieve this goal.

• Define grace limit rules to automatically handle requests for more disk quota.
• View posted requests for more disk space and with a click, accept or deny the requests.
• Get e-mail or popup notifications upon user requests.
• Receive notifications even when the requests are handled automatically.
• View a history of previous requests to determine which users are taking advantage of the possibility to increase their quota.
• Use Quota Server's threshold-driven notifications to ensure your users get the right information at the right time.

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Storage Assistant

KEY CONCEPTS - CREATING AN ASSISTANT
Northern Storage Assistant is engineered to automatically monitor for events that you should be manually watching for and automatically triggering actions that you are manually performing in response to these events. It has a single key concept, the Assistant; a configured job that combines the answers to two questions: what events do you wish to monitor and what actions should be triggered when these events occur.

• What do you wish to monitor? Use date, timer, file, Internet or system related events to trigger your desired actions.
• What action do you wish to take? Manage files, execute programs or send notifications when your event parameters are met.
• Connect multiple events with multiple actions to create advanced and specific Assistants.

MONOTORING FOR EVENTS
The first of two components of your Assistant; the answer to the question "what events should be monitored?"

• Calendar Event: use dates, date ranges and days of the week to trigger actions. Configure your event to be true every Monday out of office hours, but every Monday all day during national holidays.
• Timer Event: trigger actions to run at certain time intervals, regardless of the date or day of the week. Configure your event to be true every hour or between tomorrow at 10am and tomorrow at 11am.
• File Watcher: use changes in file or directory properties as triggers for actions. Watch for incoming files on your ftp server or changes in the security descriptor of a critical file.
• Internet Watcher: monitor for specific strings or simply changes in an http page and trigger actions accordingly. Configure Assistants at multiple sites to watch the corporate website and react when specific changes are made.
• System Watcher: use system changes to trigger actions. Monitor for a server start-up and send a popup notification.

TAKING ACTION
The second component of your Assistant; the answer to the question "what Action should be taken when the specified event occurs?"

• File Delete: permanently remove unwanted files from your storage resources. Define your unwanted files using extension, modified date, size, etc. Trigger the removal of music files from your entire network.
• File Copy: duplicate files that meet your specified parameters. Regularly duplicate all sales records to the International Sales Manager’s computer.
• File Move: archive files that meet your parameters. Streamline the content of your critical file servers by archiving all files that have not been accessed during the last six months.
• Directory Replicate: maintain a mirrored copy of directories on multiple servers. Specialized teams working on components of a larger project can have their changes automatically replicated into a central project file structure.
• Execute Program: run any program when your event arguments are met. Trigger your ‘new user’ script when a new child directory appears under c:\users.
• FTP/HTTP Actions: upload, download, run scripts via ftp or http protocols. Maintain up to the minute production figures on a remote web server.
• Notification Actions: send SMTP or popup notifications, variables can be included to make messages more precise. Receive a popup when an Assistant has run or when a file exceeding 10MB has been saved to your web server.

MANAGING ASSISTANTS
Northern Storage Assistant provides a broad range of views, each offering activity information sorted in different ways. These alternatives allow you to instantly retrieve the information you require.

• Design View: the workspace where you engineer and manage your Assistants. In a familiar Windows environment, build, link and combine your building-blocks into a full-grown IT staffer.
• Status View: the real-time status of Assistant activities. With updates every half second you are in full control over your system at any given moment.
• History View: a history of activities for the chosen time period. Detail-rich descriptions of every event, action or Assistant’s historical performance.
• Timeline View: a graphical display of your configured events, actions and Assistants over time. A timeline that provides you with a complete picture of timing, interaction and queuing of activities.
• Statistics View: a statistical summary of activities over time. Aggregated data of your Assistant’s activities offers a quick overview of their status and performance.

DEPTH OF CONTROL
Northern Storage Assistant provides a complete depth of functionality, enabling you to achieve any specific goal: from simple single-event/single-action Assistants to advanced interrelated events and actions with tuned dependencies, result passing and error handling.

• An Assistant can include a single event, or a group of inter-dependent events. These events are linked using Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT).
• An interdependent group of actions can also be configured to achieve a more exact result. A system of fault-tolerance allows you to fine tune the level of success dependency through the series of actions.
• Maintain a count of events or actions to serve as triggers for new actions or tune the fault tolerance within a group of actions.
• Connect the components of an Assistant more closely by allowing results to be passed between them.
• Control the number of event and action repetitions and delay between repetitions. Prevent a prolonged true event from triggering an action multiple times.
• Support for VPN, RAS and RRAS allows Assistants to function across non-permanent connections.

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Storage Chargeback

USABILITY
The process of creating a chargeback system is streamlined into a three step process of establishing costs, identifying cost centres, and linking the two in a Chargeback Job.

• Define Billing Classes that accurately match the real cost of providing storage resources.
• Identify cost centres; users, user groups, paths (folders, shares, logical drives, etc.).
• Associate your pre-defined Billing Classes with the cost centres identified to create your organisation specific Chargeback Jobs.
• Wizard-driven configuration and job definition tools make the creation and management of advanced chargeback systems straightforward.

AUTOMATION
Northern Storage Chargeback's automation features ensure a smooth and low maintenance system of internal billing and cost reporting.

• Once created, your Chargeback Jobs are self-managing; storage is metered and costs are calculated all according to your rules, but without the need for your involvement.
• Extensive scheduling features offer daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual invoices and reports.
• Automatic notifications; receive e-mail or popup notification on Chargeback Job completion.

OUTPUT FORMATS
The flexibility to export cost-related data to various file formats or printable matter enables you to augment an existing system of internal billing with storage usage and cost data.

• Generate XLS and CSV output to integrate with your billing and financial applications.
• Usage, costs and trend statistics are exported to an MS SQL database, facilitating enterprise-wide integration.

MULTIPLE DATA SOURCES
A chargeback system can be based on different types of storage use; using information drawn from Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange and Northern Quota Server 2003.

• Define cost centres as disk objects in Windows (drives or folders).
• Base costs on Quota Server quota size.
• Don't simply base costs on files and file size, include Microsoft Exchange mailboxes (user or user group) in your chargeback system.

FLEXIBLE PRICING MODEL
Northern Storage Chargeback provides the flexibility to match organization specific costs to organization specific cost centres.

• Implement tiered pricing models that mimic the underlying costs of supplying a certain data storage system.
• Create Billing Classes that reflect the running costs of different kinds of storage, or service levels (SLAs).
• Usage costs can be calculated on different cost centres; by user, user group, path (share, folder, logical drive, etc.).
• Generate invoices and cost reports per customer, department, etc.

TRENDING
Northern Storage Chargeback is not just a methodology for distributing existing storage costs. The second key application of this solution is the identification of future needs.

• Generate reports that demonstrate different cost patterns within your network; identify the fastest growing cost centre, etc.
• Generate historical trend reports to measure the impact of chargeback, quota or user-involvement policies.
• Extrapolate historical data to establish cost projections and accurately determine necessary budgets.

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Requirements

• Windows ® 2000 Server or higher
• 75 MB free disk space
• Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher
• MS SQL server 7 or higher

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