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File and Storage Services is where you really start to get your hands dirty. This is the home to everything NAS. This expands to include Servers, Volumes, Shares, iSCSI, and Work Folders.
Servers is a repeat of Local Server. It shows all the same information broken down in exactly the same way. NAS is all about redundancy eh?
Volumes expands to include Disks and Storage Pools. However, it first reveals a quick overview of what is configured on your NAS. You can see all volumes here and a pretty green bar representing percentage used, All Shares, Disks, and iSCSI Virtual Disks. If you select a volume in the top, all information related to it will be represented below. For instance, when no volume is selected, Shares is blank. When D: is selected, magically the shares a represented.
Disks and Storage Pools
Shares is refreshingly simple. There is a HUGE section dedicated to listing and creating Shares as well as Volume and Quota information. Right clicking in the Share Space will allow you to instantly add a New Share and configure it to your heart’s content. The wizard will guide you through adding your shares. First, you can quickly create a share based on the following profiles:
- SMB Share – Quick: This basic profile represents the fastest way to create an SMB file share, typically used to share files with Windows-based computers.
- Suitable for general file sharing
- Advanced options can be configured later by using the Properties dialog
- SMB Share – Advanced: This advanced profile offers additional options to configure a SMB file share.
- Set the folder owners for access-denied assistance.
- Configure default classification of data in the folder for management and access policies.
- Enable quotas
- SMB Share – Applications: This profile creates an SMB file share with settings appropriate for Hyper-V, certain databases, and other server applications.
- NFS Share – Quick: This basic profile represents the fastest way to create a NFS file share, typically used to share files with UNIX-based computers
- Suitable for general file sharing
- Advanced options can be configured later by using the Properties dialog
- NFS Share – Advanced: This advanced profile offers additional options to configure a NFS file share.
- Set the folder owners for access-denied assistance
- Configure default classification of data in the folder for management and access policies
- Enable quotas
When configuring your Shares, the wizard will guide you step by step until the point of creation is actually reached. In total, for an SMB Share – Advanced, there are approximately 9 steps including selecting your profile (SMB Share – Advanced) and Confirmation of Results.
iSCSI will allow you to create an iSCSI virtual disk using a simple iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard. Just in case you don’t know, a quick search reveals a quick definition of iSCSI: iSCSI, which stands for Internet Small Computer System Interface, works on top of the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and allows the SCSI command to be sent end-to-end over local-area networks (LANs), wide-area networks (WANs) or the Internet.
This view will present your Virtual Disks and iSCSI Targets.
When adding an iSCSI Virtual Disk, the wizard will advance you through a series of steps. Again, the magic number of 9 steps in total. In the example below, the number of steps were reduced because there was an existing iSCSI Target.
Work folders are actually quite interesting. In an introduction article on TechNet, the author demonstrates the need by User and then by IT. The idea is that a User needs to work anywhere from many different devices. For IT, they would like to provide their users with this ability while maintaining corporate controls.
With Work Folders users can store and access work files on personal computers and devices, often referred to as bring-your-own device (BYOD), in addition to corporate PCs. Users gain a convenient location to store work files, and they can access them from anywhere. Organizations maintain control over corporate data by storing the files on centrally managed file servers, and optionally specifying user device policies such as encryption and lock-screen passwords.
Work Folders can be deployed with existing deployments of Folder Redirection, Offline Files, and home folders. Work Folders stores user files in a folder on the server called a sync share. You can specify a folder that already contains user data, which enables you to adopt Work Folders without migrating servers and data or immediately phasing out your existing solution.
Administrators can use Work Folders to provide users with access to their work files while keeping centralized storage and control over the organization’s data. Some specific applications for Work Folders include:
- Provide a single point of access to work files from a user’s work and personal computers and devices
- Access work files while offline, and then sync with the central file server when the PC or device next has Internet or intranet connectivity
- Deploy with existing deployments of Folder Redirection, Offline Files, and home folders
- Use existing file server management technologies, such as file classification and folder quotas, to manage user data
- Specify security policies to instruct user’s PCs and devices to encrypt Work Folders and use a lock screen password
- Use Failover Clustering with Work Folders to provide a high-availability solution
— https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265974.aspx
How Work Folders Compares to Other Microsoft Sync Technologies
| Consumer / personal data | Individual work data | Team / group work data | Personal devices | Access protocol | Data location | |
| SkyDrive | X | X | HTTPS | Public cloud | ||
| SkyDrive Pro | X | X | X | HTTPS | SharePoint / Office 365 | |
| Work Folders | X | X | HTTPS | File server | ||
| Folder Redirection / Client-Side Caching | X | SMB (only from on-prem or using VPN) | File server |
