System Administration Best Practices

The following is a list recommendations and considerations for system administrators when setting up and configuring the FileHold server user and group management policies.

1. Understand FileHold System Administration by both reading this guide and watching the overview training videos on the http://www.filehold.com web site.
   
2. Confer with Library Administrators on the creation of Groups and what Permissions or Roles these Groups will be assigned. Keep things simple at first. Remember it is easier to give users the minimum role required rather than retracting permissions in the future. Work with the Library Administrator to create a list or perhaps have the Library administrator provide you with a list.
   
Examine the list of users / employees that will be accessing the system.
• Is it possible to group these users into logical groups?
• How should you provide a descriptive name for the groups? A descriptive group name will make more sense to you or to other administrators months or years from now when they are adding new users or thinking of creating new groups.
• Are there any security considerations?
• Does one group require only Read Only Access?
• Does another group require the ability to Add and Edit Documents?
• What about Delete level Access?
  
4. Most FileHold customers are very careful about which users/groups will receive delete level access, this privilege is rarely given out to regular users. Remember it is easier to mark or flag files for deletion than it is to recover from your IT Enterprise backup system and restore these accidentally deleted files to the system.
   
5. It is recommended that you design and map out your system on a whiteboard or in MS Excel or Visio.
   
6. Once everything has been considered up front, configure the FileHold System
   • Create Groups and assign Permissions (roles) for each group.
   • Create Users or Import Users from Active Directory (if required)
   • Assign Users to Groups
   • Document your planning work; we suggest that you save this work to an administrator only access folder within the FileHold system.

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