Mgt. challenge,... need expert advice.

[cbenner]

Currrently we have our engineering documents in several different locations, based on discipline.  For example, spec sheets, calculations, engineering docs etc reside in one location for the engineering staff to access.  CAD data lives in a different location to make it easy for us to get to.  Tech service and programmers have their files in yet another location.  Now they are looking at consolidating all of the project files under one folder structure so that all discipline look in the same place for pertinent files.

I've been asked what it would take to move Vaulted CAD files (Inventor, Autocad and Autocad Electrical), from their current location to some alternate network drive.  But here is the catch:

Our CAD server, where the Vault resides, is on a different physical server than the engineering drive they would like to put the CAD files on.  My fear is that we are talking about completely moving the entire Vault from one server to the other... I don't know of any way to check in/out files across servers.

Can this be done?  Or am I right in thinking that it would require relocating the Vault the othe other server?... or better yet moving THEIR files to the server that contains the Vault.  Next question will be for my IT guy... is either server BIG enough to accomplish this.

[jason.rogers]

You can relocate the file store. In the ADMS highlight the Vault, right click and select "Move File Store...." Then select the new destination. Just make sure the Vault has the proper permissions to read/write to the other server.

[cbenner]

That's what I was afraid of... I don't want to move any of it.  Massive undertaking, and we just got it all squared away on a very large, brand new server.  I say let the other group move THEIR stuff! 

[swalton]

What is the desired end result? 

Is it a setup where all departments can see all the different types of data in one place?

In that case put it all in Vault.  The Vault filestore is not human-readable so no-one will be able to use the existing data in Vault without a Vault client.

Is it consolidating hardware to get rid of low-load servers?

In that case use virtual servers and keep the VMs separate.

Is it trying to have one machine to backup?

Virtual servers or write the nightly Vault backup to the other department server.

[cbenner · Accepted solution]

Well,... the final objective is not entirely clear.  I'm operating under one of those situations where I need tt have all the answers, but don't need to know all of the questions.

I'm in the process of trying to clarify exactly what the desired end result is.  But I suspect they simply want all files related to one project, regardless of the type of data involved, to live in one project folder with many subfolders.  I've explained that with my CAD files, I prefer to leave them in the Vault with the exception of what is currently being worked on.  People who need to view these files all have access through the web client already, and selected people have Vault Client.  So I'm not really sure why they are talking of moving things around.

I was happy to see the reaction when I mentioned that the two locations in question were on 2 different servers.  I suspect that in the end, we will leave the Vault well enough alone and just show people how to view what they need to view.  I'm also breaching the idea of them putting THEIR engineering documents into the Vault.  It's mainly Excel and Word docs, and some PDF's.  It could all go in the Vault under the Job number... and they'd have the result that I think they are looking for.

Thanks to all for your advice...