Need some advice setting up Vault Basic 2014

[jrobinson]

I'm new to vault and setting up a Vault Basic 2014 for the first time. Here's our setup first:

 

The server:

Windows Server 2008 computer which has Vault Basic 2014 and the Content Center libraries installed. The server has a separate drive (D) for data and has a file share called "Drafting". Using the ADMS, I moved our Vault's File Store under this Drafting folder, so its path from the server's perspective is D:\Drafting\Vault.

 

Client's machines:

Each of the 5 clients' machines has a drive letter K: which maps to the Drafting share on the server. So technically-speaking K:\Vault is the location of our Vault file store from the clients' perspective.

I need some advice about the setup for Inventor project file (.ipj) for Vault project. Since we have 5 clients, they will use the same project file templates, styles, etc. Should we put the Design Data, Templates, etc. out on the server, for example in a folder K:\Inventor?

The Vault Working Folder for the clients is a folder called "Vault" inside their My Documents folders. Should I change this to something more common to each machine like C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Vault and then in the project file set thw Workspace location it for C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Vault\Workspace?

[minkd]

Sorry, but this isn't going to work. The vault filestore is not a workspace. It has every version of every file and it organized for performance rather than by the folder structure of your workspace. There is no value in sharing it to client machines. I recommend going to the online help (http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/Help/ENU/) and starting with the "About Vault" page. -Dave

[jrobinson]

I'm confused. Our Vault has to be on the D drive of the server, so it's backed up regularly.

But how do I ensure the clients have access to the same styles, templates, etc if they're not on a network file share (K drive)? At the same time I understand the workspace is supposed to be a place on each client's local hard drive where files are checked out to from Vault so they can work on them, correct? But I just want to keep a single Inventor project file on the K drive which points to the Design Data and Templates.

[swalton]

We have two sites that do not share a network.  The only connection between them is the Vault Collaboration server.

We store our design data, tempates, and other common files in Vault.

Our workspace looks like this;

C:\Inventor

        \Content Center Data

         \Design Data

         \Workspace

         \Templates

         Single Vault project file.ipj

We use the standalone Vault client to manage all the files in the Content Center Data, Design Data, and Templates directories.  We use Inventor to manage the files in the Workspace directory.

The Content Center Data directory stores the Content Center databases for Desktop Content Center and the standard files from Content Center.

Whenever you make a change to any of the files in the Design Data, and Templates directories, you have to have each user pull down the latest files. 

About the Vault filestore:

When you check-in a file to Vault, Vault renames the file and stores it in a custom directory in the filestore.  There is no human-readable map between the "vault storage name" and the file name in an user's workspace. This process is transparent to users, but Vault is the only tool that can be used to access the files in the filestore.

If you move or rename files in the filestore by hand, you break Vault.  Do not allow your users to have access to the filestore directory on the server.