Hi all,
I have a 2008 R2 machine that hosts a network application, and also hosts a file share that works in conjunction with that application.
We install fireplaces and garage doors for most of the new home builders in the north Texas area. At our current rate, we are installing about 45 doors and 55 fireplace a day on average. Each installation will have anywhere from 6 to 15 photos taken of it to ensure quality control. The files are then stored in a directory (automatically created by the application), and example of which is as follows:
\\server\pics\fireplace\2013\7\2\123456
where \2013\7\2\123456 signifies year\month number\day number of the month\work order number
In the last three years, we have accumulated over 780,000 photos taking up 815GB of space! This isn't really an issue in and of itself.
The problem is our staff is often creating an issue that effects space usage and resulting backup. In addition, because we have a guy that spends a good chunk of the day uploading an average of 1100 pics across our 10/100 network (by way of the application interface), it can slow things down at times.
As is pretty universal in Texas new home construction, all of our field staff are Hispanic, and there is a language barrier. And I'm not trying to be mean, but there is a real problem with literacy in general with this group. Most of these guys speak some English, but can't read English or Spanish. So they can't read the camera menus well, and don't get their cameras set to the right resolution. Their cameras will default to the highest resolution during, for example, a battery change, and we'll end up with a ton of 14MP pictures when we really only need 1MP. Now, multiply this by 25 guys in the field and it can be a big problem. No amount of showing them or talking to them seems to have lasting effects. We've tried issuing them cameras that retain their settings during a battery change, but the guys break their cameras, and rather than coming to us and getting a new one, they go out and buy whatever cheap piece of crap Walmart has without telling us and start using that. It's like a game of Whack-A-Mole trying to keep tabs on this. The guy assigned to upload the pics each day is not so good at catching large files, and even when he does it's hard to send the guy 30 miles back out to the job just to retake the pictures in a lower resolution. Giving him a utility to resize the photos to a smaller resolution was a ridiculous exercise in frustration for me (he's not tech savvy), and it eats into his time so much that he just refuses to do it. I'd like to force the solution a bit.
Is there a utility or method I can implement on the server that will limit how large a file can be that is stored on a share? I know I can use quota management to set total limits for each folder (and there are tens of thousands of folders; one for each work order) but this could impose an unfair limit based on the number of photos stored in each folder. I don't want to limit the number of photos, I just want to limit there size to something that generally falls in the VGA to 2MP range.
I'd like to get a solution implemented, because we are required to keep these photos and have easy access to them indefinitely. I'll be implementing a WD Red 3TB drive in that server before long as the 1TB I have now is getting full. I just want to take the long view now and not have it get any more out of control than it is.