Lecture 10: The User ExperienceNetwork Design & Administration

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What aspects affect the user most?• Disk space • Local• Shared• Printing• Logging in/Access to resources• Using applications• Email• Overall speed of task completion 2

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Disk Space

• User machines may have comparatively large disks• Temptation for users to store files locally• Unlikely in ‘hot-desking’ situation• Problems?• Better to use servers for storing user files• Better control of backup/restore• Can apply disk quotas 3

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Windows Disk Quotas

Three stages:1. Enabling disk quotas on a

volume.2. Configuring quota defaults.3. Creating quota entries.

Step 1:• Select NTFS volume for quota

application using Explorer and open Properties dialog.

• Or use disk management snap-in to MMC. 4

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Windows Disk Quotas – Step 2 – Enable Management• Enable

management – has to be done volume by volume• Note that in this

case, the system has been set to deny users disk space when Quota exceeded

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Windows Disk Quotas – Step 3 - Configuring• You must select an

appropriate default size• You may also set a

size that generates a warning to the user• You can also

configure the system to log these events

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Windows Disk Quotas – Creating quota entries[2]

• These are exceptions to the default rule• Allow a user to be given more or less than

the default• Can create new entries, or modify existing

ones (by double clicking the entry)• (Ensure you select appropriate units!)• New quota entries can be generated by

selecting a number of users at once, but the quotas are applied individually

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Windows Disk Quotas – Creating quota entries[1]

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Linux Disk Quotas[3][4][5]

• Enable quotas by adding fields into etc/fstab file to allow usr/grp quotas e.g.

/dev/hda2 /home ext3 defaults,usrquota,grpquota 1 1• Remount the volume (umount, then mount – or simply

reboot)• Run quotacheck –avug to set up the quota files and check the

volume for current usage (should re-run regularly to keep stats accurate) • Assign quotas for users or groups using edquota• Use repquota to generate reports on current quota usage

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Disk Quotas – impact on users and administrators• Users can find it frustrating if sizes set too low for

typical usage• Investigate how users function before setting

level• Users can be given a warning – so need

education as to how to act in response• Administrators may get a lot of user complaints if

set too low – but if not set, space may run out arbitrarily• Managing and monitoring is time consuming

(see in later session)

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File Server Resource Manager[6]

• Provides finer grain control of quotas• Provides more means to warn users• Not covered here!

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Printing and the user

• As before, assume that we do not have individual printers for users• Must balance need for users to have access to

printing with costs of paper, ink, printers• Printer properties define default behaviour for all

users of the printer• For high throughput, may use printer pooling• For more control, may use multiple logical

printers for a single printer12

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Shared Printers

• Remember - that after installing the printer on the print server, have to share it, then connect clients • Printer properties has

tab for sharing• Additional drivers must

be specified if clients running older O/S

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Other Useful Information in Properties• Printer location can be specified • Users can check printer capabilities• Paper of different sizes can be assigned to specific trays

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Client Access to Printers• Make available via:• Add Printer Wizard (where Search can be specified)• Browsing via Windows Explorer• Searching Active Directory

• Can search with a range of criteria e.g. location, double-sided capable, stapling etc. – key to efficiency in a business

• However, users need to know that they can do this – must be trained.

• Must ensure (via printer permissions) that users cannot change default behaviour – though they may choose to set behaviour for a specific print job.

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Client Access to Printers using VB.Script• Can use a “logon” and “logoff” script.• Script associated to user account – put on a shared drive to

allow all users access. • As soon as user logs in/out, script is executed.

sub unloadprinters() set network = createobject("wscript.network") network.RemovePrinterConnection ("\\printerserver\colourlaser", true, true) network.RemovePrinterConnection ("\\printerserver\bwlaser", true, true)end sub

Logoff script:

sub loadprinters() set network = createobject("wscript.network") network.AddWindowsPrinterConnection \\printerserver\colourlaser network.AddWindowsPrinterConnection \\printerserver\bwlaserend sub

Logon script:

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Printer Pooling

• Multiple physical printers used as a single logical printer – so job appears on whichever printer available• All printers must be able

to use same driver, since only 1 logical printer• Should be physically close

together since user will not know which one it prints to 17

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Multiple Logical to Single Physical Printer • Used to allow different conditions to be set for different

groups of users to a single physical printer• Can set different priorities (99 highest, 1 lowest) to the

logical printers• Can set different times for access• Can also set different defaults e.g. trays/paper, double

sided• Need to ensure the different logical printers have their

ACLs set appropriately (e.g. to allow Executives access to all, but Clerks access only to certain logical printers)

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Advanced Printer Properties

Lowest priority

Limits when will print

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User Profiles

• Allow user to have customised environment, independent of other users• Contains: • User-stored documents and files• Application configurations and settings• Desktop and environment settings• Control Panel settings and configurations

• Can be Local, Roaming or Mandatory20

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User Profiles[7]

• Local • Retained in Documents & Settings for that PC

• Roaming• Held on some server (if domain controller, always available,

but if on member server, traffic less likely to delay domain authentications)

• Local version in ntuser.dat compared with remote, and differences sent from server

• Can get big and slow• If app stores info in Local Settings rather than Registry, that is

not kept in Roaming Profile, so app can fail on other clients• Mandatory • Change ntuser.dat to ntuser.man – makes it read only

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References

1. http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/windows/0,39044904,61956452,00.htm

2. MOAC 290, Ch123. http://computingtech.blogspot.com/2008/09/ubuntu-linux-

disk-quotas.html4. http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/

LinuxTutorialQuotas.html5. http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-

Manual/admin-primer/s1-storage-quotas.html6. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754810.aspx7. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314478

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