IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

File storage areas

A file storage area is an area that contains document content in a directory tree on a local or shared network drive. The disk drive can be a Windows NTFS volume, a UNIX file system, or an IBM® General Parallel File System (GPFS™).

Restriction: You cannot create a file storage area on an encrypted NTFS volume.

A many-to-many relationship exists between Content Platform Engine servers and file storage areas: many servers can manage one file storage area, and a single server can manage multiple file storage areas.

Content element model

A document can have zero or more content elements. An element is either a content reference element or a content transfer element. A content transfer element has an associated content file in the file storage area. This file is uniquely identified by the combination of the document object identifier (GUID) and an integer sequence number. Within the context of a particular document, a content file is uniquely identified by the sequence number.

When you check in a document, the document content set becomes immutable. Although no content element for a checked-in document can be added or deleted, the entire document can still be deleted. When you delete a document, the content element files for the document are deleted.

File storage area structure

The following diagram shows the directory structure of a file storage area and the relationship between multiple file storage areas:

The hierarchical relationship between the Base, Root, and Content directories.

Base directory
The base directory is the user-named parent directory for one or more file storage areas.
Root directory
The root directory is the user-named top-level directory for a specific file storage area.
Content directory tree
The directories at the lowest level of the content directory tree store the committed content element files. You can configure the number of content directories by making the directory tree structure either large or small. A small structure can be ideal for a development environment.

Prerequisites for creating a file storage area

Plan file storage areas for logical and convenient grouping of documents.
Create separate file storage areas to ensure efficient document management. For example, you can create a file storage area to group documents with the same deletion or backup requirements.
Create and name the base and root directories and assign proper security privileges to the directories.
For information about the privileges to assign, see Storage area security.
Make the file storage device accessible to every Content Platform Engine server that will use the device.
Making devices accessible depends on the operating systems and locations of your file servers. For more information, see Preparing storage areas for object stores.

Optionally, create distributed file system (DFS) links to shared directories to provide a single, logical representation of a file storage location. A link allows the file location to be referenced without the user knowing the location. (In particular, a DFS link might represent a shared directory on a remote server. During file storage area creation, you can select such a DFS link as a local directory.)

Restriction: You cannot use DFS to replicate a file storage area.
Install remote file systems with a backup power supply.
Install any remotely connected file system with an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) backup system. Failure to gracefully shut down a server on which a remote file storage area resides can result in data loss or corruption.


Last updated: March 2016
cs_about_file_stores.htm

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