IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records configuration overview

To set up a IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records environment, complete the following configuration tasks.

You must configure one object store (file plan object store or FPOS) for the file plan structure, and another (records enabled object store, or ROS) for documents declared as records. Typically, there would be many users with access to the ROS who should not have access to the entities that make up your file plan in the FPOS. You can have more than one ROS associated with one FPOS.

Although some configuration tasks were performed during the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration procedure, you can revisit the configuration settings after you create your file plans and are configuring your IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records solution for a production environment.

For details about IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration procedures, see the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records Installation and Upgrade Guide.

For information on configuration of tasks associated with creating a file plan (such as configuring a volume name suffix) see Creating a file plan.

Create ROS document classes

You must create Document classes for the documents that will be declared as records.

ROS Document classes have a Can Declare property, which IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records uses to determine if a document can be declared as a record. During the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration, the property for either the base Document class or for one or more Document subclasses was set to True, indicating that instances of those classes can be declared as a record. To prepare your IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records environment for production, verify that the value of this property is set to True (or that a subclass inherits this setting from its superclass) for all appropriate ROS Document classes. In addition, verify that the Default Instance Security for these classes has Minor versioning and Major versioning rights set so users (who have appropriate access rights) can version instances of the classes.

For more information, see "Set the Can Declare property in the ROS" in the Records Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Configure default file plan

Only one file plan hierarchy displays in the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records application at any given time. As part of the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration procedure, a Workplace site preference was set to specify this default file plan. However, at the time IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records was installed and configured it is unlikely that you had one or more of your site's file plans set up. You can modify this site preference setting, if desired, to specify your preferred default. Note that each IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records user can set a user preference that overrides this default site preference setting.

For more information, see Set the default file plan.

Configure Disposition Sweep

An administrator configures the Disposition Sweep process during the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration procedure. However, to assure that it is correctly configured, review the Disposition Sweep configuration. For example, if your site does not use record types, verify that Run for Record Types is set to False.

For more information, see Configure Disposition Sweep.

Configure Record types

Record types provide a way to associate a record with a disposition schedule that is different from the one currently associated with the record's parent record category or record folder. If your IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records solution uses record types, be sure to configure Disposition Sweep to perform record type processing by setting Run for Record Types to True. For more information, see Configure Disposition Sweep.

Also, consider how a record type will be associated with a record. You can specify that all records of a specific record class be assigned to a specific record type by default. For more information,see Configure a default record type.

Alternatively, you can display the record type metadata when a record is declared through Workplace, allowing the user to select a record type. For more information, see Configure displaying record type metadata during declaration.

You can also combine these two approaches, where you specify a default but also allow the user to override the default by selecting a record type.

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Configure retain metadata option

When a user with adequate access rights deletes an IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records entity, it is permanently removed from the object store. However, you can configure the option to retain metadata at the file plan level for deleted record categories, record folders, volumes, and records. If an administrator enables the retain metadata option, the previously mentioned entities remain in the object store (marked as deleted) but are no longer visible in the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records application. You can periodically export these deleted entities and all of their metadata to an XML file for historical purposes, then permanently delete the entities from the object store. For information about how to configure this option, see Configure retaining metadata.

Configure autodeclaration of records

You can configure IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records to automatically declare a document as a record whenever a user completes a specific operation, such as creating a document. To configure autodeclaration:

Configure Property synchronization

You can configure property synchronization to automatically synchronize property values from a document to its associated record (or vice versa) whenever a property update occurs on the document or record. For more information, see Configure property synchronization.

Set Workflow batch size

By default, IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records stores a maximum of ten work items in a workflow batch for review or approval before disposal, but you can change the maximum number stored through a configuration setting. For more information, see Configure the workflow batch size.

Configure Request a record folder workflow

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records includes the Create Record Folder workflow, allows users to send a request to a records manager to create a record folder. Many users typically have insufficient privileges to create a record folder. To make this workflow available to users, you must configure the Request Record Folder site preference. This preference might have been set during the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation and configuration. For more information on using this workflow, see Use the Create Record Folder workflow.

For instructions on how to set the site preference, see Set the Request Record Folder site preference.

Set Editable Links site preference

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records includes links that allow users to link related records and folders. To create and maintain links in IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records, you must set the Editable Link Classes site preference using Workplace. For more information on IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records links, see Links.

For instructions on how to set the site preference, see Set the Link Class site preference.

Configure compliance-specific events

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records includes several events for PRO or DoD compliance, such as events that set metadata. Configuring these events is optional as processing the events can impact performance. For optimal performance, only configure the events that are relevant to your records management operations. For more information on configuring these events, see "Optional Tasks" in the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Both the DoD and PRO data models require that the File Store be configured to use the purge method of deleting documents. The document content will then be overwritten with blanks three times before deleting the file. Thus, the file is unrecoverable. See Use Purge as the delete method.

Configure CFS-IS documents

If your IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records solution includes using the optional Content Federation Services for Image Services (CFS-IS) feature, coordinate with the IS system administrator to assure that IS security is set up appropriately for IS document modification and deletion, and to assure that IS document class retention parameters are set up appropriately such that IS documents that have been declared as records are not deleted because of IS retention settings. For more information, see Managing IS documents as records.

Configure protected storage devices

If your IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records solution includes using protected storage devices, such as EMC Centera, NetApp SnapLock, Tivoli Storage Manager and others, it is important that IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records retention settings do not conflict with retention settings that might be configured on the storage device. Therefore, turn retention off for the storage device and let IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records control retention.

On Tivoli Storage Manager devices, retention is controlled by several parameters. For more information on setting these parameters, see the "Retention schemes" section of the About IBM Tivoli Storage Manager topic. When the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records system is fully configured, the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records application remains in full control of retention and deletion.