How to monitor share access on a file server.

I needed a way to monitor the usage of particular shares on a file server as we are looking to move to a clustered file server, and you need to create a resource for every share.

Our existing file server has many shares on it, but most of them are unused, as we point most users through DFS. I could not find any way of collating information as to which SHARES where used to connect to a particular file, as auditing only tells you which files are actually accessed. To this end, I wrote a simple vb script which creates a comma delimited file with the maximum usage record for each share. It does not tell uswho has accessed each share, but it gives us a starting point to find out which shares need to be kept, or which users we need to educate not to use the shares when we migrate.

The script below accomplishes the task. Leave it running for a few days then view the CSV file in Excell…

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‘ Name: sharemon.VBS

‘ Purpose: To monitor share path usage on a file server
‘

‘ check command line

GetArgs strComputername,strOutputFile,CorrectSyntax

If CorrectSyntax Then

Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

wscript.echo “Monitoring Share usage on ” & strComputername & ” To file ” & strOutputFile

wscript.echo “Press CTRL-C To Stop…”

wscript.echo “”

Set fs = GetObject(“WinNT://” & strComputername & “/LanmanServer”)

Dim ShareList(500,3)

Sharenum = 1

‘ Populate ShareList with name, path, and CurrentUserCount of each share

For Each share In fs

ShareList(sharenum,1) = share.name

ShareList(sharenum,2) = share.path

ShareList(sharenum,3) = share.CurrentUserCount

Sharenum = Sharenum + 1

Next

writeArray ShareList, strOutputFile, sharenum

‘ Now monitor the shares on the server to watch for any upward movement on the CurrentUserCount for each share

Do

Sharenum = 1

For Each share In fs

If ShareList(sharenum,3) < share.CurrentUserCount Then

ShareList(sharenum,3)=share.CurrentUserCount

End If

Sharenum = Sharenum + 1

Next

writeArray ShareList, strOutputFile, sharenum

wscript.echo “.”

Wscript.Sleep 5000

Loop

Else

DisplayHelp

wscript.quit

End If

Sub GetArgs(strComputername,strOutputFile,CorrectSyntax)

Set Args = WScript.Arguments

If args.count = 2 Then

CorrectSyntax = True

strComputername= args(0)

strOutputFile= args(1)

Else

CorrectSyntax = False

End If

End Sub

Sub DisplayHelp

wscript.echo “Keeps a count of the maximum number of accesses to particular shares on a File server”

wscript.echo “adn logs it to a file”

wscript.echo “cscript sharemon.VBS /? or /Help ———————————– Displays this help screen”

wscript.echo “cscript sharemon.VBS Servername”

wscript.echo “”

End Sub

Sub writeArray(arr,writeFile,iLines)

Set file = fso.openTextFile(writeFile, 2, True)

For i = 1 To iLines

file.writeLine arr(i,1) & “,” & arr(i,2) & “,” & arr(i,3)

Next

file.close

Set file=Nothing

end sub

Article written by MyComputerAid.com