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Enterprise Vault™ Introduction and Planning

Last Published: 2020-11-13

Product(s): Enterprise Vault (14.0)

About shortcut files with File System Archiving

When a file is archived, Enterprise Vault can optionally leave one of the following types of shortcut:

An internet (URL) shortcut. This is a .url text file that contains a hypertext link to the archived file.
A placeholder. This is a special file that appears exactly as the original file but, when opened, forces Enterprise Vault to fetch the archived file.
A folder shortcut. This is a .url file that contains a hypertext link to the archived folder.

Internet shortcuts can be placed on any network share. When a user double-clicks an internet shortcut, the archived file is retrieved and is shown in the appropriate application.

If you open an internet shortcut from within an application, the application opens the contents of the shortcut, not the archived file.

Internet shortcuts have a suffix of .url. This suffix is appended to the file's existing suffix. For example, the shortcut for a Word document file named document1.docx is named document1.docx.url. The inclusion of the original suffix enables you to determine the original file type that the internet shortcut references.

Note:

If you choose the Windows Explorer option "Hide known file types", Windows still displays the original file type of an internet shortcut. For example, the internet shortcut document1.docx.url appears as document1.docx.

Internet shortcuts have the advantage that they can be used on both Windows and non-Windows devices.

Placeholder shortcuts behave exactly as the original files. A placeholder shortcut has the same file extension as the file to which it is a shortcut. When a user opens a placeholder shortcut, the original file is automatically retrieved.

Table: Characteristics of placeholder shortcuts shows the behavior of placeholder shortcuts when you open, copy, move, or delete them.

Table: Characteristics of placeholder shortcuts

Action on placeholder	Effect
Open	The file is recalled from the archive. Note: If pass-through recall is in effect, Enterprise Vault recalls the file to disk only if the calling application requires a writeable version. See Pass-through recall for placeholder shortcuts with File System Archiving. A file that is recalled to the file server replaces the placeholder shortcut. If the recalled file remains unmodified, then Enterprise Vault converts the file back to a placeholder on the next archiving service run. The only exception is if the archiving policy's shortcut creation rules are based on the last access time. In that case, Enterprise Vault reverts the file only when the shortcut creation rules are met. If the recalled file becomes modified, then Enterprise Vault converts the file back to a placeholder according to the archiving policy's shortcut creation rules.
Copy	The source file is restored and then copied. The destination file is a copy of the restored original file. Note: The copy operation does not restore the source file to disk if pass-through recall is in effect. See Pass-through recall for placeholder shortcuts with File System Archiving. Enterprise Vault converts a restored original file back to a placeholder on the next archiving service run. The only exception is if the archiving policy's shortcut creation rules are based on the last access time. In that case, Enterprise Vault reverts the file only when the shortcut creation rules are met.
Move	If the destination is on the same volume, the placeholder is moved. If the destination is on a different volume, the archived file is restored and then moved to the destination.
Delete	You can configure Enterprise Vault to delete archived files when their placeholders are deleted, if you want. You must configure some settings for the file server, and apply an archiving policy with the appropriate settings. For more information, see the Setting up File System Archiving guide.

Placeholder shortcuts are supported on NTFS devices, NetApp Filers, and Dell EMC Celerra/VNX devices. For details of the exact requirements, see the Enterprise Vault Compatibility Charts.

Note:

On NetApp C-Mode filers, recall of large files (larger than 50 MB) may time out. For information about increasing the timeout value on the Vserver, see the NetApp documentation.

In the archiving policy you can control the time at which Enterprise Vault creates shortcuts. For example, you can create a rule to archive Microsoft Office files. The rule can make Enterprise Vault leave the original files on the disk and create shortcuts to them later. Enterprise Vault can create a shortcut to a file according to any of the following:

Archived time
Last accessed time
Last modified time
Created time

By creating a rule like this one you can ensure that files are archived for safety but are still available for editing. When a file is no longer being changed frequently, Enterprise Vault creates a shortcut to the archived copy.

A folder shortcut is a .url file that Enterprise Vault creates within a target folder when the File System Archiving task archives the folder. When a user double-clicks the .url file, Enterprise Vault displays the archived files in the original folder structure in Enterprise Vault Search. Enterprise Vault Search displays only the folder and the sub folder in the archive, along with a link to show the complete folder hierarchy.

Folder shortcuts are disabled by default. You can enable folder shortcuts by editing the settings of the associated FSA volume policy. Note that there is no option to enable folder shortcuts at the folder policy level. If you disable folder shortcuts, the existing .url files continue to work as normal.

Folder shortcuts have a .url file extension. The default file name is [View Archived Files].url. You can change the name of the folder link file by editing the Site properties. The File System Archiving task creates a new folder link file with the new name on the subsequent run. If you have customized the folder shortcut name, you may see multiple folder shortcut files because the File System Archiving task does not delete old .url files.

The File System Archiving task records details of folder shortcuts that are created and updated in the report file in Reports\FSA.