Forcing PST locator task to search for PST files again

[Tobbe]

Hi.

I'm trying to identify the minimum required permissions needed to search a fileserver for PSTs. Actually I'd like to limit it to just a few partitions to minimize the risk of importing wrongly marked PSTs that are located in common areas. In my efforts I'm trying to run the locator task multiple times after altering the permissions but the setting of "intervall between searches: 1 day" seems to limit me.

I've changed the LastHardDiskScan value for the server in question within the PSTcomputer table to an older date but that did not do any difference. In fact, it was set to null since I'm still to low on the permissions, but changing this value in a different EV test system also did not make any difference.

I then changed the HardSearchLastTime value in the PstLocatorTask table to an older value and that did make a difference, however that also causes the locator task to search for new computers and gives me alot of errors since it tries to add duplicates into SQL.

The odd thing is that I have more then 8.000 computers that have been discovered earlier but I only get around 1.000 errors about duplicates?

So the questions are:

A: How can I look for PST files more frequently than once per day

B: How can I limit the search to just a subset of the storagesolution

So, If anyone can help me out with this I'd be greatful.

Thanks,

/Tobbe

[sym_se_support0]

You asked:

"How can I look for PST files more frequently than once per day?"

You would need to manually run the Task if you wanted it to search more than once a day.

You can schedule the Locator task to run during normal office hours. This probably ensures that it will find the maximum possible number of computers and PST files. When the Locator task has completed its scan of computers it does no more work, even if its schedule window is still open. It will not scan each computer again for a minimum of one day, although you can increase this period between scans.


"How can I limit the search to just a subset of the storagesolution"

The PST Locator Task logon account needs to  have rights to the registry and drives then it will search for PST files.  There is no option to limit this search criteria.


Your main question though seems to be how to "identify the minimum required permissions needed to search a fileserver for PSTs".

The PST Locator Task logon account needs Local Administrator rights on the client computers.  There is no way to limit the drives or directories being scanned because the Task reads from the registry for attached drives to scan.


Your suggestions and recommendations are always accepted through the enhancement web site:
http://engweb.symantec.com/enhancement/

[Tobbe]

Hi and thanks for your time.

Running the locator task multiple times the same day, either manually or through a scheduled intervall, does not make it look for more pst files on already discovered computers. This is my concern since I actually only want to search one single fileserver multiple times during the same day during testing.

Regarding the permissions required. I added the account that is running the locator task to the local users group on the filserver, because that group has "read" permission on the registry. This was however not sufficient and because I still receive the error "Failed to read registry to get list of drives". I'm not sure why I'd need admin rights to read the registry or is there perhaps more to it than collecting drive info from the registry?

Also, if the account which runs the locator task does not have permissions to read a certain part of the disksystem - how could it then scan that part for pst's?

Or is that configuration the same thing as making sure that the locator task will fail right from the start?

I really appreciate your efforts and hope that you have the time to reply again.

/Tobbe

[sym_se_support0]

Hello, you asked/said:

"Running the locator task multiple times the same day, either manually or through a scheduled intervall, does not make it look for more pst files on already discovered computers."

I ran the PST Locator Task on my lab several times within an hour period with dtrace.  The Computer setting for Last Hard Disk Scan changed each time.  In my dtrace I have this for each run:

"Hard Disk search on <computer> is starting..." replace with your computer name.

If you really believe that the Task is not scanning the computer's hard disk each time then change the LastHardDiskScan column in the PSTComputer table to NULL.   Then run the Task again and check the Last hard Disk Scan time in the Personal Store Management / Computers.



You also asked/said the following:

"Regarding the permissions required. I added the account that is running the locator task to the local users group on the filserver"

The solution is to run the "PST Locator Task" with an account that has "Domain Administrators" privileges or an account that has local administrative rights to the client machines.

GENERAL ERROR : Enterprise Vault (EV) PST Locator Task - Registry shows "The network path was not found".
http://support.veritas.com/docs/287114

[Tobbe]

Hi and thanks again.

The task is not searching for pst files as indicated both by the log and by looking in SQL. Both my live and lab system behave the same way but if your system actually does perform a scan I guess this has to go through the support. As I wrote in my first post - the value in lastharddiskscan is already null since I'm still to low on permissions.

Regarding the permissions I'll just accept the fact that nothing less than administrator permissions will be sufficient, but if someone has the possibility to explain why this is a requirement I'm all the ears.

Again -  Thanks for your time and efforts.

/Tobbe

[Tobbe]

Hi again.

For future reference, I solved the first issue by configuring pstlocatortask.exe.config with a "false" value on the key "populatePSTcomputer". That got rid of the SQL errors about duplicates and I can now trigger a new search by altering the HardSearchLastTime value in the PstLocatorTask table.

Also, limiting access in the disk subsystem works fine when it comes to restricting the locatortask from finding PST files in certain areas.

Changing the LastHardDiskScan value within the PSTcomputer table still doesn't work in neither the test environment, nor the live environment.