Need help on good Job Archiving method (current one is horrible)

[tzframpton]

I really need some help on some Job Archiving method, hopefully I can find a good solution from one of you guys here that already does this. I am frustrated up to my eyeballs with our current archiving method, which is laughable at best.

 

Hopefully those that can help won't get ran off by the lengthy post, but here's the current situation:

 

Each Project Manager has his own job folder. Then, it consist of a 5 digit job number, the Project Manager's initials, and the job name.

 

Example:

[Job#]-[PM's Initials]-[Job Name]

so it would look like this:

50684-TF-University of Dallas

 

Each P.M. has about 10-30 jobs that are active. Within each job folder there are usually about 5 folders: Submittals, CAD Drawings, Purchase Orders, etc.... You get the idea (hopefully).

 

Each month, jobs that are finished get moved into a "Closeouts" folder in each PM's directory on the network. That's where the frustration comes in. The current standard of archiving consists of me going to each PM's closeouts folder, copying everything in there to a temporary directory and then burning a CD/DVD and placing it in a three ring binder labeled for that month: but with no CAD files. All the CAD files get Bound in AutoCAD into one DWG file and thrown on the network archive server for future retrieval if needed under a pretty well thought out hierarchy system of folders.

 

The issue is this: EVERY SINGLE freaking month people come to me to "put a job back into their active job folder" so they can access an old Purchase Order, Submittal, etc. You name it, it needs to be "accessed". One of the reasons we are doing things this way is to conserve space on the server. Its only like 30-40GB hard drive and we have about 7GB free. Yes I know we really need an upgrade but try telling my tightass owners that in a recession. Regardless, when I "reburn" the CD or just in the archiving process period, something usually gets messed up, and I'm to blame since I'm the one doing the backup.

 

I'm sick and tired of this ancient archiving system. There has got to be a better way out there to archive old job folders. Can anyone help me out with maybe the way your company does it?? I was thinking some type of NAS device with an offsite NAS unit that we can link together to mimic each unit. Regardless, we have got to do something where the job folders (and not JUST the Cad Files) are accessible after the job is completed.

 

Please, any ideas? I'm really a bit in desperate need here. Just remember, a brand spankin' new server is basically out of the question as of right now. If that's the only option then let me know and I'll do my best at presenting the option. Thanks in advance to all.

[Patrick Hughes]

Well I don't have a fully thought out answer but I've got a large capacity USB drive that I archive things on. They are not that expensive at all and I would think that the time you would save if you eliminated burning CDs would pay for it in no time at all.

 

Just a seed for further thought.

[SuperCAD]

Could you try zipping the files (*.zip) and keeping it on the server? This way the PM can either unzip it or open the file to get what they need, and it takes up less room.

 

Or, can you have your drive partitioned to create a drive specifically for archived files (that's what we have).

[tzframpton]

Well I don't have a fully thought out answer but I've got a large capacity USB drive that I archive things on. They are not that expensive at all and I would think that the time you would save if you eliminated burning CDs would pay for it in no time at all.

 

Just a seed for further thought.

Got to be accessible to everyone in the office on a network. USB/External drives sound nice for "just me" but we are in a true networked environment.

 

And I'm not even about to mess with ZIP files. If they're going on the server, then they might as well be fully accessible w/o unzipping them. And my IT guy can't (and won't) partition a hard drive. We are basically out of space. So its either NAS or new server, I just want to know the best option between the two.

[tzframpton]

For the record, here is what I'm thinking are the best options:

 

Option one

Having a NAS device.

 

Option two

Upgrading to a new server

 

Option three

Putting a bigger SCSI hard drive in our current archiving server.

 

Now, out of these options, there needs to be an off-site backup of these jobs in case a catastrophe happens at our office (fire, severe weather, hardware failure, etc). Also, I'm wanting to stay away from the aged Tape Backup. Does anyone here use any type of NAS unit? I was thinking this could be our cheapest option. Then I was wondering if there was a way to have an off-site NAS device that is securely networked over the internet to the onsite NAS or Server and it can backup itself from any changes made on a nightly/weekly schedule. Is this an option?

[Teeds]

Uugghhh ... I feel your pain.

 

The big picture idea is good, but the issue about putting it on and taking it off has got to be tedious at best.

 

It sounds just like the system we had at GFF before we finally got a server large enough to grow into.

 

I have a 500Gig LaCie drive on my laptop that hold 100% of all my data. As cheap as drives are getting, if I were you, I would buy two myself just to keep your personal frustration level down. Make two copies of everything you move and then you can more easily reload it. Then burn a CD once the project has gone inactive for 6 months. I would also include the CAD files with everything else, even if that means you have dupes. I never like to split data if at all possible.

 

One thing you might consider letting the system burp a time or two and bring everything to a halt ... or near it ... and maybe the powers that be will give you the $$ to get a larger system.

 

Are you on a RAID system now? If so all the drives have to be the same.

 

I saw a 1.5 Tb drive for sale for $199.00. That is hardly a barrier to any firm.

[tzframpton]

Teeds thanks for the info. After talking to a friend of mine in the Web Design business, its easily possible to make a VPN to an offsite NAS unit with a secure direct connection over the internet. I'm thinking of telling them to upgrade/add a SCSI hard drive to our current archive server, and link to a NAS unit offsite, then have a backup software that runs weekly or monthly. a good NAS running RAID-5 will run about $400. and new SCSI hard drive will be about $600. We already have backup software, and I don't know what setup fees would be for the VPN but i'll find out. That might be the best solution for us right now, allowing is to (1) have an offsite backup (2) have access to the files and (3) not forcing us to upgrade a server.

[wannabe]

What about EDM software? If you're all on one server there won't be excessive costs included I don't think.

 

If your wasting loads of time searching for documents then justify the cost against a ROI. Compare the outlay against all the man hours wasted (as a value of currency).

 

If the figures add up you can push for pricey software that maybe deals with compression etc.

 

If you're genuinely wasting man hours searching for documents, then maybe you can convey to management that even a server upgrade would pay for itself in productivity etc.

 

With the current economy, you will need hard evidence to justify an outlay. I reckon it's possible if you talk in management language (finance).

[tzframpton]

na we don't need EDM software. We have no problems finding the files at all. Just the archiving method itself that has been implemented via my superiors.

[wannabe]

Apologies, mate. Was just skim reading.