Share Folders Explained

What are Shared Folders?

• Most departments use shared network folders for their staff and faculty to access departmental documents.  These folders are sometimes referred to Share Drives.
• Shared Folders are stored on the IT Server Network and access to the folders is controlled by Security Groups which are set up by IT
• Your Department Administrators are usually set up with the ability to add and remove employees from Security Groups for their departmental share folders using the ama.viu.ca interface

Terminology for Share Folders

• Employees can set up shortcuts/links to the share folders by “mapping” to the network location.
• A “map” consists of a “network path” to the folder location you want to access.
• A “path” can take you to one individual folder, or to a “root/parent’ folder that contains other sub-folders for your Department that you may also need to access.
  • Each “root/parent” folder could contain many sub-folders that people in your department have set up, but you may not be able to access all of the sub-folders.
    • Sub-Folders can be restricted to only certain employees in your department.
• A folder “map or path” on a Windows computer will always start like this: \\viu.int.viu.ca\shares...
• On a Mac computer the “map or path” will start with this:  smb://viu.int.viu.ca/shares…
  • Each time you set up a “map” you are asked to choose a Drive Letter for that link.
    • Some departments ask their employees to all use the same drive letter for certain folders.
  • Please do not confuse the drive letter with the actual network location of your folder.
    • The drive letter you set up ONLY relates to your specific “mapped link”, other users may choose a different letter when they map to the same folder.
    • When you submit a ticket regarding a share folder, we need to know the actual “path” you have used in your “network map”. Just providing the drive letter you used to map the drive does not tell us the actual location of the folder.
  • Mapping instructions can be found on this article: How to Map a Network Share folder

How are the share folders set up?

Generally, the Department folder(s) start with the Department Name in some form.

Map to \\viu.int.viu.ca\Shares\ to see the main share drive structure.
After you have mapped to the Share Drive structure, you will see a bunch of folders.

• Usually, department share folders are sorted alphabetically.  You will see a “root” folder for each letter of the alphabet.
  • You may notice that there are some folders that are not inside a letter folder.  These are set up with special security, but the process for mapping and securing the folders will still be the same.
•  The first letter of each Department Name determines which “root/parent” folder it will be used to store Departmental Documents.
•  The picture below is what a section of the main share folder structure looks like. 
• In the example above Continuing Education Department shares would be in the c folder along with other folders for departments that start with letter C. 
  
  • When you click on a letter folder, there will be a list of sub-folders for different departments, and inside those sub-folders there may be more sub-folders and files.  In the example below I clicked on letter C:
    
    • Inside the C root folder there are a bunch of other sub-folders that different departments have created.
    • NOTE: although you can SEE all the folders in the list, you will only be able to open folders that you have been given access to.
      • This access is controlled by Security Groups that are set up by IT and usually managed by one of your department admins.
      •  If you need access to a folder or sub-folder you would contact your department admin, or submit a ticket to IT to request access.
        • You may need approval from your Department Admin, chair or director before access will be provided.

• IMPORTANT NOTE:

  Do not change the names or locations of any secured Folder or restricted Sub-Folder without consulting IT.

  • Changing the name of a folder or Sub-folder may break the “link” to the folder and anyone who has mapped to that folder will no longer be able to access it.
  • When folder names change, the associated Security Group needs to be updated to match the new name and /or location