Mirrored Files involves creating a secondary file storage location to which we replicate files from Faculty Success immediately after they are stored. You can create a secondary location either on a campus server or with Amazon.
Storing the files on your campus server may take a little more work to put in place and maintain; however, your campus may prefer the files reside on your campus. Working with Amazon is a breeze to put in place and maintain, and it is quite inexpensive, but the files are not stored on your campus. Both approaches enable the same features within this system, so you should base the approach you take strictly on whether you prefer to keep the files on your campus or with Amazon.
We have designed Mirrored Files to work in concert with the file storage functionality automatically available in Faculty Success. Once you have put Mirrored Files in place, we will first make any updates to the files your users store in Faculty Success and then we will replicate the updates to your campus server or Amazon. For example, if a user stores a new file, the file will be stored in Faculty Success and then immediately sent to your secondary location. Similarly, if a file is replaced or deleted, this will take place first in Faculty Success and then immediately thereafter in the secondary location.
Any file size or type restrictions you chose to implement for your data collection instrument will apply here as well.
Faculty Success monitors Mirrored Files setups to ensure they are fully functional. If for some reason the connection from Faculty Success to the secondary location fails, file storage, replacement and deletion will not work. This ensures that the Faculty Success location and your secondary location mirror one another at all times. Users will be unable to store files until that connection has been restored.
File retrieval from your campus's Faculty Success storage location will be possible at all times. The ability to retrieve files from your secondary location will depend entirely on the settings you configure for that location.
For implementation details, visit one of the following depending on your preference.