18.6 Deleting a Filr User

When users no longer need access to your Novell Filr site, you have two options to revoke their access to the Filr site: disabling or deleting their Filr user accounts.

IMPORTANT:Novell recommends that you disable user accounts instead of deleting them. When you delete a user account, the account can never be re-activated. If there is the slightest possibility that the user might return to your Filr site, disable the user account rather than delete it. Disabled accounts do not count as a licensed user. For information on how to disable a user, see Section 18.7, Disabling Filr User Accounts.

The you delete a user depends on how you originally created the user:

18.6.1 Deleting a Local User

Any user account that has been created manually (not created by the LDAP synchronization process) can be deleted as described in this section. To delete a user account that was created by the LDAP synchronization process, see Section 18.6.2, Deleting an LDAP User.

Users must have logged in to the Filr site at least one time in order to delete the user workspace. However, you can delete the user object in conjunction with the user workspace at any time (users do not need to have logged in).

IMPORTANT:If you delete user accounts that were created by the LDAP synchronization process without following the instructions in Section 18.6.2, Deleting an LDAP User, new users with the same name are created the next time the users log in or the next time the LDAP synchronization occurs.

When deleting local users, you should be familiar with the following terms:

User Workspaces: User workspaces are a physical location in the Filr system where information related to the user is stored. When a user’s workspace is deleted, all information within the user’s My Files area is deleted. The user, however, can still access the Filr system.

User Object: User objects refer to the actual user in the Filr system. When a user object is deleted, the user’s profile is deleted, and the user cannot access the Filr system.

When you delete a user object, the following user information is deleted and cannot be recovered:

  • All profile information, including profile pictures (User Object)

  • Access controls to workspaces and folders (User Object)

When you delete a user workspace, the following user information is deleted and cannot be recovered:

  • Files added to the user's Personal Storage area (User Workspace)

  • Shares made to other users from the Personal Storage area (User Workspace)

To delete local users (the user workspace only or the user workspace and the user account):

  1. Log in to Filr as the Filr administrator.

    1. Launch a web browser.

    2. Specify one of the following URLs, depending on whether you are using a secure SSL connection:

      http://filr_hostname:8080
https://filr_hostname:8443

      Replace filr_hostname with the hostname or fully qualified domain name of the Filr server that you have set up in DNS.

      Depending on how you have configured your Filr system, you might not be required to enter the port number in the URL. If you are using NetIQ Access Manager, the Filr login screen is not used.

  2. Click the admin link in the upper-right corner of the page, then click the Administration Console icon .

  3. In the Management section, click Users.

  4. Select the users whose accounts you want to delete, then click Delete.

    The Delete Users dialog box is displayed.

    Depending on whether users who are being deleted have Home folders, you can select from the following options:

    If users being deleted do not have Home folders, the following options are displayed:

    • Move user workspaces to trash: Moves user workspaces to the trash. Does not delete the user objects. You can restore the user workspaces from the trash, as described in Section 18.6.3, Recovering User Workspaces from the Trash.

    • Delete user workspaces: Does not delete the user objects, but deletes the user workspaces. The user workspaces cannot be restored. If the user logs back in, a new workspace is created as if the user is new to the Filr system.

      • Delete user objects: Deletes the user objects and the user workspaces from the Filr system. The users no longer exist in the Filr system and cannot log in. Neither the user objects nor the user workspaces can be restored.

    If all users being deleted have Home folders, the following option is displayed:

    • Delete all selected user objects: Deletes the user objects and the user workspaces from the Filr system. The users no longer exist in the Filr system and cannot log in. Neither the user objects nor the user workspaces can be restored. If the user logs back in to Filr, a new workspace is created as if the user is new to the Filr system.

    If some users being deleted have Home folders and others do not, the following options are displayed:

    • Move local user workspaces with only Personal Storage to the trash and delete others: Moves user workspaces that contain no Home folder to the trash. Deletes user workspaces that do contain a Home folder. Does not delete the user objects. You can restore user workspaces that were moved to the trash, as described in Section 18.6.3, Recovering User Workspaces from the Trash.

      • Delete user objects whose workspaces are deleted: Deletes the user objects that are associated with the user workspaces that are being deleted. The users no longer exist in the Filr system and cannot log in. Neither the user objects nor the user workspaces can be restored.

    • Delete all user workspaces: Deletes all user workspaces, regardless of whether user workspaces contain a Home folder. Does not delete the user objects. The user workspaces cannot be restored. If the user logs back in, a new workspace is created as if the user is new to the Filr system.

      • Delete user objects: Deletes the user objects and the user workspaces from the Filr system. The users no longer exist in the Filr system and cannot log in. Neither the user objects nor the user workspaces can be restored.

  5. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

18.6.2 Deleting an LDAP User

User accounts can be synchronized to the Filr site with an LDAP directory. Although you can delete Filr user accounts, Novell recommends that you disable them, as described in Section 18.7, Disabling Filr User Accounts.

If you decide to delete Filr user accounts, it is safer to manually delete than to delete them through the LDAP synchronization process. Because user accounts that are deleted cannot be recovered, ensure that you know exactly which users you are deleting; the only way to be sure is to manually delete them.

Manually Deleting User Accounts That Are Being Synchronized through LDAP

The following method is preferred for deleting user accounts from the Filr site if the accounts are being synchronized from an LDAP directory:

  1. In your LDAP directory, modify the User objects that you want to delete from the Filr site so that the User objects no longer match the LDAP synchronization criteria that you previously set.

    For information about setting LDAP synchronization criteria, see Section 18.1, Synchronizing Users and Groups from an LDAP Directory.

  2. In Filr, manually delete the user accounts, as described in Section 18.6.1, Deleting a Local User.

Configuring LDAP to Automatically Delete User Accounts

IMPORTANT:Although it is possible to configure LDAP synchronization to automatically delete Filr users and workspaces, this should be avoided because it might result in unwanted deletion of users. For example, if the LDAP context is entered incorrectly and none of the users match the incorrect LDAP context, all of the users are permanently deleted.

For more information about how to configure the LDAP synchronization to automatically delete Filr users and workspaces, see For user accounts provisioned from LDAP that are no longer in LDAP:.

18.6.3 Recovering User Workspaces from the Trash

If you have deleted user workspaces, you can restore the workspaces from the trash.

IMPORTANT:It is not possible to restore user objects that have been deleted. This section describes how to restore user workspaces. The process for deleting user workspaces and/or user objects is described in Section 18.6.1, Deleting a Local User.

  1. Log in to Filr as the Filr administrator.

    1. Launch a web browser.

    2. Specify one of the following URLs, depending on whether you are using a secure SSL connection:

      http://filr_hostname:8080
https://filr_hostname:8443

      Replace filr_hostname with the host name or fully qualified domain name of the Filr server that you have set up in DNS.

      Depending on how you have configured your Filr system, you might not be required to enter the port number in the URL. If you are using NetIQ Access Manager, the Filr login screen is not used.

  2. Click the admin link in the upper-right corner of the page, then click the Administration Console icon .

  3. In the Management section, click Users.

  4. Click the Trash icon , located in the upper-right corner of the page.

  5. Select the user’s workpsace and My Files Storage folder (if applicable) that you want to restore, then click Restore.