Retain Source Folder Permissions While Copying

My last week task was to copy shared folder content from one server to another server. This looks easy but it comes with following conditions:

• Copy content from Source to target folder( Ignore one folder (DfsPrivate) while copying content from source to target server)
• Copy source folder permission at all level while copying source to target folder and permission should not be restricted to source root folder. It means each source folder permission must match with target folder.
• Generate a report to cross verify source and target permission for all folder in source and target.
• Automate these step, so that it can be executed by end of every month (Should handle delta copy)

I decided to use PowerShell to automate these activities with Robocopy command.

You can download the .ps1 file attached below to skip further reading, however, if you are interested in knowing .ps1 file and wanted to tweak it based on your requirement then you have to read full blog

Following are the methods in the .ps1 file corresponding to the activity mentioned above.

CopyFTPFolder.ps1 file accept three parameter 1) SourceFolderPath 2) TargetFolderPath and 3) Log folder path as shown in above screen.

You can download the .ps1 file and open it in inside Powershell ISE editor.

CopyContent is the method which used robocopy to copy the content from source to target.

Code Snippet

7. function CopyContent([string] $sourcePath, [string] $targetPath,[string] $logPath)
8. {        
9.     $excludeFolderPath = "$sourcePath\DfsPrivate"
10.     robocopy $sourcePath $targetPath /mir /sec /MT[:32] /XD $excludeFolderPath /Copy:DAT /DCOPY:T /z /np | tee $logPath
11. }

Here are details of parameter passed to robocopy. You can modify them based on your requirement.

1.   /mir is used to copy all the content of source to target
2. /Sec /Copy:DAT /DCOPY:T is used to copy the security, parameter
3. /XD is used to exclude the copying of “DfsPrivate” folder. 
4. /MT[:32] will allow powershell script to use 32 thread while performing copying. You can set this value based on your server configuration.
5.   /Z will be used to perform delta copy.
6. /np | tee $logPath will be used to log Robocopy activity and also show them on screen, so that user is aware of each activity instead of opening log file.

CopyACL function will copy the “Access Control List” of source folder to target folder.

Code Snippet

13. function CopyACL($SourceFolderPath, $TargetFolderPath)
14. {
15.     #COPY ACL
16.     Get-Acl $SourceFolderPath | Set-Acl $TargetFolderPath
17. }

ExportPermission function will iterate through each folder in given path and export ACL permission into csv file

Code Snippet

19. function ExportPermission($folderPath, $exportPath)
20. {
21.     $allFolders = Get-ChildItem $folderPath -Recurse | ? {$_.PSisContainer -eq $true}
22.     $collection = @()
23.     foreach ($folder in $allFolders)
24.     {
25.       $acl = Get-Acl $folder.FullName
26.       foreach ($entry in $acl.Access)
27.       {
28.         $object = New-Object PSObject -Property @{
29.         SourcePath=$folder.FullName
30.         SourceFileSystemRights=$entry.FileSystemRights
31.         SourceAccessControlType=$entry.AccessControlType
32.         SourceIdentityReference=$entry.IdentityReference
33.         SourceIsInherited=$entry.IsInherited
34.         SourceInheritanceFlags=$entry.InheritanceFlags
35.         SourcePropagationFlags=$entry.Propagationflags}
36.         
37.         $collection += $object
38.       }
39.     }
40.     $collection | Export-Csv $exportPath
41. }

Finally the Main method which control the execution of this powershell script and calls above mentioned methods in a sequential order.

Code Snippet

43. function Main($SourceFolderPath, $TargetFolderPath, $LogPath)
44. {        
45.     $timeStamp=(Get-Date).ToString()
46.     $timeStamp= $timeStamp.Replace("/","").Replace(":","").Replace(" ","")
47.     $timeLogPath = "$LogPath\scriptLog_$timeStamp.txt"
48.     $CopyAclLogPath = "$LogPath\CopyACLLog_$timeStamp.txt"
49.     $exportSourcePermissionPath = "$LogPath\SourcePermission_$timeStamp.csv"
50.     $exportTargetPermissionPath = "$LogPath\TargetPermission_$timeStamp.csv"
51.     
52.     $robocopyLogPath="$LogPath\RobocopyLog_$timeStamp.txt"
53.     
54.     #Perform Get Set ACL At Root level
55.     CopyACL $SourceFolderPath $TargetFolderPath
56.     Write-Host "Copying ACL permission from source to target (Only for root folder)...."
57.  
58.     #Robocopy Operation started
59.     $startTime = Get-Date
60.     CopyContent $SourceFolderPath $TargetFolderPath $robocopyLogPath
61.     $endTime = Get-Date
62.     $totalTimeTaken = NEW-TIMESPAN  $startTime $endTime
63.     $str = "Total time taken from $source to $target is $totalTimeTaken"
64.     Add-Content -Path $timeLogPath $str
65.     #Completed
66.     
67.     #Perform Get Set for each folder level
68.     $sourceRootDrive = ([regex]::matches($SourceFolderPath,"[a-zA-Z0-9]:","IgnoreCase")| %{$_.value})
69.     $targetRootDrive = ([regex]::matches($TargetFolderPath,"[a-zA-Z0-9]+","IgnoreCase")| %{$_.value})[0]
70.     $targetRootDrive = "\\\cf5 $targetRootDrive"
71.     
72.     Write-Host "sourceRootDrive = $sourceRootDrive"
73.     Write-Host "targetRootDrive = $targetRootDrive"
74.         
75.     $allFolders = Get-ChildItem $SourceFolderPath -Recurse | ? {$_.PSisContainer -eq $true}
76.     $collection = @()
77.     Write-Host "Copy ACL for each folder..."
78.     foreach ($folder in $allFolders)
79.     {
80.         $sourcePath = $folder.FullName        
81.         $targetPath = $sourcePath.Replace("$sourceRootDrive","$targetRootDrive")     
82.         
83.         CopyACL $sourcePath $targetPath
84.         
85.         Add-Content -path $CopyAclLogPath "'$sourcePath' ------'$targetPath'"
86.         Write-Output "'$sourcePath' ------'$targetPath'"
87.         Write-Progress -Activity "sourceRootDrive$ to $targetRootDrive"
88.     }
89.     #Completed
90.     
91.     #Export Permission For Source Folder
92.     Write-Host "Exporting Permission For Source Folder $SourceFolderPath"
93.     ExportPermission $SourceFolderPath $exportSourcePermissionPath
94.     #Completed
95.     
96.     #Export Permission For Target Folder
97.     Write-Host "Exporting Permission For Target Folder $TargetFolderPath"
98.     ExportPermission $TargetFolderPath $exportTargetPermissionPath
99.     #Completed
100. }

 Please fee free to comment and provide your value suggestion.

Note: This script must be executed from Source server only since regex used in Main method expect Drive path (G:\SomeFolderName) for source folder and network path (\\SomeServerName\SomeFolderName) for target path.

CopyFTPFolder.ps1