Space and Data Analyzer/Browser v1.0


Developed by Gurgen Alaverdian (gurgen@bellatlantic.net)
http://www.gurgensvbstuff.com

 

Help Content:

    - Overview
    - Creating Servers List
    - Building Folders List
    - Querying Folders Size
    - Saving and Opening Tables
    - Tables and Table Modes (overview)
    - Compare Mode
    - Pin-Point Mode
    - Files Table
    - Differentiate Mode
    - Options

Overview

Space and Data Analyzer is a comprehensive folder size comparison tool. Can be extremely useful for an NT Administrators. Here are a few examples to better understand what does it exactly do: 
Lets say you have five application servers with \Apps share. And you need to keep this share (or at list some folders on it) in sync.  How would you know if somebody changed configuration files for some application on one of the servers? Analyzer in matter of minutes (well, that depends on the share size) will find the subfolders size difference, inside the specified folder on any number of servers or workstations. Going further Analyzer will locate exact file(s), which do not match on any two servers at any tree level starting with the folder you began your query for.
The other way to use Analyzer is to compare folders size with previously saved value for any single server. This is a good way to keep an eye on your users home folders and see the size increase, or decrease (yeah... right!) pattern. 
Analyzer can be simply  used to browse folders and files, much like an explorer, only presented in the Grid Table. The main advantage is that it can  browse through  two or more hosts simultaneously, instantly drafting total subfolders size and mark the folder if it does not exist on any host. Use files extension filter to present only files you are interested to see and compare them. Additionally you can open any folder from the table with an explorer, see files and folders properties, run or view files, and get a command prompt to the folder (path will be mapped automatically).
Tables can be saved as  excel files, or as  Tab-Delimited text files.
Note: Analyzer operates only with UNC pathes. No drive pointers will be accepted. If you need to query a local host, you'll still need to type \\server\share... for it. 

Creating Servers List  Back

The very first step you make, is build your table. You start with the "Master Table" (upper one). Two values are required, the host name and a share\folder name. You can supply as many servers as you'd like, but only one folder name per table is accepted. To add a server, type server name and click "Add". If you have a list file with the server names, use "Open List". List file must have one name per line. "Remove" used to take out one, or multiple servers from the table. To remove multiple servers, just highlight sequential columns. 
    Tip: When highlighting columns do not use headers row, but rather one below. This is because headers row is used to drag and reorder columns.
Type existed share and folder name in the drop-down box. Your entry is submitted as you type. You can see a copy-cat in the upper-left cell.
Drop-down box holds a history of the last ten entries you type. Entries are written into config.dat configuration file as you click "Build".
 

Building Folders List  Back

Now it's a time to build the table. Click "Build" to start. When it is done, you will see the list of the immediate subfolders in the first column. This list contains collection from all the servers you listed. But none of the folders are duplicated if they exist on more that 1 server. You notice that first letter in the upper cell is "B", which stands for build. This is necessary to identify the table type, and is used later when you open a saved table. Before building the list, Analyzer ping each server and makes sure the share you specify indeed a valid share and exist on all servers. If one of the conditions is not met, you will get the a modal window with the list of failed servers and the reason why they fail. If that happened, you either click "Remove\Continue", at which point failed servers will be removed from the list and the table will be build for the remaining servers or, you click "Quit" to stop the query and check the share and server names manually.
Once the table is built, you can quickly find out what folders are exist or not exist on which servers by clicking "Data". Cells that will have green highlight and "Not Exists" values obviously represent non existent subfolder. You will also notice the change of the table status form "B" to "D".

Querying Folders Size  Back

You start query for the folders size by clicking "Space" button. Opps... Table disappeared. This is done to speed up the process. Since for each new entry Grid Table refreshes itself, I hide it until table is build. Since Analyzer query each entry for each server, it might take a while to build a table. Speaking from the experience, it took 5 minutes per server to query a share over 10 Gb with about 8.000 folders. Well, the time really depends on the number of files and subfolders rather than on share size. You can always monitor the progress from the "Status Bar" at the bottom. As the Table is build you see the table identifier is changed to an "S".
Each cell now has a numeric value that represents Total Folder Size in kb including all subfolders. A cell with "0" value means that folder is empty, but might include other subfolders that are empty as well. A cell with "0" value and a green highlight means that this folder does not exist on the server the cell represents. There might be the case you do not have access permission to the certain folders. A "0" cell value with the violet highlight will represent this case.
If you want to clear table use "Clear" button. Table will have a default shape 2x2 and "B" identifier. If you want to clear cell values only preserving servers and folders structure, check "Data Only". 

Saving and Opening Tables  Back

I guess it's important to have your table saved, so you can open it at any time in the Analyzer without having to rebuilt it. It is also necessary if you would like to use some other features of Analyzer. Two options are available here. You can save table as a generic Excel file or as a Tab-Delimited text file. The advantage of saving as Excel is that cell highlight colors and font is preserved as well as column width can be controlled. In addition the Excel chart is created as a second sheet in the file (presentable for small number of folders). The disadvantage is that saving process is relatively slow especially for huge folders structure. That is because, while saving, Analyzer reads each cell value and color and writes it to the file. On the other hand saving as a text file is a snap, since Analyzer copies and pastes entire table at once. But of cause there is no formatting preserved. Since the text files are a Tab-Delimited, they can also be later easily opened in Excel. As the matter of fact I would NOT recommend to open them in the Notepad or other text-editors, since the format could be broken with one tap of the key and bare file to be unreadable by an Analyzer.
As you click "Save" a suggested file name is presented to you. Depending on the Table Type it might contain a server, share\folder name, type of analyses and a date. The last saved or opened file name and path is displayed on the window title.   
In addition when you open a file the data structure is evaluating for an existence. This feature can be turned off in "Options" (see appropriate chapter).

    Important: As you open file in Excel you notice the last row contain 2 numbers. Those are Table dimensions. While they play no role saving and opening .xls files in an Analyzer, they are very important for .txt files. Those value are used to quickly build a table when opening Tab-Delimited files. I left those values in an .xls files since you might decide later to save the file as a text file while running Excel.
Try to avoid editing A1 cell. This cell used to identify a Table Type while opening file in an Analyzer. Alternating this cell may result in an incorrect table values to be displayed.

Tables and Table Modes (overview)  Back

Now that you build a space table lets see what else you can do with it (Slide down the bar on the right to expand the vertical table dimension). Well, for once you can visually evaluate the table and see if there is a mismatch in the particular folder size on the different servers. Next step you want to take is to bring upper table down from "Master Table" to "Analyzer Table" for further analyses. Simply click "Transfer" to copy table down.

    Important: You can only transfer a folder size analyses table marked with "S". Well, that makes sense, since Analyzer will be working with folders and files size values at the bottom table.

While you bringing a table down it is evaluated against servers and folders availability one more time (fairly quick).
The idea of having 2 tables is to facilitate analyses. Let say you perform some calculations at the bottom table during which you removed certain folders or servers from it. To get it back you need to rebuild a table...., or simply transfer a "stand by" copy from the upper table down.

Here is what you can do at the "Analyzer Table" :

Tables have the following additional features:

Menu have the following features:

Compare Mode  Back

By default, when you transfer a table down, you have some controls grayed out. For Now we look at the "Compare" feature of the "Analyzer Table". The following will occur ones you click "Compare" button: Each Folder's size listed will be compared with the same folder size on the rest of the servers. By default Empty and non Existent folders are not counted. If there is a mismatch at list between two size value for the same folder, this folder is considered as a "non-matched" and a folder cell is highlighted red. If all sizes are equal cell is highlighted yellow. After the table is compared, use up-down arrows on the left to sort a table my matched or non-matched folders. Click on the appropriately colored "Remove" buttons to remove either matched or non-matched folders from the table at all. If you check "Count Empty" it will take into account Empty and non existent folders as well while comparing. 
As I mentioned above Double Click on the Folders Column will cause a folder to expand and display subfolders in a randomly selected color. Another double click will cause folder to collapse and hide subfolders. You can expand as many subfolders as you'd like and then run "Compare" again and again. But you do not have to keep looking for a mismatch inside subfolders. Pin-Point will do it for you.

Pin-Point Mode  Back

Click "Enable" to enable the rest of the features. Pin-Point is selected by default. There are certain limitations to this mode. Only two servers can be compared at a time. And only one selected folder. If you have more than 2 servers listed either remove unwanted or drag desired ones to the front of the table. In addition if a folder does not exist on one of the servers pin-point will not run. You can add a custom path to the folder. Fill in a UNC path to the folder and click "Add New". Do the same for the second location you want to compare with. 

Note:  You can not have different folder name for two locations you entered. Two compared folders can reside anywhere on your network, but must have the same name.

Click "Pin Point!". This mode can be time consuming since all the subfolders for the specified folder will be listed along with the size. Then all the subfolders will be automatically compared and as a result you will get a table with subfolders marked as either yellow for matched or red for the non matched in size.

Important: There is a substantial difference in the method used by a Pin-Point to gather subfolder size from the rest of the modes. After the table is built you will see first two data rows represent the Folder you perform the comparison for. The first row has a green highlight in the data part of the table and the value is a Total Size of the folder. The second Row has an Absolute Size of the same folder. By Absolute I mean the size of all the files within the folder, not counting subfolders size. That is the only way to precisely compare subfolders between servers. So the rest of the subfolders in the table has an Absolute Size listed. That means when you see a subfolder is highlighted in red, that actually means that there is a files mismatch in that particular subfolder and Not somewhere in the tree structure below that subfolder. Well.... you got the idea. It is time to go deeper....

Files Table  Back

Now that you have an idea where are mismatched files located you can get to them. Right mouse click on the first column and select "Show All Files". Separate window is appeared with the files list for your folder with the two servers listed. This window is "Always on top". Click "Compare" inside new window and instantly compare file sizes. Same deal is here. Red and yellow will represent appropriate compare status. Count Empty is controlled by a check button on the main window. Menu options here allows to view files with notepad or run them.

Differentiate Mode  Back

Running this mode you need to have only one server listed. Here is how to use it the best. Create a subfolders list in the "Master Table" for a single server for share "Users" for instance. Save the file. Open this file the next day or two in the "Analyzer Table". Enable and  run Differentiate. Two additional Columns are created. One is listed a new sizes for the subfolders for the "Users" share. The header for this column contain your server name plus today's date. The second column marked as "Space Difference" and will display a space difference with positive or negative values. Simple is that. Run this mode periodically and be aware. Print a saved spread sheet and present it to your users manager as a report to request additional funds for a new server..... 

Options  Back

The last but not the list important. 

Please contact me if you have a question,  bug report, or  suggestion. gurgen@bellatlantic.net

Gurgen Alaverdian 2002
www.gurgensvbstuff.com