Moving Google Drive to New Server

[mowgli82]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm in the process of moving our shared areas to Google drive, a sort of Hybrid Cloud environment if you like so we still retain a local copy in the event of internet issues etc but will make life easier for staff working from home.

 

I have installed the drive client on the server and selected the folder/s I want to sync.

 

My question is this, If I get a new server and copy the data from my old server to the new one and install the Google Drive Client will it try to re-sync all the data to the cloud again or just look for changes?

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

[RichCowell]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm in the process of moving our shared areas to Google drive, a sort of Hybrid Cloud environment if you like so we still retain a local copy in the event of internet issues etc but will make life easier for staff working from home.

 

I have installed the drive client on the server and selected the folder/s I want to sync.

 

My question is this, If I get a new server and copy the data from my old server to the new one and install the Google Drive Client will it try to re-sync all the data to the cloud again or just look for changes?

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

 

As I understand it if you copy them with the same time-stamp it should just do an initial scan but not need to resync completely... I only use the home / personal version of Google Drive, but I've heard it works the same way...

 

Just make sure there are no hidden/system folders where you're moving them to - I moved mine to the root of a drive with shadow copies and it kept failing because of that...

Edited January 26, 2016 by RichCowell

[jmak]

Oooh. Interested in how you've done this - it's one of the things on my list that I've never quite got around to trying.

[mowgli82]

Am I missing a trick? I've uploaded a test folder and shared it with the allstaff group but when they login to the web client the folder doenst show in their "shared with me" area. Any ideas?

[RLR]

I've just done some testing with this. If you share a folder and chose not to send emails, it doesn't appear in their shared with me area. If you chose to send emails, it does appear. If you want to share a folder but don't want to send an all staff email, you can get the "Shareable Link" by right clicking the folder. This link can then be communicated to staff which allows them to "Add" to their drive. I guess the shareable link would be emailed so doesn't make much sense not to send the all staff email.

You'll also need to remember to send the shareable link to any new members of staff that join as the folder doesn't appear in new google drive user accounts.

[CyberNerd]

I've also noticed this problem. A decent workaround is to put a link either on your old shared drive, or in a learning platform. A shared drive is a nice method because people think it's accessed from the same location as old.

There are some methods of automatically adding the files to individuals drives but it requires scripting and I've never done it with folders.

[mowgli82]

I've just done some testing with this. If you share a folder and chose not to send emails, it doesn't appear in their shared with me area. If you chose to send emails, it does appear. If you want to share a folder but don't want to send an all staff email, you can get the "Shareable Link" by right clicking the folder. This link can then be communicated to staff which allows them to "Add" to their drive. I guess the shareable link would be emailed so doesn't make much sense not to send the all staff email.

You'll also need to remember to send the shareable link to any new members of staff that join as the folder doesn't appear in new google drive user accounts.

 

Thanks that might solve my problem.

 

The problem with adding it to their my drive is that the client on the workstation then decides to download a copy of the folder - not good if the folder is 8GB! :/

[RLR]

Ah. I thought they where going to only access it via a Web browser. We've turned off the use of Google drive sync client as we have some very large shared folders

[CHR1S]

 

Just make sure there are no hidden/system folders where you're moving them to - I moved mine to the root of a drive with shadow copies and it kept failing because of that...

 

Had no end of trouble with this, currently trying https://www.insynchq.com/ which allows you to ignore file types and specific folders etc. Its slow as hell to do an initial upload however!!

[mowgli82]

Ah. I thought they where going to only access it via a Web browser. We've turned off the use of Google drive sync client as we have some very large shared folders

 

The more I delve in to this the more I think I will have to do the same - its a shame because the drive does offer some nice functionality

[RLR]

The more I delve in to this the more I think I will have to do the same - its a shame because the drive does offer some nice functionality

 

 

Yep, we really like Google Drive but our biggest issue is backing up files. There are a few company's that offer google drive "backup" but they don't work very well. I hope Google Vaults comes to google drive. It's very easy for users to delete files not owned by them. Deleting shared files can get a bit confusing. We've done a bit of testing and came to the conclusion to just not delete anything unless you're sure.

[mowgli82]

Is there a global trash that everything goes in to or does it go in to whoever deletes the item?

[CyberNerd]

Yep, we really like Google Drive but our biggest issue is backing up files. There are a few company's that offer google drive "backup" but they don't work very well. I hope Google Vaults comes to google drive. It's very easy for users to delete files not owned by them. Deleting shared files can get a bit confusing. We've done a bit of testing and came to the conclusion to just not delete anything unless you're sure.

 

 

Just hit "restore data" and you can go back 30 days. It will find anything deleted, even if it's deleted from the bin.

[RLR]

Just hit "restore data" and you can go back 30 days. It will find anything deleted, even if it's deleted from the bin.

 

Yep, 30 days seems to be the retention period which isn't very long. We use Google Drive quite extensively so we had to do some testing and talking with Google. This is what we found:

 

If a user deletes something in their Google Drive it will appear in their Bin/Trash. Once deleted from Trash there is a further 30 day period where data could potentially be recovered from the Google Apps admin backup.

 

If someone deletes something from a shared folder things get a bit more complicated. For example, we have a shared folder that “User A” owns but both “User A” and “User B” have access to. If “User B” creates a subfolder in the shared folder they are the owner of that folder. If “User A” then deletes that subfolder it is deleted from the shared folder. As “User B” is the owner this folder is then moved to the root of their personal Google Drive.

The Drive structure and consequences of deletion are confusing and it is very difficult to tell the physical location of a file. For example, files that have been deleted and are in trash still appear in Shared with Me for other users if that file has been shared out. If users are given edit rights to a shared file they can in turn share this out to other people. Keeping control of who has access to what suddenly becomes very difficult. A member of staff could very easily sabotage data and delete potentially critical data and it might not be obvious for several weeks, long after the retention period has expired.

 

It is possible within Shared Folders of Google Drive for staff to create folders and files and restrict access to everyone else. This includes admins which would mean that there is no way for us to back these files up as the backup account would not have permission. All shared folders in Google Drive are affected by this problem. This means that you could have a scenario where important files are deleted and if this is not picked up or noticed within 30 days they are gone forever.

[CyberNerd]

You need to think of drive files and folders more as ID's in a database structure than a hierarchical structure.

Some of the things you say (in red) are incorrect

Nobody can override an admins permission - you can always get the file back using the API but you DO need to know the ID.

Only the OWNER can permanently destroy a file. In the scenario above (creating shared folders) this would never happen as the admin is moving the shared folders to drive.

[RLR]

You need to think of drive files and folders more as ID's in a database structure than a hierarchical structure.

Some of the things you say (in red) are incorrect

Nobody can override an admins permission - you can always get the file back using the API but you DO need to know the ID.

Only the OWNER can permanently destroy a file. In the scenario above (creating shared folders) this would never happen as the admin is moving the shared folders to drive.

 

What do you mean about not over riding admin permissions? I've always thought files and folders are shared with only those in the sharing list. Is it possible for admins to see all folders in a domain?

[CyberNerd]

What do you mean about not over riding admin permissions? I've always thought files and folders are shared with only those in the sharing list. Is it possible for admins to see all folders in a domain?

 

Yes, you can do this using the API. There are some third party tools developed for it (integrated into other products). The simplest is to use GAM by ditto https://github.com/jay0lee/GAM and utilise shell scripts to do the heavy lifting. You can see all files, folders etc as an admin and change their permissions.

You can also see these in Vault (and share access with teachers if you want), but as you eluded to vault doesn't snapshot deleted files like oit does email.

[RLR]

Yes, you can do this using the API. There are some third party tools developed for it (integrated into other products). The simplest is to use GAM by ditto https://github.com/jay0lee/GAM and utilise shell scripts to do the heavy lifting. You can see all files, folders etc as an admin and change their permissions.

You can also see these in Vault (and share access with teachers if you want), but as you eluded to vault doesn't snapshot deleted files like oit does email.

 

 

Thanks for this. I'll take a look.

[VeryPC_Anthony_L]

Just one idea what about using something like a Qnap box with their cloud sync app.

[mowgli82]

So i'm trying to sync the data and the drive client keeps dropping out with an error of none.. has anyone else come across this?

[mowgli82]

Has anyone moved tried syncing the redirected documents to Google Drive? as in \\servername\userhomedirs\ - i'm thinking it might be a way to sync everyone's home directories without having to install drive on the desktops.

[CHR1S]

Has anyone moved tried syncing the redirected documents to Google Drive? as in \\servername\userhomedirs\ - i'm thinking it might be a way to sync everyone's home directories without having to install drive on the desktops.

 

Im doing that now. What do you need to know?

[mowgli82]

Im doing that now. What do you need to know?

 

Just does it work ok?

 

I currently have all users data in d:\Userdata\Staff Directories, i am going to move the it to d:\data which is my Google Drive folder and just re-share with the same name. I'm thinking once the data has synced I will need to manually share each users homedir within Google Drive. I'm thinking it shouldn't affect anything on site in terms of folder redirection breaking etc.

[CyberNerd]

I do recall an issue (a few years back now) whereby it wouldn't sync shared folders from windows servers, but we were never affected as ours use linux. I guess that problem is fixed now.

[mowgli82]

I do recall an issue (a few years back now) whereby it wouldn't sync shared folders from windows servers, but we were never affected as ours use linux. I guess that problem is fixed now.

 

Currently doing our Public and Staff drives and it seems to be ok apart from the drive app bombing out occasionally