Google Drive File Stream

[FN-GM]

And to view from the other side:

 

What if Google decides all your files are illegal, what if Google decides to charge/discontinue, what if Google Drive syncs all your files and fills your hdd, what if they change something, say replace google drive with 2 other products, both slightly different to drive?

 

What if backup costs double?

 

These are the same risks that you have getting involved with any IT service. This is nothing new.

For example this could happen with SIMS. What happens if Capita decide to charge £30k a year for it? What happens when they change something in an update? What happens if the company stops producing the product?

 

 

And mostly: What if you have 1/10/40Gbps connection to your file server, but only 10/100/1000Mbps to the internet?

 

It doesn't require such high bandwidth to operate the service.

Edited November 10, 2017 by FN-GM

[mjk]

What do you do when your internet goes down?! Single P.O.F ?

 

its not 2001 any more. We have redundant lines.

[Arthur]

or ban files based upon the content. They are not Microsoft!

 

Google Drive ate our homework! Doc block blamed on code blunder

 

An indeterminate but supposedly small number of Google Docs users on Tuesday found that their essays, reports, school assignments, tracts, and manifestos had run afoul of Google's terms of service and had been made inaccessible.

 

Some users reported being unable to share their documents; others said their documents could not be viewed in Google Drive; and a few claimed their work had been lost, though we're told what was lost has been found again.

 

[...]

 

The incident prompted reiterations of longstanding concerns about the downside of cloud-based services, namely that files stored remotely can be swept away at any time for any reason.

 

Google offers Docs and Drive under the usual rules, which disallow abusive or illegal content. In most circumstances, it does not scrutinize private content stored on its servers, though it does have automated systems in place for detecting illegal images, at least in Gmail.

 

YouTube also has a system for detecting copyrighted content.

 

For shared content like Docs files, much of the ToS policing has been foisted upon other users, who are invited to flag material they deem inappropriate.

 

It's that flagging mechanism that went haywire, we're told. Shortly after noon Pacific Time, Google acknowledged its errant flagging frenzy and attributed it to bad code.

[mjk]

Google Drive ate our homework! Doc block blamed on code blunder

 

I bet you can count on one hand how many times that's happened to Google, compared to how many school systems go down each year because inept management teams wont fund a redundant / reliable in school system

[mavhc]

These are just the same risks that you have getting involved with any IT service. This is nothing new.

For example this could happen with SIMS. What happens if Capita decide to charge £30k a year for it? What happens when they change something in an update? What happens if the company stops producing the product?

 

Then you don't accept the upgrade, continue using the old version. SIMS is only one part though, and you'd still have the database, would take a while to write code to move it to a new system of course.

 

Some might consider your file system more critical than SIMS.

 

It doesn't require such high bandwidth to operate the service.

 

Surely it requires the same bandwidth to be a file server? Or more because it's proactively caching everything because it assumes the internet will fail at some point, which is fine for single person computers, but terrible for shared computers.

 

The reason google is offering GAFE for free is so you don't use Microsoft, same reason MS is offering it for free, as soon as one gives up the other can start charging.

 

Why is there no "Create Google Doc" link from OneDrive, or "Create MSWord Online" link in Google Drive?

 

What if you hacked together a system to use Google Drive as a Staff Shared drive, and then they introduced Team Drives? What if you tried to understand anything about Azure?

 

Both are suitable for some users, and a normal LAN file server is better for others. Will you end up with a mix of both? Of course.

[FN-GM]

Then you don't accept the upgrade, continue using the old version.

 

You can't just carry on using it when your annual subscription has expired. You either carry on their way or leave them, same with G Suite. I didn't like the way Microsoft was going with some of their products so I left.

 

Besides, you can't not update SIMS as you won't be able todo census, import exam results etc. Same as G Suite. You just asses the risk and put trust into the company.

 

Surely it requires the same bandwidth to be a file server?

 

No you don't need that bandwidth to operate File Stream. I would argue that kind of bandwidth isn't required to operate an on premise file server in a school

 

 

What if you hacked together a system to use Google Drive as a Staff Shared drive, and then they introduced Team Drives?

 

You stay with the old or move to Team Drive.

 

 

What if you tried to understand anything about Azure?

 

Both are suitable for some users, and a normal LAN file server is better for others. Will you end up with a mix of both? Of course.

 

Im not sure what you're talking about?

 

 

Or more because it's proactively caching everything because it assumes the internet will fail at some point, which is fine for single person computers, but terrible for shared computers.

 

Why? The only reason I can think is if your PC's are under spec and don't have big enough drives.

 

I can't help but think that you don't appreciate or understand modern IT applications.

Edited November 10, 2017 by FN-GM

[mavhc]

You can't just carry on using it when your annual subscription has expired. You either carry on their way or leave them, same with G Suite. I didn't like the way Microsoft was going with some of their products so I left.

 

Not everything is subscription based.

 

No you don't need that bandwidth to operate File Stream. I would argue that kind of bandwidth isn't required to operate an on premise file server in a school

Depends on how many users you have and what they're doing. Let's go with video editing, as that's worse case. A class of 30 have arrived on monday with footage they shot at the weekend as homework. Let's say 30 mins per pupil, 15 hours of footage. 15Mbps, that's 100GBs, that's 13 mins to upload at 1Gbps, assuming no one else is using the internet. Next week they're sitting on different computers, another 13 mins to dl it all again. Or 28 seconds locally. Hope there's no 2 classes doing video editing at the same time. Or photography. Or music.

 

LAN speeds are always cheaper than WAN speeds. 1Gbps to the server each, vs 1Gbps for the whole school?

 

Why? The only reason I can think is if your PC's are under spec and don't have big enough drives.

 

You don't know why a shared computer shouldn't be caching GBs of files per user? That's the whole reason we have a file server. 128GB SSDs in every computer.

 

I can't help but think that you don't appreciate or understand modern IT applications.

 

Which applications?

[ITGURU]

To me if everything moves to the cloud it does away with needing on-site technical staff! Would make the job quite boring! A good way to keep staff costs down too.

[jmak]

I've got an incompatibility with Sophos AV. It's giving the error message: File systems using direct i/o are not supported

 

I presume this means that it can't access the files on Filestream to scan. The only files I've got on there are either ones that I've created on my PC and uploaded or Google Docs, so I'm not worried at the minute. If I was to roll Filestream out to all users, I assume there would be a risk that they could upload a file and then sync locally to one of our machines. I've assumed that Google run AV on everything they store which will help.

 

Does anyone know if Sophos would scan the files that are synced locally? Or any other suggestions on how to protect us from files on Filestream? I know I can set an exclusion to avoid the error messages, but that's not quite the same....

 

We're running Endpoint Protection version 10.7 on the clients and Sophos Enterprise Console version 5.4.1.

 

Thanks

[mavhc]

I've got an incompatibility with Sophos AV. It's giving the error message: File systems using direct i/o are not supported

 

I presume this means that it can't access the files on Filestream to scan. The only files I've got on there are either ones that I've created on my PC and uploaded or Google Docs, so I'm not worried at the minute. If I was to roll Filestream out to all users, I assume there would be a risk that they could upload a file and then sync locally to one of our machines. I've assumed that Google run AV on everything they store which will help.

 

Does anyone know if Sophos would scan the files that are synced locally? Or any other suggestions on how to protect us from files on Filestream? I know I can set an exclusion to avoid the error messages, but that's not quite the same....

 

We're running Endpoint Protection version 10.7 on the clients and Sophos Enterprise Console version 5.4.1.

 

Thanks

 

I guess you need to test whether when a file is run, and thus downloaded, it's scanned. Although if google also runs AV that would be tricky, Intended use ° EICAR - European Expert Group for IT-Security

[LeMarchand]

Is it just us finding this occasionally unreliable? We get random failures to start or log in with Windows and some users report difficulties uploading when not on site. The reporting of the latter isn't the best, though:

 

"GFS won't upload at home."

"Is this just at home, or anywhere that isn't school?"

"Just at home."

"Has anyone else tried at your house?"

"No."

"Can you double check this happens when you're at a colleague's house?"

"I get the same problem in Starbucks."

 

SO IT'S NOT JUST AT HOME!!!

[FN-GM]

Has anyone else noticed that file stream no longer asks the user for consent to access their google drive?

[azc]

Has anyone else noticed that file stream no longer asks the user for consent to access their google drive?

 

Fantastic. Now we just need them to enable SAML single sign-on authentication for a zero-touch user experience and I'll be happy.

[FN-GM]

Fantastic. Now we just need them to enable SAML single sign-on authentication for a zero-touch user experience and I'll be happy.

 

Couldn't agree more.

[fiza]

I am trying to deploy Google Filestream with the --silent switch(googledrivefilesystem.exe --silent) with NetSupport DNA but nothing gets installed.

How are people deploying this?

[FN-GM]

I deploy with SCCM using the documented switches and it works ok. However none is on a batch file because I also deploy the launcher utility as well.

[fiza]

I deploy with SCCM using the documented switches and it works ok. However none is on a batch file because I also deploy the launcher utility as well.

 

Launcher utility?

[LeMarchand]

I am trying to deploy Google Filestream with the --silent switch(googledrivefilesystem.exe --silent) with NetSupport DNA but nothing gets installed.

How are people deploying this?

 

I couldn't get the silent switch to work as part of a batch file, but adding it as a parameter to the script via GPO seemed to work. Wouldn't guarantee it, but it auto-installed when I imaged a machine yesterday!

[Arthur]

Launcher utility?

I think @FN-GM might be referring to this...

 

https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?p=1648633

[fiza]

So how can you make File Stream use a consistent drive letter across the board? We want to tell people definitively that it is "G Drive" or "J Drive". It seems to take the first drive letter that is free ie G drive. If I connect a USB before signing into File Stream then the USB takes G Drive and File Stream takes the next available one.

 

Any way to force it to stick to the same one?

[FN-GM]

I think @FN-GM might be referring to this...

 

https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?p=1648633

 

Thats the one!

[Arthur]

Any way to force it to stick to the same one?

I haven't tested this myself, but the drive letter for File Stream is stored in the registry. You could change it to something else and see what happens.

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\DriveFS\Share]
"MountPoint"="G"

[fiza]

I haven't tested this myself, but the drive letter for File Stream is stored in the registry. You could change it to something else and see what happens.

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\DriveFS\Share]
"MountPoint"="G"

Doesn't work. "G" seems to be hard coded in File Stream but only if it is not used already. If you change in the registry to "F" and run File Stream and as long as "G" is available it reverts the setting back to "G"

[jmak]

Ours never goes to G - the Staff share is mapped as a login script to G so always Explorer always allocates it before filestream gets a look in.

 

If you map a drive to G in login, can you control which one it picks with the registry entry mentioned above?

[fiza]

Ours never goes to G - the Staff share is mapped as a login script to G so always Explorer always allocates it before filestream gets a look in.

 

If you map a drive to G in login, can you control which one it picks with the registry entry mentioned above?

 

It just picks the next available one. I set it to "K" in registry. Logged in and watched it change to "J"

Edited February 21, 2018 by fiza