Google Drive File Stream & Roaming Profiles

[eddyc]

Good morning,

 

I have done a bit of a search on here but have had no joy in finding any results.

 

Is anyone else using Google Drive File Stream with roaming profiles?

 

Any pointers or caveats to be aware of?

 

I know I need to move from roaming profiles to UEV in the near future, but am struggling to fit the time in to get the necessary changes in place.

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

eddyc

[DGardiner]

works fine for us

[eddyc]

works fine for us

 

Would you be so kind to run through how you have it set up please?

 

I have installed the client onto our machines using

 

GoogleDriveFSSetup --silent --gsuite_shortcuts=false

 

And that is fine.

 

The issues we are seeing are that:

1) It prompts every user to log in everytime they sign into a PC.

2) It is trying to download their Google Drive to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS so as people moves between devices it is attempting to download everything again.

 

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

eddyc

[DGardiner]

Would you be so kind to run through how you have it set up please?

 

I have installed the client onto our machines using

 

GoogleDriveFSSetup --silent --gsuite_shortcuts=false

 

And that is fine.

 

The issues we are seeing are that:

1) It prompts every user to log in everytime they sign into a PC.

2) It is trying to download their Google Drive to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS so as people moves between devices it is attempting to download everything again.

 

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

eddyc

 

We have offline storage disabled so its always files on demand so no downloading. i did no special config or anything it just worked out the box, we have roaming appdata though not sure if that helped?

[eddyc]

We have offline storage disabled so its always files on demand so no downloading. i did no special config or anything it just worked out the box, we have roaming appdata though not sure if that helped?

 

Hmmm, we redirect our appdata too.

 

No such luck here!

[TwistedHelixis]

It is trying to download their Google Drive to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS so as people moves between devices it is attempting to download everything again.

 

I thought File Stream was only 'files on demand'. Doesn't seem to download anything when I login at a new computer.

[dhicks]

I thought File Stream was only 'files on demand'. Doesn't seem to download anything when I login at a new computer.

 

Hmm - I thought File Stream was "files on demand" but with some kind of cache, so recently-accessed data would be cached locally. I don't know if that is correct or not, or if it is if you can control the size of the cache used per user.

[paulkerton]

We have offline storage disabled so its always files on demand so no downloading. i did no special config or anything it just worked out the box, we have roaming appdata though not sure if that helped?

Are you using File Stream or Backup and Sync? As far as I'm aware, File Stream would only download a file to your PC as you're using it...

[dhicks]

As far as I'm aware, File Stream would only download a file to your PC as you're using it...

 

Just did a quick check - turns out that the File Streaming client caps cache usage at "20% of free harddrive space":

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7644837?hl=enbn

 

However, I don't know if that winds up being 20% per user, which in a shared environment could get large quite quickly. You can set a hard limit in kilobytes yourself. I suspect File Stream might well do some pre-emptive caching of your most popular files or the files it thinks you might need next.

[eddyc]

Just did a quick check - turns out that the File Streaming client caps cache usage at "20% of free harddrive space":

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7644837?hl=enbn

 

However, I don't know if that winds up being 20% per user, which in a shared environment could get large quite quickly. You can set a hard limit in kilobytes yourself. I suspect File Stream might well do some pre-emptive caching of your most popular files or the files it thinks you might need next.

 

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes I came across that article and set the following up. I still have to log in every time though which is a pain!

 

 

eddyc

[dhicks]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I came across that article and set the following up. I still have to log in every time though which is a pain!

 

If that cache is set to 10Kb, that might be a bit small.

 

Do you mean you're having to log in to the File Streaming client every time you log in to Windows or just every time you log in to a machine for the first time? I've been trying to figure out how to get the Google Windows login component integrated with Google File Streaming, so the user doesn't have to set up the file streaming client separatly, they just need to log in once. I think it might be possible to force the File Streaming client to authenticate via Chrome, then have an AutoIt script or similar start the File Streaming client and authorise via Chrome. If I can figure it out properly, I think that might even work to get the File Streaming client going before Windows File Explorer starts up (if I replace the default Windows shell with the AutoIt script), so a user's Documents and Desktop folders can be redirected to Google Drive.

[TwistedHelixis]

I've been trying to figure out how to get the Google Windows login component integrated with Google File Streaming, so the user doesn't have to set up the file streaming client separately, they just need to log in once.

That would be great. Even the GCPW windows sign in system doesn't seem to log into Filestream

 

https://support.google.com/a/topic/9539498?hl=en&ref_topic=9441473

[dhicks]

Even the GCPW windows sign in system doesn't seem to log into Filestream

 

Indeed - that's the problem I'm trying to work around. It does seem to pass login details into Chrome, though, hence my plan as detailed above. If I can get a not-too-clunky AutoIt script or similar put together I'll post back here somewhere.

[DGardiner]

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7644837?hl=en

 

theres an option to use browser auth in here, would atleast make it not require a password if chromes picking up the auth?

[eddyc]

If that cache is set to 10Kb, that might be a bit small.

 

Do you mean you're having to log in to the File Streaming client every time you log in to Windows or just every time you log in to a machine for the first time? I've been trying to figure out how to get the Google Windows login component integrated with Google File Streaming, so the user doesn't have to set up the file streaming client separatly, they just need to log in once. I think it might be possible to force the File Streaming client to authenticate via Chrome, then have an AutoIt script or similar start the File Streaming client and authorise via Chrome. If I can figure it out properly, I think that might even work to get the File Streaming client going before Windows File Explorer starts up (if I replace the default Windows shell with the AutoIt script), so a user's Documents and Desktop folders can be redirected to Google Drive.

 

Yes I mean we are having to log into the File Streaming client every time we log into windows. We use roaming profiles.

 

We don't have much choice on the roaming profiles front. Some of our staff move between 20 rooms per fortnight and unfortunately will not accept that their other settings have not roamed with them (such as apps pinned to the taskbar), so ditching roaming profiles is a no go at the moment.

 

eddyc

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I will give that another go although I am sure when I tried it last time it didn't seem to like it and would still relaunch Chrome and get you to click sign in despite you already being logged into GMAIL.

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7644837?hl=en

 

theres an option to use browser auth in here, would atleast make it not require a password if chromes picking up the auth?

[danielghares]

Has anyone had any luck with this yet? I've tried everything I can think of with roaming profiles, and can only get FS to auto sign in on PC's that the user has previously signed in to (i.e not a first time login).

 

Strangely though even when completely clearing cached copies of the users profile folder from a client machine, when they login again file stream successfully signs in without prompting for approval. This makes me think that there is either something in each profile that tracks which PC's that the user has signed in with previously, or something on each machine which keeps a track of previous file stream users. I'll try and do some more digging with procmon / regmon