Migrating My Documents to Google Drive or Dropbox

Well, the new buzzword is 'Cloud' and it seems everyone is getting on the bandwagon and offering services through the 'Cloud'.  First of all, most of these services either aren't actually based on cloud technology but are rather the same web services always available but now using new marketing hype to generate business OR the service is based on cloud technology and has been for a long time.  Either way, to the end user there really isn't much effect except that companies are clawing their way over each other to make sure they get your business in their 'cloud' as opposed to their competitors' clouds.  End result: we get cool new products.

One of the relatively new services getting a lot of buzz is Google Drive, which competes with Dropbox, Skydrive, Cubby, ownCloud, etc.  The purpose of this blog post is not to debate the benefits of one service over the other.  I recently migrated my 'My Documents' folder to my Google Drive in order to be able to access my documents everywhere, have a backup in case my PC exploded, and all the other reasons these services exist.  This blog post will explain how I did it and what to look out for.  I will use Google Drive as the example, but any other service should be interchangeable with it.

The first thing to do is obviously get an account with Google Drive.  If you already have a Google account, you can use that.  If not, get a gmail account, then go to Google Drive to setup your drive.

Second: Install the Google Drive desktop application.  This little app creates a new folder under your profile folder called (surprisingly) 'Google Drive'.  Once that folder is created, anything you had in your Google Drive in the cloud will get synchronized to this folder on your desktop.  The same works in the other direction.  Any files and folders placed into your PC's Google Drive folder will get synchronized up to your drive on the internet.

The next thing you need to do is determine if you'll be able to fit your documents within the space allocated on your drive.  Since Google hands out 5GB for free, you should be able to synchronize your documents to the cloud if your 'My Documents' folder is less than 5GB in size.  To find this out, go to your my documents folder, select everything (Ctrl+A) and open the properties folder (Alt+Enter).

Ideally, it would be nice to put most of the files in your profile up there.  Luckily, Windows makes it easy to change the location of most of the folders under your profile.  For example, you could have your 'My Documents' folder actually stored on a secondary hard drive or a flash drive.  If you're planning on storing more than just your documents on your Google Drive, first go to your PC's Google Drive folder and create a folder for each profile sub-folder you want to include.  Like this:

• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Documents
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Desktop
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Downloads
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Favorites
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Links
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Music
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Pictures
• C:\Users\sweenig\Google Drive\Videos

You may not want to include all these folders.  Pick and choose the ones that you want and that can fit (don't forget to consider that some of these folders may increase in size significantly).  

Now that you've got new locations for all your profile sub-folders, go to the existing folders and change their location.  Open up your profile folder (start>>run>>C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%).  Right click on the folder you want to move to your Google Drive, open the properties dialog box, and go to the location tab.  Click the 'Move...' button and browse to the new folder under the Google Drive folder that corresponds to this folder.  Hit Ok and Windows will ask you if you want to move the old files to the new location.  Say yes.  This next part may take a while depending on the size of the folder.  This is not copying your files to the Google Drive on the internet; it's copying the files from the old location on your computer to the new location on your computer (that happens to be synchronized with the internet).  As this move process proceeds, you should see some activity on the Google Drive app icon.  It's synchronizing your files from the local Google Drive\Documents folder up to the internet.  Pause this as necessary if it slows down your internet too much.

Repeat this process for the remaining folders (if you have space).  When it's all over (which may take a while if you have a lot of files) you should be able to access all your folders the same way you did before.  Changing the 'location' of the profile sub-folders instructed Windows to use the new location but make it look like the old location.  

If you need help visualizing the size of the various folders in your profile, use a tool like Windirstat.  Point it at your profile directory and it will show you how big each folder is using a pretty cool graphic.

GXMLG 2.0

I finally broke down and rebuilt my GXMLG tool.  Given the complexity of the task, I originally wrote the applet using MS Access.  However, to make things easier to distribute and easier to troubleshoot and use, version 2.0 uses perl and is run from the command line.  To illustrate the difference, the old utility was 6.5MB.  The new script is 11KB.  That's what a graphical interface gives you.



You'll have to install perl (I use strawberry perl on windows boxes) and run the script like this:

>perl gxmlg.pl

Running it without any arguments shows you the help file:

This script outputs any combination of configuration files for the NetQoS
suite of products. You must install strawberry perl and Text::CSV,
Text::CSV_XS, and Getopt::Long. To install CPAN modules, run cpan [module name]
from the command prompt.

Example: cpan Text::CSV

This script was created by Stuart Weenig (C)2012.  For more information visit
http://stuart.weenig.com. This script may be redistributed as long as all the
files are kept in their original state.


Current Version: 2.0

Usage: PERL gxmlg.pl [-outnpcxml] [-outsacsv] [-outnvcsvnv] [-outucmcsv]
                     [-infile NAMEOFINFILE] [-npcinspath INSERTPATH]
                     [-npcxmlname NPCXMLFILE] [-sacsvname SACSVFILE]
                     [-nvcsvname NVCSVFILE] [-ucmcsvname UCMCSVFILE]

    -infile NAMEOFINFILE        Specifies the name of the Sites file to be
                                imported. (If omitted: sites.csv)
    -outnpcxml                  Output an NPC XML groups definition file.
    -npcxmlname NPCXMLFILE      Name of the NPC file to be output. (If
                                omitted: NPCGroups.xml)
    -npcinspath INSERTPATH      The path to the group that will serve as
                                the insertion point.  Required if using
                                -outnpcxml option.
    -outsacsv                   Output a SA networks CSV file.
    -sacsvname SACSVFILE        Name of the SA file to be output. (If omitted:
                                SANetworks.csv)
    -outnvcsv                   Output a NV discovery scopes file.
    -nvcsvname NVCSVFILE        Name of the NV file to be output. (If omitted:
                                NVScopes.csv)
    -outucmcsv                  Output a UCMonitor locations file.
    -ucmcsvname UCMCSVFILE      Name of the UCMonitor locations file to be output.
                                (If omitted: UCMLocations.csv)

You must install strawberry perl and Text::CSV, Text::CSV_XS, and Getopt::Long.
To install CPAN modules, run cpan [module name] from the command prompt
Example: cpan Text::CSV

If the server you will be running this on doesn't have access to the internet, you
won't be able to install the modules automatically (since they have to be downloaded
from the internet).  The solution is to download the tarballs from www.cpan.org and
extract them using winzip or winrar or 7z.  You might need to extract several times
until you get just the folder with the files in them.  Then copy them to your server.
Open a command prompt and cd to the directory containing Makefile.pl (you'll have to
do this for each module).  Then execute the following:

     perl Makefile.pl && dmake && dmake test && dmake install

For the text modules, do Text::CSV first, then Text::CSV_XS.

The script itself is pretty simple.  Specify an input file.  This input file is the same sites/networks file referenced in my previous blog post.  Here's a sample sites list to get you started.  Then just decide which output files you want.  If you specify the npc output file, you'll also need to specify the insertion point (more information about the insertion point).

If you don't have internet access on the box, you won't be able to install the Text::CSV modules to install (since they come from the internet).  The solution is to download the Text::CSV and Text::CSV_XS tarballs and extract them using winzip or winrar or 7z.  You might need to extract several times until you get just the folder with the files in them.  Then copy them to the NVMC.  Open a command prompt and cd to the directory containing Makefile.pl (you'll have to do this for each one).  Then execute the following:

perl Makefile.PL && dmake && dmake test && dmake install

Do Text::CSV first, then Text::CSV_XS.

AT&T vs. Comcast

I've had AT&T dry loop DSL for several years.  Dry loop is the term for DSL without a phone line.  Anyway, it's been giving me problems lately and since I work from home, my work is affected any time I have an internet performance degradation.  Not to mention, if my internet is slow, Christy can't watch Netflix while I'm working.  So, I've recently decided to switch to cable internet from Comcast (Xfinity Performance).  With my AT&T internet, I'm supposed to get 6Mbps download and 700Kbps upload.  Since it's DSL, it's supposed to be a guaranteed rate.  However, this is the speed I got today just before the Comcast guy came to setup my new internet.

This is actually better than normal.  My normal download speed is just under 3Mbps with uploads somewhere around 150Kbps.  Needless to say, this is why I'm switching to Comcast.  Their plan is $20 cheaper and boasts speeds up to 20Mbps.  Cable internet isn't a guaranteed rate, but even if they live up to half the promise and the average rate is 10Mbps, that will be a huge improvement over my old internet connection.

Here are the results after the upgrade to Comcast internet.  Needless to say, I'm happier than I was.

CA Network Flow Analyzer

Back in May, I gave a presentation for the CA Infrastructure Management Global User Community.  At the time, it was recorded using Microsoft's LiveMeeting recording feature.  For some reason, PowerPoint animations don't get recorded correctly and the recording of my presentation wasn't that great.  So, I've re-recorded my presentation and uploaded it to YouTube.  It also turns out I can now upload videos longer than the default 15 minute limit.  Cool!
Anyway, here's the video:

Manually Configuring Applications in SuperAgent

Over the years, I've configured thousands of SuperAgent applications.  I've refined the process, which includes a YouTube video (shown below) and an application flow diagram (detailed below) that I give to application owners to fill out.  Usually they give me back their own version of the application infrastructure, which has more and less than what is needed for SuperAgent.  That usually results in a meeting where I've taken their data and plugged it into my AFD and I solicit the missing information.  So, what I've decided to put in this blog post should be everything needed to get started configuring applications in SuperAgent.  Obviously, the SuperAgent administrator will need to know how to properly administer SuperAgent, but this primer is meant more for the application owners than the SuperAgent administrator.

First, the video.  This video is based on a bounce diagram presentation that I've given countless times and explains how SuperAgent works on a fundamental level.  This is important information to present to the application owners so they know why we're asking for the application flow information.



Beside the video, I also present the Application Flow Diagram (AFD). This is a Visio diagram that shows the information needed in order to configure an application in SuperAgent. I've also written a document to explain the application detailed in the example and how to fill it all out. Here it is:

---

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to describe a low complexity application and detail the parameters that must be obtained about that application in order to correctly configure the application for monitoring within CA Application Delivery Analysis (SuperAgent). This document also attempts to identify the types of people responsible for obtaining/providing that information about the application and infrastructure to the NetQoS administrator. Given the diversity of modern organizations, the recommended roles may not have the information required.