AKA… how to visualize the files you are storing in SharePoint.
*Update on the below after having spoken with the team that runs the internal Microsoft SharePoint farm (thanks Sam for information on the impact!). While everything mentioned does work, the approach has two downsides:
The two quick and easy approaches to reducing the space used by your SharePoint site are:
As my Dad used to say… TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. If it was as easy to visualize storage as I show below in a supported and resource-kind manner, the SharePoint team would have already added it.
In SharePoint 2007, there was a useful tool underneath Site Collection Administration called “Storage space allocation” that led to storman.aspx underneath http://servername/_layouts/storman.aspx.
This storman tool allowed you to view how your space was being used within your site collection, and if you were filling up your site against your storage quota, you could show documents, document libraries, lists, and recycle bins, sorted by size or date. This was a great way to find large or old documents to delete and free up space.
On the back end, this was a resource intensive tool that could cause database blocking, and as such it did not make the cut for SharePoint 2010.
KB 982587 discusses some possible workarounds for the problem: The Storman.aspx page is removed from SharePoint Server 2010
The Storman.aspx page is used for storage management. For example, the page can show you the top 100 documents or document libraries in terms of size. Therefore, you can use the page to clean up some content from your site by deleting the large content that you no longer need. Because there is no replacement for this page, use one of the following methods to regain certain functionalities: Use Web analytics reports to analyze various aspects of sites and of site collections. For more information about the reports, visit the following Microsoft TechNet Web site: View Web analytics reports (SharePoint Server 2010) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee663487(office.14).aspx) Verify the version information of each document on the Version History page. To do this, follow these steps: Open the SharePoint Server Web site that contains the document. Point to the name of the document, click the drop-down list, and then click Version History. Use Windows Explorer to check the sizes of the documents that are in a document library. To do this, follow these steps: Click the document library name in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. On the Library tab, click Open with Explorer. Right-click a document, and then click Properties. On the General tab, view the size of the document. Use the SPSite.StorageManagementInformation method to return information about storage management for the site collection. For more information about the method, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site: SPSite.StorageManagementInformation method (Microsoft.SharePoint) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spsite.storagemanagementinformation.aspx)
The Storman.aspx page is used for storage management. For example, the page can show you the top 100 documents or document libraries in terms of size. Therefore, you can use the page to clean up some content from your site by deleting the large content that you no longer need. Because there is no replacement for this page, use one of the following methods to regain certain functionalities:
View Web analytics reports (SharePoint Server 2010) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee663487(office.14).aspx)
SPSite.StorageManagementInformation method (Microsoft.SharePoint) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spsite.storagemanagementinformation.aspx)
Those solutions all work, although manually poking through document libraries in Explorer View is not my idea of a good time. As there really are no new problems… let’s see if we can use my favorite tool for visualizing why my hard drive is full, and apply it to finding out what is filling up a SharePoint site collection.
Windows allows you to map network drives via WebDAV. SharePoint allows you to access site collections via WebDAV. To combine the two, put the URL to your site collection in the Folder field of Windows’ Folder field, and you will end up with a drive letter mapped to your SharePoint site collection.
Download and install WinDirStat from http://windirstat.info/ (not a Microsoft product, so if it eats all the cookies in your house or forgets to rewind your VHS tapes… sorry about that). Select that network drive you just mapped, and hit OK.
WinDirStat will scan away for a few minutes, and come back with the view below. At a glance, I can quickly see that the majority of my files are stored in a particular site (the “offerings” and “delivery” subsites use up 84% of my space), and PowerPoint/Zip/WMV files are taking up the vast majority of space.
From here, you can drill down into the tree, select all files of a particular type, or just right click on some of the largest boxes and choose “Explorer Here”, which will open up a window in Windows that is opened to the document library or folder in SharePoint that holds that particular file.
You can then decide what to delete/archive/move to free up space. How’s that for an awesome way to visualize the files you are storing in SharePoint?
(P.S. This works fine in SharePoint 2007 too… I never thought to do it back in the day as I had storman available to show me my big/old files)
Windows SteadyState was a great technology designed for administrators that were responsible for computers used by many people (think labs, kiosks, internet cafes, libraries, community centers, etc). The kind of place where people like to screw around with settings, download viruses, delete files, add stuff that shouldn’t be there…
SteadyState addressed these issues by allowing administrators to set up restrictions as to logon times, allowed programs, what icons showed up on the desktop, would log the computer off after a certain amount of time, and would even discard all changes made my users after logout, resetting the computer to a pristine state for the next user.
As foreshadowed by my past-tense “was” in the first sentence, the bad news is that SteadyState only works with Windows XP and Vista, and there is no version planned for Windows 7. Additionally, the download will only be available through December 31st, 2010; so if you do plan on using SteadyState, download it now here: Windows SteadyState 2.5
The good news is Windows 7 will allow you to natively do almost everything that SteadyState added, and the Windows Team has written up a step-by-step guide on setting up Windows 7 to work well in a lab/café/library/school environment. From the description:
This document is intended primarily for IT pros who configure shared-computer access in business environments, but partners who support shared-computer access in schools, libraries, and Internet cafes will also find the information useful. The document set includes: Creating a Steady State by Using Microsoft Technologies, which describes the native Windows 7 features and free tools from Microsoft that you can use to create a steady state on computers running Windows 7. Group Policy Settings for Creating a Steady State, which is a reference that describes Group Policy settings that you can use to configure computer and user settings and prevent users from changing those settings. The SteadyState Reference worksheet (.xlsx file), which you can use to look up and filter settings that this document and the reference describe. For example, you can quickly find information about settings that are related to Start Menu restrictions.
This document is intended primarily for IT pros who configure shared-computer access in business environments, but partners who support shared-computer access in schools, libraries, and Internet cafes will also find the information useful. The document set includes:
Some features, such as AppLocker (available in Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise), will allow MUCH more control over what applications are allowed to run, based off of File version, name, product name, publisher, etc.
Download Creating a Steady State by Using Microsoft Technologies
With school back in session soon (if not already), The Trustworthy Computing team has released a number of useful family safety resources and brochures that would be useful to hand out at a PTA Meeting. You can also use them as supplemental materials to run your own online safety event for your school, Cub Scouts, or other community organization. For additional resources, see our Event Guide and PowerPoint presentation pages.
These free, downloadable resources are designed to help you educate yourself and others about computer security, privacy, and online safety issues and to help you prevent problems and correct problems that do arise.
You can download low-resolution PDF files for home printing, or high-resolution PDF files if you want to have the materials professionally printed and folded for an event.
Brochures are double-sided, four-color handouts and are in either tri-fold (8.5" X 11") or gate-fold (8.5" X 14") format.
Protect Your Kids From Cyberbullying XPS | PDF
Please contact online safety resource support for questions about printing or using these materials with your audience.