The Weekly Groove

“So I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem…”

2009-10-27T19:20:00Z

by Gregg Johnston

“So I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem…”

Software doesn't always work the way we want it to work. When things go wrong, we often fall back on what have learned about the software in order to diagnose the problem and try to fix it. Sometimes we just do things because they are “something to do” as opposed to something that can actually fix the problem. Such is the case with the applet in Groove called grooveclean.

Many times on the forums, we read about a user having a problem, and one of the things they will state is “I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem...” Most of the time, running grooveclean will not fix the problem. Sometimes, running grooveclean might fix the problem. It all depends on where the problem is located, what the problem is, and what has been done thus far to fix it.

So what exactly is grooveclean? Take a look at this knowledgbase article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907854

What grooveclean does is remove all the buffer files that are set to transmit and to receive. It also removes diagnostic information.

That’s it.

It is not a panacea for all Groove problems. In fact, running grooveclean has the potential to cause data loss. Say you have an Instant Message that is in the “Waiting to send” stage. Shutting down Groove and then running grooveclean will delete that message unsent. So when is a useful time to run grooveclean? Let's say that you added a large amount of data to a Groove space and then immediately deleted that data before anyone received it. As a result of this, Groove has a large outgoing buffer with a delete command that is following the data. Running grooveclean will clear out that buffer. Grooveclean will also help if there is corruption in a buffer. Anything having to do with communications being stuck and not progressing might be a good time for grooveclean. However, running grooveclean can also make data backlogs worse, because Groove will attempt to retransmit data that has not synchronized correctly. So if you added data and then deleted it from the workspace after a member received it, running grooveclean will not help. To keep everyone in the same state, Groove will retransmit the data added and the delete operation until everyone in the workspace has received them, and if you clear the buffer, it will need to regenerate that buffer and start the transmission again from the beginning. Bottom line: use grooveclean with caution and only use it if you have attempted other troubleshooting steps.

It is best practice to start troubleshooting communications issues from other angles before running grooveclean. Determine if this is a problem with Groove, or a problem with your network. Focus on what is currently happening with your communications by going to Communications Manager (Options > Communications Manager). Is there one space with a lot of activity? Best to let that activity complete and then reevaluate. Is there no space activity? That could indicate a communications problem, and grooveclean probably will not fix it.

One thing grooveclean will never fix is an error message on start up or some sort of system error message. Another thing grooveclean will never fix is the small amount of data that is in your communications tray. See this technote for that:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916384 - yes, grooveclean is a part of the process, but it is not the process.

Also, a quick word about grooveclean with the –all option: running grooveclean –all will remove all Groove account and workspace data from the computer. So it is important to consider everything that is associated with that action before running it. Do you have your account backed up? Are you willing to start over with a new account if you do not have it backed up? Are you willing to lose your Instant Message history? Are there other Groove accounts on the computer that you do not want to lose? Remember, even if you have your account saved to a file, you do not have all of your workspaces and workspace data saved. Keeping these things in mind, know that once grooveclean –all runs, there is no return.

(For information on backing up account and workspace data, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907230.)

So grooveclean is a handy tool if you are stuck in a communications jam. But it is not the cure-all for all problems in Groove. It is meant to be used in a limited way for a limited set of circumstances.

(Today's article is from contributer Gregg Johnston.)

Synchronizing files in Groove – to GFS or not to GFS

2009-09-15T14:52:00Z

...that is the question

Many users have started to use Groove because of the handy way it takes a folder in your directory and shares that folder as a Groove space – synchronizing files between workspace members and computers. Many users have also gotten themselves into trouble using Groove File Sharing (GFS) workspaces by turning their My Pictures folder and My Music folder into GFS workspaces, breaking the hard limits Groove sets for workspace size and number of files number and causing all kinds of performance and application problems. When is the best time to use a GFS workspace? What are some alternatives to GFS? What should you do when you start seeing oddities in GFS workspaces?

GFS workspaces are quite handy. By clicking New Workspace and selecting Groove File Sharing workspace, you can turn your directory into a Groove workspace that sits outside of the application. You can then invite colleagues to the workspace and they will share your data. You can also have chats within these workspaces, and see the online status of members of the workspace. Other workspace members can choose where to put their local copy of the workspace once they have received an invitation. They can decide to place it on their desktop, sync with another folder, or choose a location that better suites them. (I personally place the workspaces under My Documents.)

These workspaces are also not encrypted. They are, security-wise, treated as any other Windows folder. Therefore, if something catastrophic happens to Groove, the folders can still be accessed through normal means. If something catastrophic happens to the computer, the folders can potentially be accessed through a backup of some sort (obviously this depends on the backup applications involved), or retrieved from another workspace member.

The down side to this is that the GFS workspaces can also be accessed like any other folder in your directory. Whether it be an intrusion via hack or virus, GFS workspaces are exposed like any other Windows folder– with the potential for the effects of such exposure being synchronized to all workspace members. However, data in GFS workspaces is transferred in an encrypted state. When a change is made to a file, that change is sent to the Groove application, is serialized for transport, sent out encrypted via Groove to the Relay, transferred from Relay to the receiving Groove client encrypted, decrypted by receiving Groove client, and sent to appropriate file / folder.

So while GFS workspaces are handy, they do have some risk involved. An alternative to GFS is a Standard Groove Workspace with a Files tool. In these workspaces, a Groove Files tool handles all documents and other files. It has the look and feel of a Windows folder as well as the capability to drag and drop files to, from, and within the workspace. The data is encrypted, so it is resistant to outside attack from hacker (unless they have your Groove password) or viral corruption. Data does not have to be encrypted and unencrypted to synchronize, so there are also performance advantages. Rules on the number of files, the size of the workspace, and types of files still apply, as they do in GFS. However, there is no limit to the number of Standard workspaces you can have in a Groove account, unlike GFS, where the hard limit is 64. The down side is that all the data is encrypted in the Groove application. If a catastrophic event happens, the Groove account is unavailable, and there is no other workspace member or computer that has the data, then the data is irretrievable.

Two other alternatives to GFS workspaces are Live Mesh– currently in Beta – and Office Live Spaces.

So if you decide to use GFS workspaces, what should you do if things start to go wrong? The first thing you should do is to look at the number of files in the workspace. While there is a hard limit of 5000 files per GFS workspace, the more files you have in the workspace, the more synchronization that needs to happen. Related to that is the size of the workspace. 2 GB is the hard limit. However, once you get to 1 GB, you should start thinking about removing files or splitting the workspace into smaller workspaces. Most problems with GFS workspaces are rectified by eliminating data or starting over with new – smaller -- workspaces. Also you will want to consider other items such as system resources (disk space, memory) and bandwidth (high speed or dial-up?) when troubleshooting GFS issues.

GFS workspaces are handy, and when used appropriately, can be useful. However you will want to consider carefully what the future of a GFS workspace looks like. If the workspace has the potential for large growth, consider if a GFS workspace is the right method for sharing this data. Think about the alternatives and what benefits they might have over a GFS workspace. If you are doing a smaller collaboration and need a way to share a limited amount of files, then the GFS workspace might just be the tool to use!

(Today's article is from guest contributer Gregg Johnston. For more information on GFS issues, check articles with the GFS tag.)

Upcoming changes for Groove 3.1

2009-08-24T18:30:00Z

I expect many of you have been hearing the buzz about Microsoft Office 2010. I'll be talking more about the features and changes in that product as we get closer to the release. However, for those of you still using Groove Virtual Office 3.1 or the Groove 3.1 servers, the 2010 release has other implications, as it marks the end of most assisted support for Groove Networks 3.1 products. Since you will not be able to upgrade directly from Groove Virtual Office 3.1 to Office SharePoint Workspace 2010 (the Groove successor product), you may want to start planning for this release now. We've posted an article that provides guidance on the support and maintenance changes for the Groove 3.1 products and the upgrade and migration paths that will be available. For details, please take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974478.

Groove name change

2009-05-19T18:00:00Z

By now, I expect that most of you have seen an announcement that that in Office 2010, Groove will become Sharepoint Workspace. Jim McCoy has more information about the reasoning behind that name change here: http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team/archive/2009/05/13/makeover-for-groove-sharepoint-workspace-2010.aspx If you're anything like me, this probably makes you wonder what will happen to the rest of Groove. Fear not! Office SharePoint Workspace 2010 will not be a single-function client....(read more)

Summary of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 changes for Groove

2009-05-08T19:33:00Z

Hi all! You may have noticed that it's been pretty quiet here lately. That's because we've been busy preparing for the recent releases of Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 and Microsoft Office servers 2007 SP2 . These service packs fix the following problems: Server installation and configuration: Groove Manager Server 2007 cannot use SQL Server 2008 as a database. (See KB 968770 ) Groove 2007 Manager cannot create an AD integration server connection in Directory Integration Properties dialog when using...(read more)

Groove 3.1 Licensing maintenance issues

2009-04-15T19:46:00Z

Do you run Groove Virtual Office 3.1, or use the old 3.1 Groove Hosted Services? At this point, we believe most people who were using Groove Virtual Office 3.1 -- the last version of the Groove desktop application produced by Groove Networks -- have transitioned to Microsoft Office Groove 2007. However, if you are still using these legacy products, you may be interested in the services provided by Acquisition Support at http://acquisitionsupport.custhelp.com . This site provides licensing support...(read more)

Discuss: Relative file transfer speeds of File Sharing and Standard workspaces

2009-03-04T20:09:00Z

In a comment here , Camineet poses a question about relative file transfer speeds of File Sharing and Standard workspaces. Since this varies by environment, I wanted to open it up for others to contribute. Do you have data to share?...(read more)

Groove hangs at launch

2009-02-13T20:22:00Z

We have seen an increase in cases of Groove hanging at launch, either before displaying the login window, or soon after displaying the Launchbar. There are several conditions that cause this, and thus several things that fix it. If you are having this problem, determine which ones may apply to your situation: If Groove fails to launch immediately after installation , see the MSO.DLL section, and if you are using Windows XP, the MSFTEDIT.DLL section. If you were previously using Groove , but it now...(read more)

Rearranging a Groove-synchronized Windows folder

2009-02-04T00:34:00Z

When you use a folder in your daily work, you naturally find yourselves moving things around. For example, shortly after I started blogging, I realized that my work documents folder had become cluttered with half-written article ideas, so I changed the names of these files to start with " do- " and moved them into my blog and solution subfolders, both of which had previously been only for finished articles. We all make these sorts of changes, right? However, since work documents is the root of a...(read more)

Welcoming another Groove blog...

2009-01-28T22:03:00Z

Jim McCoy revived the Groove Development team blog a few months ago. We cross-linked our blogs at the time, but since custom links are so far down the sidebar, I'm not sure they get noticed. Check out his blog for tips and tidbits on what you can do with Groove....(read more)

Problems with "Discard Groove messages from unknown contacts"

2009-01-16T23:10:00Z

Under the Options tab of Groove Preferences, there is an innocuous looking option, Discard Groove messages from unknown contacts . While this option is useful in some situations, it is important to understand the problems that may result from using it. All of these are well documented in the Help, but are not obvious from the UI. Obviously, when this option is enabled, messages from unknown contacts -- that is, Groove accounts that are neither in your known contacts list nor verified by your Groove...(read more)

When Groove Administrator email doesn't reach the user

2008-12-30T21:55:00Z

Here's a scenario for anyone who administers a Groove domain from Groove Enterprise Services or Groove Hosted Services (i.e., from a Microsoft-hosted server). Let's say that one of your users lost their account and needs their account backup. No problem -- the server has a current one. You use the Services Manager UI to email the account backup file to the user, and you don't get an error or bounce message, but the user never receives the email. What could be wrong? Most likely, the message has been...(read more)

A summary of Groove workspace synchronization

2008-12-12T21:08:00Z

Since Groove is all about synchronization, it should come as no surprise that a lot of our support issues fall into that category. Here's a brief summary of factors to consider when data is not synchronizing from one workspace endpoint to another, or when changes do not occur the way you expect them to. In order to keep this from being a monster of a post, I'm only going to talk about Standard workspaces. For information on how Groove File Sharing workspaces differ, see my post of September 16, http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/archive/2008/09/16/comparing-groove-standard-workspaces-and-groove-file-sharing-workspaces.aspx...(read more)

Adding a Sharepoint Files tool to a Groove workspace

2008-12-10T00:16:00Z

Someone on the Groove newsgroup recently noted that the instructions for “Setting up a SharePoint Document Library connection” in the Groove Help only apply to Windows XP. After confirming this was true, I checked the Groove 2007 Help and How-to Home page at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/FX102270281033.aspx , the most current documentation for the Groove 2007 desktop application. The instructions there do not refer specifically to Windows XP features, but also didn’t work for me when I...(read more)

Understanding and troubleshooting the SharePoint Files tool in Groove 2007

2008-11-10T23:17:00Z

So, I'll confess -- SharePoint is not one of my specialties, especially in the current version of Groove. Recently, on one of the Groove newsgroups, someone was reporting that most of the documents in one of his libraries were not synchronizing down to the Groove Files tool. I asked him a few questions to try to narrow down the problem, but none produced any clues. However, he posted a few days later with something I never would have expected -- they had applied some MOSS patches, and since then,...(read more)