Diskover Data Indexing

Diskover is an application that indexes data. It scans a directory for all the files and folders metadata (i.e. filename, type, extension, owner, size, last accessed, etc.) and stores this information in an index. There is a web front end that you can login to and view statistics about the indexed metadata. Note this is not a live view of the data on the disk, but a snapshot from when the data was indexed.

Currently we are set up to scan top level grid shares. To login you will be asked for your CSHL username and password, you can enter just your username (for example username: lindsey) if you receive a 401 unauthorized error please open a ticket to request access. Below is a quick guide to get started navigating and viewing information about your data.

When logging in you will sometimes be brought to the index page and be asked to select an index, the below screenshot is an example of the index page:

To continue to see information about the data scanned you must first (1) select the index you wish to view. The index list has information about when the index was created and total number of files and filesize. Next (2) click the save selection button. To view the dashboard page lick on the icon highlighted above the (3) in the screenshot and to view a file list click on the file icon above the (4) in the screenshot.

Below is a screenshot of the dashboard page:

It lists some general information on number of files, file sizes, what percent of files diskover thinks are removable (this number is based on files accessed or modified in the last 6 months). And scrolling down you can see a list of the largest files and folders.

A screenshot of the file view is below:

In this view you can use the tree menu on the left to drill down into different folders and the main window lists the folder contents.

Diskover also includes a search with lots of filter options and built in queries as well, for example to search for all files larger than 10GB you can use the quick search menu as shown in the screenshot below:

Feel free to ask IT if you have any questions.

Please note this is a new application we are trialing the free version and do not have access to the premium features (anything with a purple tag in the menus). If there is interest from the Labs for more data insight available with the premium feature set we will look into purchasing the premium version.