topic Re: Microsoft OneDrive in Geodatabase Questions

Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 19:42:12 GMT

I'm looking for some feedback on a scenario. I've encountered GIS users using DropBox as a means to manage their GIS files to make them shareable with other users and to improve data access efficiency. How DropBox works is when you point to a file location on a server, it uploads the files to your local drive under the DropBox folder. ArcMAP works more efficient accessing data locally versus having to VPN into the server which is very slow. At the end of the project it requires someone to manually update the server files. This process concerns me. The new scenario is to end using DropBox and go to Microsoft OneDrive which I think has similar functionality as DropBox, but I'm not 100% sure. My question is anyone using Microsoft OneDrive with your GIS files to manage data? If so, how are you using it? I also would like to hear from others why this may be a bad idea too.

Thanks for your feedback.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 20:03:34 GMT

I only use any cloudy thing to backup zip files of stuff being worked on.

Things get so confusing when people try to use data stored in any cloud thing as if it were a real drive.

Just don't.

Work local (if you can). Then zip and backup to the cloud, download to where-ever, unzip and carry on,

Of course, this only works if you have a well-organized folder structure that keeps data and projects relative to one another and intact.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 20:49:00 GMT

Thanks Dan. When you refer to local are you referring to an on-site server or personal computer?

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 23:08:12 GMT

personal computer if you can and are allowed. I know this isn't possible in all situations, but it cuts out another link in the problem train

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:57:51 GMT

Sorry, I don't think I was clear on my description. Multiple people need to access the same project Geodatabase or shapefiles, and working locally is something we are trying to avoid.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 16:47:08 GMT

If they are not editing anything or adding anything, then I would go with your internal network rather than cloud, one drive locations.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

NorthPark — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 17:07:59 GMT

Are these users all on the same network? What license level do you currently have? Are all just accessing the data or are multiple people editing?

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 17:12:52 GMT

Yes, they are all on the same network. All are using Basic level licensing. Most of the time the users access the data at different times but they all refer to the same data. Nobody is editing at the same time.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

NorthPark — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 13:47:28 GMT

SDE for SQL Express is included with Standard and Advanced licensing. Technically personal and file geodatabases are multiuser, however performance will suffer over time. If they don't need to see the edits someone is making immediately, you could set up a robocopy script to create and update a local copy nightly and just edit the network copy. I use robocopy scripts extensively to keep various hosting locations updated and for backup.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:42:09 GMT

Thanks Eric! This gives me a direction I can look into. I appreciate the advice!

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

NorthPark — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 16:33:06 GMT

Let me know if you want any help setting up robocopy scripts.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

RicLawson — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 20:45:40 GMT

Actually, microsoft has built-in syncronization between a local user address and a cloud (OneDrive or Sharepoint) location. Changes are automatically synced and files can be kept locally or just on the cloud location. We recently moved everything from a on-premise server to this type of cloud structure, and hope to retire the server (and its maintenance issues and costs). I'm not fully sure we will use this method permanently or not (which is why we are keeping everything synced with the server for now), but it seems to work on our early tests. It can take a bit of time to download data needed for a new map/project, but once it's set it works locally, so faster than when we were on the server. Also makes the project more portable.

My main concern is concurrent editing. We have not tested this yet. Not sure how ArcGis and OneDrive sync will function together. I'll post an update when we get a chance to test.

As a small, non-profit with no SQL database pro, we don't want to go the enterprise route.

Curious what others think of this approach.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

RandyKreuziger — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 20:51:58 GMT

Steve,

Can you share what you'll learned? It's been a year since your last post, have you gotten ArcGIS working with OneDrive?

Thanks,

Randy

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

SteveRhyne2 — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 21:00:46 GMT

Hi Randy,

We are not using OneDrive with ArcGIS. We have users that are testing virtual machines and WorkSpot as a potential solution. I'm not sure what the performance has been so far. We are suppose meet soon and see what the results are.

Thanks for checking.

Steve.

Re: Microsoft OneDrive

RandyKreuziger — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 19:01:58 GMT

I have been testing OneDrive with ArcCatalog / ArcMap for two weeks and I'm sorry to report that I've find it unusable when mapping it as a drive letter even with the data set to "always keep on this device." For some reason there is a lot of chatter with OneDrive running AC/AM that I don't see when it isn't mapped as a drive letter. According to our network staff they haven't setup any restrictions or changes to our OneDrive (for Business) that we get from the Washington state Technology Solutions (WaTech).

Opening and viewing a single large 2.5GB raster (USGS 100K Topo raster in File Geodatabase)

Unmapped Mapped As A Drive

6 Seconds Cancelled after 8 minutes

Opening an MXD containing a single polygon layer of Washington state city limits

Relative Pathing Mapped As A Drive

4 Seconds 2 minutes 45 seconds