The FlexTk file management toolkit provides advanced storage utilization analysis capabilities
allowing one to analyze one or more local disks or network shares, identify abnormal storage utilization
patterns and automatically execute (FlexTk Ultimate Only) user-defined actions. The user is provided
with the ability to define one or more storage analysis conditions with each of them capable of checking
the number of files, the total amount of used storage space or the amount of free space in a particular
directory or a set of directories detected automatically according to user-defined rules and policies.
For a step-by-step guide explaining how to use advanced storage utilization analysis capabilities
refer to the storage utilization analysis tutorial.
For any storage analysis condition, the user is provided with the ability to select one of the following
action types: send an e-mail notification, execute a FlexTk's user-defined command, execute a custom user
command or save a storage analysis report. During runtime, FlexTk will evaluate all the specified storage
analysis conditions, detect all disks or directories meeting user-specified criteria and execute
user-defined actions.
Frequently used storage analysis operations may be customized for user-specific needs, pre-configured as
user-defined commands and executed in a single mouse click using FlexTk's main GUI application or direct
desktop shortcuts. In addition, FlexTk Professional and FlexTk Ultimate provide a command line tool allowing
one to execute user-defined storage analysis commands from batch files and shell scripts or schedule
periodic storage analysis operations using a general purpose command scheduler. For more details about
user-defined commands refer to the User-Defined Commands page.
In order to start a storage analysis operation, select one or more disks or directories and press
the 'Analyze' button located on the main toolbar. After finishing the scanning process, FlexTk will display
the analysis results dialog showing a hierarchy of processed directories and files sorted by the amount of
used storage space making it very easy to identify directories holding significant amounts of data. In order
to enter a sub-directory, just click on the directory item in the results dialog.
Select one or more files or directories and press the 'Copy To' button to copy all the selected files and
directories to another location. Select one or more files or directories and press the 'Move To' button to
move all the selected files and directories to another location. Select one or more files or directories
and press the 'Delete' button to delete all the selected files and directories including all subdirectories.
In order to export a storage analysis report, press the 'Export' button and select an appropriate report format.
Advanced Options
FlexTk provides power computer users and IT professionals with a large set of advanced storage utilization analysis
options allowing one to customize and tune the storage analysis process for user-specific needs and custom storage
configurations. In order to open the storage analysis options dialog, press the 'Advanced Options' button on
the 'Storage Utilization Analysis' dialog.
The 'General' tab allows one to set the file scanning mode, file scanning filter, a custom report title and instruct
FlexTk to automatically save a storage analysis report instead of displaying storage utilization analysis results.
-
File Scanning Mode - FlexTk is capable of scanning multiple disks or directories in parallel thus improving the speed
of the storage analysis process on multi-CPU/multi-core systems. Select the 'Parallel' file scanning mode if you wish to scan
all input disks and directories simultaneously.
-
File Scanning Filter - Sometimes, storage utilization analysis should be performed on a subset of files meeting one or
more user-specific requirements. For example, one may need to analyze PDF documents only. In this case, set the file scanning
filter to '*.pdf' (PDF Documents) and FlexTk will analyze storage utilization for PDF documents only.
-
Report Title - this option allows one to specify a custom report title to be used in all types of storage utilization
analysis reports.
-
Save Report - If this option is selected, FlexTk will analyze all the specified disks and directories and automatically
save storage analysis results into a report file according to the selected report format instead of displaying the results dialog.
This option is especially useful in conjunction with user-defined storage analysis commands allowing one to schedule periodic
storage utilization analysis operations using FlexTk's built-in command line tools. The report file name is constructed
according to the following logic: 1). if the report entry is empty, FlexTk will automatically generate a report file name and
save the report file into the user's home directory. 2). if the report entry specifies an existing directory, FlexTk will
automatically generate a report file name and save the report into the specified directory. 3). if the report entry is not
empty, FlexTk will use the entered value as an absolute file name.
The 'Rules' tab (FlexTk Ultimate Only) provides the user with the ability to perform storage utilization analysis on
files matching one or more user-defined criteria. All files that are not matching the specified file matching criteria will
be excluded from the analysis process and not displayed in the results dialog. For example, one may wish to analyze all
types of documents with the file size more than 1 MB and were modified more than a year ago. In order to add one or more
file matching rules, press the 'Add' button. Select an existing file matching rule and press the 'Delete' button to remove
the selected file matching rule. If no rules are specified, FlexTk will analyze all files located in the specified input
disks and directories.
The 'Performance' (FlexTk Professional and FlexTk Ultimate) tab provides the user with the ability to customize
the storage utilization analysis process for user-specific storage configurations and performance requirements.
FlexTk is optimized for multi-core/multi-CPU computers and advanced RAID storage systems and capable of scanning multiple
file systems in parallel. In order to speed up the analysis process, use multiple processing threads when scanning
input directories located on multiple physical hard disks or a RAID disk array. In addition, in order to minimize potential
performance impact on running production systems, FlexTk allows one to intentionally slow down the storage utilization
analysis process. According to your specific needs, select the 'Full Speed', 'Medium Speed', 'Low Speed' or 'Manual Control'
performance mode.
The 'Exclude' tab allows one to specify a list of directories that should be excluded from the storage utilization analysis
process. Files located in the Windows system directories may be critical to the proper operation of the operating system
and it is highly recommended to avoid touching any files in these directories. By default, FlexTk populates the list of
exclude directories from the global list of exclude directories, which may be modified on the FlexTk options
dialog's 'Exclude' tab.
The 'Actions' tab allows one to define one or more conditional actions capable of detecting user-specified
storage utilization patterns, executing automatic actions and sending e-mail notifications. In order to add a new
conditional action, press the 'Add' button.
The 'Storage Utilization Analysis Action' dialog allows one to specify a condition and an action that should be
executed for each directory meeting the specified condition. Directories are evaluated according to the following logic:
- For Each Input Directory - means that the specified condition will be evaluated for all input directories and the selected action will be executed for each input directory meeting the specified condition.
- For Each Top-Most Directory Under - means that the specified condition will be evaluated for all top-most directories located in the entered directory and the selected action will be executed for each directory meeting the specified condition.
- For Directory - means that the specified condition will be evaluated for the entered absolute file system location only.
The user is provided with the ability to specify one of the following condition types:
- Having More/Less Than X Storage Space - means that the specified action will be executed for each directory having more/less than X MB/GB/TB of total storage space (including all files in all subdirectories).
- Having More/Less Than X Files - means that the specified action will be executed for each directory having more/less than X files (including all files in all subdirectories).
- Having More/Less Than X of Free Space - means that the specified action will be executed for each directory having more/less than X MB/GB/TB of free storage space.
- Having More/Less Than X % of Free Space - means that the specified action will be executed for each directory having more/less than X % of free storage space.
FlexTk allows one to select one of the following action types:
- Send HTML Notification To - sends an HTML notification to the entered destination e-mail address. Each specific e-mail will provide detailed information about the exact reason of the notification. In order to use e-mail notifications, the user needs to define an e-mail account in the advanced options dialog.
- Send Text Notification To - sends a text notification to the entered destination e-mail address. Each specific e-mail will provide detailed information about the exact reason of the notification. In order to use e-mail notifications, the user needs to define an e-mail account in the advanced options dialog.
- Execute User Command - allows one to execute a FlexTk's user defined command for each directory meeting the specified condition. For example, the user may define a storage utilization analysis operation looking for large amounts of old MP3 music files and executing an automatic archiving or clean-up command for each directory where the amount of old MP3 music files is greater that the specified maximum. For more details about user-defined commands refer to an appropriate section in this document.
- Execute Custom Command - allows one to execute a custom command, batch file or a shell script for each directory meeting the specified condition. The absolute directory name will be specified as an argument for the specified command.
- Save Report To - allows one to save a full storage analysis report in the HTML, Excel CSV or text format. The saved report will contain information about all input directories that were processed during the storage utilization analysis operation.
An unlimited number of conditional actions may be added to any storage utilization analysis operation. During runtime, all
conditions are evaluated in the order as they are defined in the 'Actions' tab. If a storage utilization analysis operation
is executed using FlexTk's main GUI application or a FlexTk's desktop shortcut, all actions will be executed in the GUI mode
showing all the required windows and dialogs. If a storage utilization analysis operation is executed using FlexTk's command
line tool, actions will be executed in the hidden mode without showing any windows or dialogs.
