Windows & Tabs > Configure Scans Dialog

In this configuration dialog you can set options for the single scans and schedule update scans.

configscan_options

Scanned directories

In the list on the top of this configuration dialog there is information about the scanned directories shown, which are stored in the currently connected database. This information is scan location, the next scan time, the duration of the last scan, the current state and some more. Single columns of the list can be shown/hid by a right-click on the list header.

In the context menu of the list you will find some of the following functions and some additional exporting functionalities.

Below the list, there are the following buttons:

Scan Now	Starts a scan for the selected directory immediately.
Scan Later	Schedules a single scan for the selected directory for a later point in time.
Abort Scan	Aborts a running scan of the selected directory.
Add Scan	Browses for a directory to scan. Note: With SpaceObServer Enterprise Edition you can also scan Linux and Unix server via SSH (See: "Scan Linux / Unix") and scan the storage of Exchange Server mailboxes (See: "Scan Exchange Server").

Below these buttons there are 4 tabs shown where you can modify the scan settings individually for each selected scan:

Scan Options

Follow Mount Points and External Symbolic Links	This option is relevant for NTFS drives only. You can decide if a scan should follow symbolic links and mount points within the selected directory branch (See NTFS Mount Points for additional information).
Track NTFS Alternate Data Streams and NTFS Hard Links	SpaceObServer can detect Alternate Data Streams (ADS) as well as hard links and include this values to the calculation of the allocated folder size. Because scanning files for ADS and hard links takes quite a long time, this option is deactivated by default to increase the scan performance.
Calculate MD5 checksums for files	Activate this option if you want to use the MD5 checksum of files content as indicator to identify "Duplicate Files". This option is deactivated by default because this feature needs a remarkable amount of space in the SpaceObServer database and also increases the work to be executed by the SpaceObServer Agent. Note: The calculation of the MD5 checksums is done by the SpaceObServer Agent, when there is no scan job to execute. You do not need to perform an update scan after activating this option.
Purge Data older than X Day(s)	Selects how many days the file system size information of the selected directory remains in the database. The archived size information are needed to build the "History" chart.

Update Options

Schedule Scan

Choose this option to scan the selected root directory in a certain interval. You can choose to scan the directory every X days or on a specified day of the week. The time of day when the scan starts can be configured here, too.

Note: The directory can only be scanned at the selected time, if the computer, where the SpaceObServer Agent is installed, is running at this time. Otherwise, the directory is scanned the next time, the computer is turned on. Because of performance, directories are not scanned parallel. Though, if another scan is in process at the scan time of a directory, the directory is scanned after the first scan is terminated.

Use NTFS Change Journal

By analyzing the NTFS Change Journals SpaceObServer is able to update the database constantly. This results in disk usage information which is always up to date. Check this option to activate the "Change Journal analyzing" for the selected drive.

Note: Change Journals are available for local NTFS drives only. They will be activated for a complete drive.

Scan Filter

Excludes

If you want to exclude certain files or folders from scanning, add matching patterns here. A pattern may look like "C:\Windows" or "*.tmp". Files or folders which full path matches one of the patterns specified here will be ignored during a scan. Modify the list with the buttons "Add" and "Delete". Use the button "Apply" to save changes of the list.

Expert Settings

Observing Server	The observing server is set by default to the name of the server that initially added the new root directory. Only the observing server will execute scans for this root directory, no matter from which client or scheduled job the scan was triggered. You can also enter more than one server name. The names must to be separated with a semicolon (;) only. Blank the server name if you want to allow any server to execute scans for this directory.
Database	Use this option to store the file system sizes of the selected directories in a different database on the connected SQL server. This way the collected information of different directory branches can be easily separated and the access permissions to these data are configurable through the database access rights.
Scan Location	Use this option to change the selected directory path, when the directory was moved.
Check Data Consistency	Updates the cached values in the database table structure. Use this in case a scan was aborted and some of the merged statistics (e.g. "Extensions", "Users" or "Ages of Files") are showing strange values. Note: This option is disabled if there is a scan for this root directory currently in progress.
Use different credentials for scan	Activate this option to use certain credentials for the selected scan(s), other than the credentials of the user account used as logon of the "SpaceObServer Agent" (See: SpaceObServer Agent) Note: This option can not be use for Exchange server scans!