Analyzing Disk Space Usage via WebDAV

WebDAV is an extension of the HTTP protocol that allows clients to perform remote Web content authoring operations. The WebDAV protocol can be enabled on most web servers allowing one to access files located on the web server via the standard file system interface. The purpose of this tutorial is to show how to perform a simple configuration of the WebDAV extension and then analyze, classify and search files located on the web server using the DiskBoss disk space analyzer.

For example, in order to configure the WebDAV extension for an Apache web server on Linux, open the 'httpd.conf' file in a standard text editor and add the following lines:

Alias /webdav /<Your WWW Document Root Directory>

DavLockDB /var/tmp/DavLock

Dav On

Deny from all

</LimitExcept>

</Location>

The 'Alias' directive will map the 'webdav' name to the WWW document root directory in the Apache web server allowing to access the root directory using the 'webdav' name. The 'DavLockDB' directive will specify where to save the lock database. The 'Location' section will enable the WebDAV extension for the WWW document root directory in the Apache web server for read-only access preventing any changes to files and directories. Once finished editing the 'httpd.conf' file, save changes and execute the following command to restart the Apache web server:

service httpd restart

Now, start the DiskBoss GUI application and select the 'Tools - Connect Network Drive' menu item. On the 'Connect Network Drive' dialog, select a local drive letter and enter the name or an IP address of the web server to connect to in the following format:

\\server-name\webdav

DiskBoss will connect to the specified web server and display the WebDAV network drive in the main view. In order to analyze files located on the web server, select the connected WebDAV network drive in the DiskBoss main view, press the right mouse button and select the 'Analyze Disk Space' menu item.

DiskBoss will analyze all files located on the Apache web server and show an hierarchy of directories sorted by the amount of the used disk space. In order to perform a file classification operation, select the connected WebDAV network drive in the DiskBoss main view, press the right mouse button and select the 'Classify Files' menu item.

DiskBoss will classify and categorize files located on the Apache web server and show an hierarchy of file categories sorted by the amount of the used disk space. In order to perform a file search operation, select the connected WebDAV network drive in the DiskBoss main view, press the right mouse button and select the 'Search Files' menu item, specify one or more file search rules and press the search button.

DiskBoss will search files on the Apache web server and display the file search results dialog allowing one to review file search results and save reports into a number of standard formats such as HTML, Excel CSV, PDF, XML and text.