What I was doing, RichCopy now..

First of all I’d like to apologize for being away for so long and not actively updating this blog.

Today I will share what I was doing while I was away. My group is responsible for ensuring the quality of products aimed at enterprise customers as well as accelerating innovation through the engagement and joint activities with software and hardware partners. Over the past year I have been working almost exclusively on setting up our new facility, “Microsoft Otemachi Technology Center” in downtown Tokyo, Japan. This is a rather unique facility as it houses both MIC (Microsoft Innovation Center) and MTC (Microsoft Technology Center) as opposed to the usual model of having one facility dedicated to one center. MIC focuses on accelerating innovation and stimulating the local software economy with Microsoft technology, and MTC, which is for enterprise customers, “…is a collaborative environment that provides access to innovative technologies and world-class expertise, enabling you to envision, design, and deploy solutions to meet your exact needs” (MTC Web site). I was the project manager for every phase in setting up this new facility in Tokyo. My role not only involved driving the project, but I was also responsible to the entire design process from designing the office layout and infrastructure to setting up the switches, cables, etc. This new facility has 5 briefing rooms, 2 solution experience room, 1 envisioning room, 1 datacenter and 1 topology lab. Here is look like.

Datacenter

Briefing Room

 

Microsoft is committed to reducing carbon dioxide, and I spent a lot of time designing this new facility to minimize energy consumption, especially in the datacenter, which accommodates a total 40 server racks. In many cases, customers pay attention to server and storage energy consumption, but not the air conditioning infrastructure. At a typical datacenter, not container base, server and storage consumes less than 50% of total energy; the rest is consumed by lighting and air conditioning. Thus facility infrastructure is quite important for better PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness). Also this new facility hosts an environment for product testing, such as Exchange Server, SQL, and System Center’s management solutions. Network infrastructure was another key area.

Focuses are:

- Central management and monitoring of PDU (Power Distribution Unit) and Air Conditioners, not only server hardware and OS.

- Independent air conditioning control (per Server rack) to avoid unnecessarily cold lab.

- Maximum efficiency of cooling by minimizing the diffusion of hot air for high cooling efficiency. *Hot Aisle Containment

- Typical datacenter/lab configuration, not container, as our customers and partners come to visit and use them.

- Higher network bandwidth.

What we’ve chosen is APC’s datacenter solution. APC is Microsoft’s technology and solution partner, and they have rack and power solutions that satisfy the majority of the needs mentioned above.

Here is what the new center has deployed:

Summary of infrastructure

Rack

- APC’ Datacenter solution

Ø NetShelter Racks with HAC (Hot Aisle Containment)

Ø InRow cooling

Ø InfraStruXure PDUs

- HP ProCurve, Brocade and F5 for network solution.

Network Cables

- CAT6A

- OM3, ribbon cable for interconnection between racks and labs. (MPO/MPO)

Switches

- HP ProCurve, Brocade and F5 for network solution.

- 80G bps interconnection between labs.

- 10G network ready (CX4, SR)

- FCoE

Storage

- iSCSI (1000Base-SR 1000Base-T, 10G Base-SR [SFP+])

- Fibre Channel (2, 4, 8G bps)

- FCoE (10G bps)

HAC (Hot Aisle Containment) to minimize the diffusion of hot air for high cooling efficiency.

RichCopy

Long path, reparse point, some missing command options, etc will be addressed in next release. It will be released in a couple of weeks.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  New update will support long path and option to hide splash screen.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  GaryKen, can you please make RichCopy to show separetely when copying process is finished and verifying process is started (in "Verify" method)?And what actually happens to files at destination if in the middle of copyin or verifying process something causes RichCopy to crash or PC to shutdown... How to check if those files were copied and verified completely?Thank you.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I read most of the earlier posts concerning ACLs, etc. not transfering over for various reasons, and I'm wondering if anyone has used RichCopy for the bulk file/folder transfer, then used Robocopy to fix ACLs, timestamps,updating, etc.? Yeah, it would be nice to have it all in one single app, but hey, it's free! Domarigato Ken-san for your time and effort - gambare!

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello, Ken. Congratulations on a great looking facility. Well done! I am happy to see that you will be able to spend some time on RichCopy again :-) Will shares be included in the new version?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello RichCopy users. Thank you for using RichCopy. I apologies I have been away too long. Yes, there is an updated version of RichCopy with synbolic link, few other additional features and bug fixes; however I still need several more weeks in order to have spare time to finalize. I will review all feedback posted on this thread, and try to take into the next release.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Ken, Great product. I am just having problems with the timer switch. This does not seem to work at all. I am using Richcopy64 on 2008 server r2. Any ideas?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Ken, your work on RichCopy is much appreciated by us out in the trenches. Any chance you will add a SFTP connection method to RichCopy? In my environment, we are quite concerned about security of passwords, etc. Thanks, Gary

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  It is possible to test what files will be copied or deleted? (The /L flag of robocopy).

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  this tool is pretty cool but i was wondering if there will be the option to copy files with more than 255 characters (like robocopy does). is it going to be a feature soon? (..i hope so :)) thanks

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello Ken, really good to see you back !!! I'm not sure if in previous comments the necessity of support for SeBackupPrivilege and SeRestorePrivilege as in robocopy /b was mentioned. Waiting eagerly... Many Greetings Michael

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  bigger pics pls!  Awesome work

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Nice work on RichCopy Ken.  We needed a multithreaded copy tool for a long time.  It would be perfect if the ACL issues were resolved :). Thanks for your hard work. Oscar

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  How do you exclude multiple directories in RichCopy?  I tried separating names with semi-colons inside double-quotes (e.g. /FED "DIR1; DIR2"), but that didn't seem to work.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello Ken. Please, let RichCopy to keep original modification dates of folders at destination. Only creation dates are kept now....

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  And also, what about the possibility to handle long paths/file names? Will that be included in the new version?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Excellent, can't wait. I was just about to download the old version, but will hold off for the next release. Long path support will be a huge benefit.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hi, Last time I tried RichCopy it was fragmenting files...For example, when copying a large file it would create the file, and then write to it (you can watch the file size grow by refreshing the target directory window while copying).  As the file grows, blocks are allocated and the file is fragmented.  The file size should be set immediately after creating the file so that the file system can try to keep it contiguous.  RoboCopy did this correctly... Is this still being updated?  Where, please?  The RoboCopy Gui page insists RichCopy is the greatest thing and everyone is using it...so, updates? I know it's probably not the highest priority in the world, but it's such a minor fix for a problem that is quite irritating once you know it is happening and I can't use the tool when I know my files are being turned to spaghetti on the hard disk... Thanks

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Any updates on when the new RichCopy will be released?

• Anonymous
  May 25, 2010
  We realise RichCopy is not your "only job" but it has been 4 months since the "where I have been" update and getting close to a year since the last update to RichCopy (June 2009). Are you still there and if so is this an "active" project that may get some work at any stage ? Thanks for the excellent piece of software. It just needs some attention, please.

• Anonymous
  June 02, 2010
  This is exactly why RichCopy should be OPEN SOURCE! I don't know why this or a more advance file operation function isn't already built into Windows or any OS for that matter. I hate it when you go away while copying large files, only to return to find some prompt or error has occurred... and if you have bad lucky, near the beginning of the operation :( Keep up the good work!

• Anonymous
  June 02, 2010
  why does robocopy or richcopy make this _img697.imageshack.us/.../tempqf.png ?

• Anonymous
  June 10, 2010
  I have just install the RichCopy, but it did not come with the Additional Copy options.  I only see "Overview", and the program does not show "Process control", "Attribute, Errors", Etc.  Why is this?  Which version has thes options?  Send response to morrissettefam@live.com -Kel

• Anonymous
  June 10, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 24, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2010
  Hi Ken, there is some news regardin long path support? we're really appreciate this fix that could help us in transferring files between storages. This app is really good and support also Mixed environment ACL between unix and windows (CATIA) Thanks

• Anonymous
  July 18, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2010
  I would appreciate if Microsoft took real, commercial responsibility over RichCopy. It is very handy and needed tool starting from homes and small offices to bigger deployments. OR if RichCopy would be open source then people could leave Ken more time for his actual work and fix the bugs themselves;-)

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 12, 2010
  How about the ability to copy to multiple destinations at the same time... ie an OU for our servers.  This would be great... if it can already be done I'd gladly take some advise on how it's accomplished. Pics look great!

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2010
  In robocopy there is parameter MINAGE and MAXAGE which is really useful to copy or archive file based on the system. Is there is same option/parameter available in richcopy also . actually i have use this in commandline. Any post is appreciated.

• Anonymous
  September 16, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 16, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 19, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 15, 2010
  He hasn't responded to this blog forever. That stupid splash screen needs disabled, and a 100% silent process needs to be available...I can't utilize the super fast processing with it popping up on my screen.

• Anonymous
  November 23, 2010
  Yes, please see if a PM can have this put up on codeplex

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2010
  Thank you for RichCopy. Best... data-center... evar. Paul Danger Kile dangerismymiddlename.com

• Anonymous
  December 01, 2010
  RichCopy is a great tool; I too would like to see some updates.  From time to time I get network problems that even Richcopy cannot span and if these catch a file halfway copied I end up with an incomplete version of that file with today's date!  If RichCopy followed the RoboCopy practice of setting an arbitarily early file date on a file when it starts to copy then updating the timestamp when the transfer is complete it would avoid the incomplete files as being mistaken for more up-to-date versions...

• Anonymous
  December 05, 2010
  can you share source code ? thank you

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2010
  either I sorted out my confusion, or I am still confused.  it seems the diagrams in the help for "consolidate multiople sources" are reverse to the descriptions, at least in 4.0.217

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2010
  Ken - thanks a lot for a badly needed utility! I thought of submitting some bugs - but i see (and fully understand and appreciate) that you probably don't have time to fiddle with RichCopy now.   So I'm taking the liberty of making a different suggestion:  how about making it open source? (in CodePlex or elsewhere). Myself, and i'm sure many more qualified developers, would be happy to try and dive in and take the support burden off your shoulders - or at least help out a bit.

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2010
  Ken - thanks a lot for a badly needed utility! I thought of submitting some bugs - but i see (and fully understand and appreciate) that you probably don't have time to fiddle with RichCopy now.   So I'm taking the liberty of making a different suggestion:  how about making it open source? (in CodePlex or elsewhere). Myself, and i'm sure many more qualified developers, would be happy to try and dive in and take the support burden off your shoulders - or at least help out a bit.

• Anonymous
  December 22, 2010
  For me one significant performance relevant technique is missing in RichCopy. Let me cite it from FastCopy's web page (ipmsg.org/.../fastcopy.html.en): "Verify written files data by MD5(or SHA-1." "Action detail: Read(Src) -> MD5(Src) -> Write(Dst) -> Read(Dst) -> MD5(Dst) -> Compare MD5(Src/Dst)"

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2011
  Dude, you need to blog regularly or delete this blog. There is no point in blogging once in an year.

• Anonymous
  January 20, 2011
  Richcopy seems to have a problem with "ampersands" in the folder names. Is this something you are going to be looking at? thx,

• Anonymous
  January 26, 2011
  Love this tool, any chance we can get the source code? Thanks

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2011
  What is the latest version of RichCopy?  When is the Trickle option going to be functional? Thanks

• Anonymous
  March 09, 2011
  Has RichCopy been removed from the Download Center?  I was not able to find when I checked today (3/9/11). Thanks!

• Anonymous
  March 11, 2011
  How to use RichCopy with FTP, i have error 3.

• Anonymous
  April 04, 2011
  With v4.0.217, I keep getting code 5  Access is denied errors on files with the read-only attribute.  It looks like all the files are copied, but when I select to Move files, these read-only files get left behind in the source directory.  Is there a way that RichCopy can also delete those files too?  It was a pain to manually verify hundreds of these "errors".  If I uncheck error 5 in the "File attributes, Error Handling", I get the same results...log shows errors, files copied not moved, and files remain in the source directory. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  April 07, 2011
  Come on man, bring out the new version! (Or at least release the source code, please!) The world knows you through RichCopy, not the Otemachi Technology Center... We all appreciate your software!

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2011
  Ken, dude, we love you, we know stuff is going down in Japan. Please make this open source or something. There's shockingly not better options, just alternatives and if this was updated with fixes mentioned above it would be perhaps the best file transfer assistant we have at our disposal. Thanks for your hard work but there are many folks who could give/use a hand! Don't leave us hangin ^_^

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2011
  Guys, I think this is a dead blog and a dead application. About the only thing Richcopy was good for was multithreaded copying, well guess what... the robocopy that ships with windows 7 has that feature with the /MT[:n] switch. technet.microsoft.com/.../dd542631.aspx Cheers.

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2011
  i was having trouble excluding multiple directories using RichCopy.  Originally i had spaces after the semicolons and double quotes around all.  It woudl only exclude the first directory.  Thsi was fixed by removing the spaces.  Just fyi

• Anonymous
  June 17, 2011
  Will the HELP tab oh the GI ever offer help other than current message that states: "RichCopy Failed to Launch Help"

• Anonymous
  July 14, 2011
  Ouch???  Nice data center! Glad to see RichCopy hasn't totally died - or, has it?

• Anonymous
  September 04, 2011
  Hi, I discovered this morning this utility (RichCopy version 4.0.217). Here are some bugs I found. If I didn't post this message at the right place, please let me know by sending me an email at shiftcode@gmail.com. (Speak only in english, I'm french) :

1. When I change the "Default" option profile, changes made are not copied to a new profile when you click on "New" : I though this "Default" profile acted as a template for new options.
2. When you load an .rcx file with source and destination directories save in this file, these default directories are not reported to the main window from which you launch the copy action. Worse, if source and destination fields are empty in the main window, the software does not try to check if they are filled in the "default directory" of the .rcx file  `:-(
3. in the .rcx file, in the "Files to be excluded" section, when you check "Use name to filter ..." or "Use attributes to filter ...", and you reload the .rcx file (after saving it), checkboxes are unchecked, even if you filled fields below these checkboxes.
4. "Use name to filter directory" in the "Files to exclude" section does not work. My example : I try to save my Thunderbird profile file, that contains a "Crash reports" folder I don't want to copy. So I check "Use name to filter directory" and write "Crash reports" into the field below (without doubble quotes). Then I check "Use attribute to filter directories" and check "System file". When I launch the copy, the Crash reports folder exists in my destination folder, even if I delete it and relaunch the copy ! Conclusion : for the now, I will keep on using Robocopy utility, which seems to be more reliable (never crashes, whereas your application sometimes crashes when clicking on "error handling" section)
5. Here is a "nice to have" : the ability to say "don't do anything, just tell me what you will do if I ask you this". In other words, the equivalent of a "whatif" in PowerShell or the /L option in Robocopy. Thankx.

• Anonymous
  October 07, 2011
  Hi Ken. I'm just staring with RoboCopy and I'm thinking of using it for Backup insted of Windows Backup. Your program seems VERY usefull. Are you going to release an update for Windows Server 2008 R2? Thanks!

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2011
  RichCopy 4.0 is 2008. Are there any updates to the Tool? PS: There is an issue. While COPYING DIRECTORY TREES, the CREATED & MODIFIED Dates for FILEs are COPIED but the same is not the case for DIRECTORIES/ FOLDERS. Can this be created / added as an option?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2011
  It's over a year since the promised update. Any chance of it coming soon? Bug fixes would be great.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2012
  Any chance for an update to RichCopy?

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2012
  Hi Ken, A current bit of feedback on RichCopy latest release: unfortunately, it does NOT replicate folder timestamps. Very sad... as no other windows tool (not even current robocopy with dcopy:t) does that either. So close but so far. Glad to alpha/beta test anything for you. (Ted O @ MS Humanitarian Sys can connect you to me.)

• Anonymous
  March 11, 2012
  Hi Ken, please, fix long file name (>255) copy issue, RichCopy crashes with this files.

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2012
  just found rich copy, perfect!  just what I wanted. are there are any ready made setups to something like: "mirror the directory, but only copy files if filesize is different"

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2012
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2012
  Ken, you last posted in November 2011 that "... need several more weeks in order to have spare time to finalize." We know you are busy but any idea when the update will be released ?

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2012
  Hi Ken, great job, with the help of www.symantec.com/.../readyhow-replicate-file-shares-using-microsoft-richcopy I was able to get the settings properly, and the log. Any idea when we'll see an update of RICHCOPY, it's worth to keep it alive!! BR

• Anonymous
  September 01, 2012
  New version would be great. Whatever updates you have... thanks Ken.

• Anonymous
  September 25, 2012
  question: Where is/are the logs placed, I can find the name of the log but can not view it?? /s/ Frank in Florida, frank.vansevers.ctr@socom.mil

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2012
  Can we RoboCopy Ken, and have his copy work on the next release?

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2013
  The consolidate option doesn't work for me. Is it working for anyone else?

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2013
  The PURGE function if there are multiple directories selected as source gives error 87 at the start of  the process as others in past have said and I can confirm... :( also there is the long path name problem.Maybe there will be an update in future but for now there are a lot of bugs, too much for be useful if you need a small but reliable copy utility :(

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2013
  Love the tool but I keep getting "Error is occurred during the copy process" with and error number of "0"  Does anyone have any idea what causes this?

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2014
  Please fix bugs

• Anonymous
  June 10, 2014
  Hello Ken,
  
  your last post is about 4 years ago, so it is clear that you are really busy with your other challenging activities.
  
  Why don't you (as Microsoft ofc) put the tool in the public domain so all the people interested can contribute and make it live and grow?
  
  In the CMS arena, Orchard (http://www.orchardproject.net) is an interesting example where Microsoft went open source.
  
  Best regards.