Knime Workspace migration to OneDrive

[Sivasanmugam]

Hi All,

I want to migrate all my workflows from the Knime workspace on my local PC to my OneDrive. I created a new folder that I will use as a Knime workspace in OneDrive. But it obviously doesn’t have all the workflows I have in the Knime workspace on my local PC. How to migrate them to my OneDrive? Thanks a lot for your help.

Best regards,
Siva

[mlauber71]

@Sivasanmugam you could just copy them there since KNIME workflows are just a directory. But please be aware that with some versions of OneDrive there could be problems since they would not support all special characters that KNIME might need. So best to test it with some workflows.

Unable to save_as workflow due to File access problems Math Formula node (Access is denied)

It might well be that there will be problems with special characters in some folder name configurations of MS OneDrive. If this is the case you will not be able to recover from this. You have to save your workflows and move to another workspace! [image] [image]

You can always export and import workflows from KNIME thru .knwf compacted files.

[Sivasanmugam]

@mlauber71 . Thanks will try that and like you mentioned test it with a few workflows first.

[Iris]

And it will slow down your KNIME and probably your computer as well.

[iCFO]

I don’t use OneDrive, but I run a dual computer setup through DropBox with KNIME installs on both computers synced to the same directory to allow me to easily bounce back and forth. I also have a separate “local only” install on my laptop (which is mostly used to test out concepts and help people on the forum without cluttering up my workflow files). I haven’t noticed any real difference in KNIME speed or computer speed between the Dropbox linked installs or local installations. However, I am running powerful computers through a fast internet connection. I also run the local install version when I am traveling to avoid large file sync delays through a slow connection.

If you plan to access this fileshare directory on more than 1 computer then here are some tips which may help keep you out of trouble…

Always close all workflows before shutting down KNIME.

Always update KNIME and add extensions to both computers at the same time.

Don’t try to work and save the same workflow on both computers simultaneously (or 1 immediately following the other without working on workflows in between).

Install Dropbox in the same directory location of both computers. Mine is always out in the open on the C: drive…

I even go as far as ensuring that the windows user folder has the same name as well, but that can be a pretty technical change which requires a few program adjustments afterwards. This one is only necessary for rare advanced automation workflow use cases.

[Sivasanmugam]

Understood @Iris . But given the fact that Knime occupies close to 200 GB on PC is the problem I have to switch my workspace to OneDrive. But ofcourse, the workflow / settings will be first downloaded and only then I can access them. This is understandable. Thanks.

[Sivasanmugam]

Thanks, @iCFO for the detailed explanation.

[Sivasanmugam]

Worked fine for the few workflows I copied to OneDrive. Will test one at a time and migrate all the workflows.

[iCFO]

Just to clarify. All of my Dropbox files exist locally on both computers and are only being synced together via fileshare. If I understood correctly then your plan seems to be to delete your local files in an attempt to save hard drive space which is much different than my use case. I think your approach would likely impact performance as @Iris mentioned.

I would recommend adding an internal or (external hard drive with relatively fast data transfer / read-write speeds) as a KNIME workspace. Relatively inexpensive and would save a ton of hassle.

[Sivasanmugam]

Thanks for your suggestion @iCFO . Since it’s for my work, I can’t access external storage devices, unfortunately. So will have to accept the performance hit.

[iCFO]

Understood. It may be worth a shot to put in a request for an additional / or an increased capacity internal hard drive if you are on a desktop. There would certainly be a payoff in speed and productivity. I am worried that you may find yourself doing a lot of exporting and importing workflows at some point, but I hope the OneDrive approach works out for you. Let us know how it goes if you get the chance.

[Aldemir]

@iCFO

ood. It may be worth a shot to put in a request for an additional / or an increased capacity internal hard drive if you are on a desktop. There would certainly be a payoff in speed and productivity. I am worried that you may find yourself doing a lot of exporting and importing workflows at some point, but I hope the OneDrive approach works out for you. Let us know how it goes if you get the chance.

I solved the problem of space reseting workflows with big data.

[iCFO]

Good thinking @Aldemir !

[Sivasanmugam]

Thanks, everyone. I have migrated all my workflows to OneDrive successfully. And will start resetting workflows (that uses big files), which I don’t use at the moment to save space. Great tips and recommendations. Thanks a ton again.