Managing Google Workspace storage efficiently is crucial for educational institutions, especially with the introduction of storage limits. Each Google Workspace for Education domain has 100TB of pooled storage across Drive, Gmail, and Photos. Once your domain reaches this limit, you must optimize storage usage or upgrade to a paid Google Workspace edition. This article will guide you through the updated methods for monitoring and managing your organization's storage usage, ensuring you stay within your allocated limits.
The Google for Education Storage Guide is a great resource.
What You Will Learn
In this article, you'll learn
The role Google Groups play in storage management
How to check your Google Workspace storage usage
How to apply filters to identify high-usage users and export reports for further analysis
How to use GAM for more advanced reporting
How to visualize your data with Looker Studio
How to address high storage usage
Understanding Google Groups and Their Role in Storage Management
Google Groups is a service that allows you to create and manage groups of users within your Google Workspace domain. Admins can use these groups for communication, collaboration, policy setting, and storage management. When managing storage, you can apply filters and set storage quotas based on organizational units or Google Groups, making enforcing storage policies across different departments or roles easier.
See, Gaining Control of Your Google Groups
Checking Storage Usage Through the Admin Console
Google has made it incredibly simple to track storage usage across your domain. With just a few clicks in the Admin console's, you can download a list of users and include the Total Storage column in the export.
This Users report list shows the storage usage for each user, providing you with a clear picture of who is using the most storage and reassuring you that your storage resources are being used effectively.
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From the Admin Console: Navigate to Directory > Users. Click the manage users cog/gear at the top right to manage columns. Add the Storage used and Storage limit columns, then Click Download users located above the list.
- Click on an individual user to view their storage used and limit.
The user report, Accounts provides a comprehensive overview of user accounts and their storage usage. Remember that this report is limited to 100,000 entries, so applying filters to narrow the data may be necessary.
- From the Admin Console: Navigate to Reporting > User Reports > Accounts. Filter the report as necessary by column name, OU, Group, and date. The next section covers how to filter.
Filtering and Exporting Storage Data
You can apply various filters within the Admin console to refine your search. For example, you can filter by organizational unit (OU) or Google Group to focus on specific user roles or departments. Additionally, you can filter by users exceeding a certain storage threshold, making it easier to identify those needing to reduce their usage.
After filtering, you can export the data by clicking the Manage columns gear icon and selecting only the relevant columns for your analysis. This step is optional but can streamline the data and make it easier to review.
Once you've customized your report, click the download icon to export the data. The report queues in your Admin Console Tasks, and you'll receive a link to download it once it's ready.
Opening the report, we recommend applying a filter to the list and sorting the Total storage usage (MB) column in reverse alphabetical order (Z-A) to see the users with the most storage used.
GAM
Visualizing Storage Data with Looker Studio
Visualizing your storage data can provide valuable insights once you've gathered it. Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) can visualize your storage usage. Connecting your CSV files to a Looker Studio template lets you easily identify the largest storage consumers, the types of files using the most space, and more.
To help you get started, we've provided a Looker Studio template you can copy and customize for your needs.
Addressing High Storage Usage
After analyzing your data, you may find users who are exceeding expected storage limits. In such cases, it's important to work with these users to determine which files are essential and which can be deleted or archived. Additionally, consider reviewing the storage usage of suspended users, as they can still impact your overall storage quota.
See,
- Reducing Google Workspace Storage Usage - Help Center Article
- CDW Amplified for Education Slides Presentation to help end-users take care of their data usage
If you need further assistance with managing storage or setting up visualizations, consider participating in our Storage Insights or GAM: Getting Started support stacks.
If you currently have hours on a support subscription, you are one step closer to Support Stacks and you can connect with the support team by Emailing support@amplifiedit.cdw.com. To purchase a support contract, please complete this form, and an account manager will contact you.
Using GAM
If filtering the report’s data does not get your list down below the limit within the admin Console export, another option to get the information would be to use GAM. This open-source tool leverages Google’s APIs to gather information about your Google Workspace domain.
Caution: If you are a Workspace Plus customer, you must use GAM advanced - GAMADV-XTD3.
The following GAM command can be used to get the same information as outlined above using the Admin Console’s Reports page. The used_quota_in_mb>1024 value can be changed to the size you’re wanting to filter by.
gam report users filter ‘accounts:used_quota_in_mb>1024’ fields accounts:used_quota_in_mb,accounts:drive_used_quota_in_mb,accounts:gmail_used_quota_in_mb,accounts:gplus_photos_used_quota_in_mb > storage_usage.csv
Understanding the syntax
The part of the command after the last > tells GAM to output the data to a file; in this case, storage_usage.csv in the current directory. You can add any absolute or relative path to store the report as a file. The string following fields is the list of columns you want to include in the report. Additional helpful fields can be found here and include:
accounts:is_suspended
accounts:last_login_time
gmail:timestamp_last_interaction
drive:timestamp_last_active_usage
These additional fields can be added to the command, separated by a comma without any spaces to include the associated information in the report.
Next Steps
Following the steps outlined in this article, you can effectively manage your Google Workspace storage usage and ensure your organization stays within its limits. Regular monitoring and proactive management will help you avoid disruptions and maintain optimal user performance.
Document Version | Date | Description of Change |
1.0 | 3/18/2024 | Updated last link away from the AIT legacy site |
1.1 | 5/28/2024 | Removed author block |
1.2 | 8/29/2024 | Rewrote, reverify |