PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

Virtualization Exchange environments -- Virtual Aware is here

                              

PerfectDisk 10 Exchange now includes our exclusive, patent-pending Virtual Aware technology, extending our virtualization leadership in the defrag market. The feedback and response we've received on our defrag virtualization technology since the launch of PerfectDisk 10 earlier this year has been tremendous and our users have been asking for more.

      

I'm glad to report that more is coming, starting with PerfectDisk 10 Exchange. But it's not the last; more announcements on our work in the virtualization space are coming soon. PerfectDisk 10 Exchange is already the only automatic disk defragmenter with automated defragmentation and compaction of Exchange data stores together with patented drive optimization. We're excited to add this piece.

Virtualization defrag leadership is here with PerfectDisk. And now, add virtualization defrag for Exchange environments.

                           

Related Post:

Virtualization defrag for the future -- here today

Interop: consolidate; but get the performance management right

                            

Writing in the Information Week Analytics Blog, Art Whittmann writes this week about a panel discussion on the future of the data center at this week's Interop show in Las Vegas. The panel consisted of leaders from Cisco, Brocade, Juniper and Riverbed, and Art points out that they all agreed on an overlying message -- now is the time to be consolidating servers, networking, storage and even data centers. With the result "a highly responsive environment that takes far fewer resources to manage."

Art then gets into the management aspect of the virtualized data center, and asks if the right vendors ("the usual suspects") are the right ones to handle this new virtualized world. Of course, at Raxco we're often pointing out that one aspect of management that sometimes gets overlooked is defragmentation. And virtualization defragmentation is just as important as physical defrag. Actually, for businesses placing more and more emphasis on virtual solutions such as ESX and Hyper-V, it could be argued that it is even more important than ever. Which is why we have virtual aware defrag solutions with PerfectDisk. The old school defraggers won't cut it in this new world.

Consolidate. Go virtual. And keep on defragmenting to get performance right.

                           

Automatic defrag will crush your virtual performance -- unless....

                                                

If there's one thing worse than the ol' "bait and switch," it's a "bait and cover-up." Or put another way, the devil is in the details.                                               

So from "the other guys" we get the following:

                         

• "at the root of virtual machine performance problems is file fragmentation." Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Do we think that fragmentation is the cause of many performance problems? Of course. But we're not going to sit here and tell you there are no other performance considerations in a virtual environment, just as we wouldn't say that for physical environments.

• "the only real solution to optimizing virtual machine performance and reliability is a fully automatic defragmenter, one that is constantly taking care of the fragmentation problem." Well. Besides the caveat from above, I would alter it to the following: "the only viable defragmentation solution to optimizing virtual machine performance and reliability is a fully automatic defragmenter that is virtually aware. Without virtual awareness, your defragmenter will very likely do more harm than good."

                                   

Here's the deal. As Erwin Solis clearly demonstrated in our recent Webinar on defragmentation in a virtualization environment (ESX, Hyper-V, etc.), automatic defragmentation without virtual awareness is a road to performance problems. Solutions like VMware's vMotion address resource contention at the virtualized machine level. PerfectDisk 10 Server Virtual Edition addresses it at the virtualized software level. There are finite resources to go around. Treating a virtual machine like a physical machine in this environment, with the goal being to try to solve fragmentation and performance problems, is going down the wrong path.

                         

With the PerfectDisk solution, you not only eliminate resource contention, but increase the resources available for your busy virtual machines. Without that awareness, the idle machines are basically stealing resources needed by busy guests, defeating the purpose of what you were trying to accomplish and very likely causing new performance problems. Not smart.

In Erwin's example, he shows a fairly loaded hypervisor with a couple of servers -- one busy and one not. The results without virtual awareness? Not pretty. Or as Erwin puts it, "it's like a man trapped inside a room with no doors; the room looks large, but he doesn't see the reality - he's trapped in his box."

                      

To see and listen to the 30-minute webinar, Defragmentation in a Virtual Environment," go here.

Automatic defragmentation without virtualization is a fool's errand. Test yourself and see.

Get out of the box and see your whole world -- virtual and physical.

                                    

Related Post:

Virtualization defrag for the future

Webinar Tuesday -- Defragmentation in a Virtual Environment

                            

It's the third and final installment of our 3-part Webinar series -- Defragmentation in a Virtual Environment. You'll get to see our Virtual Aware defrag in action and see why it matters.You'll see why we say that without it, the potential for performance hits in a virtual environment are significant. If you're running VMware ESX, vMotion, Hyper-V, or any Windows-based host, you'll want to check out this 30-minute presentation. Exchange in a virtual environment is also covered, along with VMware Workstation and VMware Server. Senior technical engineer Erwin Solis presents, with our 5-time Microsoft MVP Greg Hayes handling the interactive questions and answers.

Tuesday, May 5th, 12:00 p.m. EDT, 9:00 a.m. PDT, dinner time in Europe, breakfast time in Australia. Register here. 

                   

CEO Bob Nolan interview on the economy, virtual defrag, and more

                            

Stephanie Diamond of Digital Media Works recently sat down with Raxco Software's president and CEO Bob Nolan. Bob touched on the market reaction to PerfectDisk 10, PerfectDisk's impact on consumers and businesses in the current economic environment, the challenges of defragmentation in a virtual environment, and more.  

You can listen to the interview here.

Defrag VMware the MVP way

                         

From time to time, I've saluted Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals),   recognizing the invaluable service they provide to the Microsoft user community in numerous categories. Having an MVP on staff here has only deepened my appreciation for what they do. Of course, I have to admit it's nice to know and makes us proud that PerfectDisk is the preferred defragmenter of choice of MVPs around the world.

                              I love hearing their stories, which are relayed to us frequently. Keith Elder is a Microsoft MV and INETA speaker, and runs the popular, informative and entertaining Deep Fried Bytes technology podcast as well as his blog, Words of Wisdom from the Elder. Keith is a big fan of the PerfectDisk base product, but also has experienced huge benefits from PerfectDisk 10 for VMware.

Actually, his story starts out with the prior version, PerfectDisk 2008 for VMware. Keith had a virtual machine that would not boot. He kept receiving an error message and it appeared to him that the disk was somewhat corrupted. Keith says he "ran PerfectDisk on it and after it was done it fixed the problem, and I'm still developing in this VM right now. Had it not been for PerfectDisk's integration with VMware, I honestly don't know what I  would have done next. Probably would have had to resort to recovering off site backups."

                               

How do you defrag VMware?

Your physical or virtual defrag -- green and lean

                          

As the world commemorates Earth Day 2009 and the entire global community moves environmental discussions to the forefront, it's the perfect opportunity to look at the defragmentation issue from an environmental perspective. Industry reports abound about the tough time PC makers are going through now, with netbook sales doing well, but other PC shipments suffering along with the rest of the economy. As families and businesses do everything they can to squeeze dollars and resources wherever and however they can, a new computer is turning into one thing that gets delayed. And a good defrag helps extend computer life.

With fewer PCs being purchased, fewer are being discarded and recycled. But what about the computer you're running? With a single-pass defrag strategy that in essence "shrinks" the drive, PerfectDisk users save on the computing resources they use. This is in contrast to typical multi-pass defraggers that need to churn and churn away at the problem. You won't want to turn your PC off at night or any other time with a multi-pass defragmenter, because chances are good you won't have a completely defragged drive. And if you've got just one big, nasty fragmented file, PerfectDisk users can quickly and easily defragment that one file and then move on to their other business.

                                    

PerfectDisk is doing its part on the virtualization front as well. As businesses move heavily to the virtual server model, we're helping them get the most out of this setup. As businesses utilize fewer physical servers and look to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprints, PerfectDisk's exclusive Virtual Aware Defrag helps ensure they'll be as efficient as possible. And of course, the same single-pass strategy applies here as well, ensuring the most efficient use of resources.

Here at PerfectDisk headquarters, besides the "easy" things like using all recycled paper and more electronic software distribution over physical, we've reduced our energy consumption over 25%, despite an increase in heating degree days of 78.7%. More virtual machines, fewer physical machines, resulting in less energy consumed and a smaller footprint. Even as we've grown the business and added employees.

We're all aware of our impact on the environment more than ever now. Every little bit helps.

In its own small way, PerfectDisk is as well.    

                           

Webinar -- Managing PerfectDisk 10 in the Enterprise

 

We're holding a free Webinar on Tuesday, April 21st at 12:00 p.m. noon EDT (9:00 a.m. PDT). The Webinar, Managing PerfectDisk 10 in the Enterprise, will cover:

• what's new in the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console
• setup, deployment and management of PerfectDisk 10 clients

• patent-pending Virtual Awareness for boosting performance of virtualization environments, including VMware ESX. Microsoft's Hyper-V and other Windows-based hosts.

The webinar is only about a half-hour but still provides some excellent hands-on tips that you will be able to put into use. For existing business customers who have not yet deployed PerfectDisk 10, it's a great opportunity to see what's new, particularly those in or moving to virtualization environments. And for new customers or those considering PerfectDisk, it's a good opportunity to spend a little time and learn a lot.

The Webinar will be given by senior technical support engineer Erwin Solis and moderated by Greg Hayes, manager of technical solutions at Raxco Software.

You can register here.

Hypervisors -- game on

                         

In the world of virtualization, there are several choices, but really a Big 3 fighting it out - ESX Server from VMware, Hyper-V from Microsoft, and XenServer from Citrix. Which one is best for a particular environment depends on various considerations, configurations and parameters. In a recent Optimize Now (IT newsletter from Raxco) by Erwin Solis, the differences between ESX and Hyper-V from a performance, usability, feature and cost perspective were explored.

                       

In the March cover story of Virtualization Review by Rick Vanover, the performance differences between ESX, Hyper-V and XenServer are investigated in a lab report. Vanover, an MCTS and MCSA, is a systems administrator for Safelite AutoGlass in Columbus, Ohio with a focus on virtualization, Windows-based server administration and system hardware. In his article, Hanover comes to the conclusion that there is no overall best hypervisor performer among these 3. Each may perform better in a particular environment. However, he states that "what is entirely clear is that all three hypervisors are legitimate virtualization platforms, and that no single company has a monopoly on virtualization any longer."

                       

Vanover writes in the Everyday Virtualization blog, and received a lot of feedback on his lab testing. It's like I try to always say when talking about testing we do or feedback we receive. For any user, they should be a starting point for making your own decisions. Rick was laying some key points out there, just as we try to do when talking about virtualization defrag or defragmentation in general.

Virtual Aware defrag makes sense to us and to a lot of ESX- and Hyper-V heavy businesses for reasons we've outlined in this space before. It may or may not make sense for your business.

But it's a place to start testing...and thinking.

Yes, Virginia, PerfectDisk 10 Exchange will be Virtual Aware

                    

All Exchange users in favor?

We've had a lot of PerfectDisk 10 for Exchange users coming to us since the 10 launch and basically asking "Hey, where the heck is my Virtual Awareness for PerfectDisk 10 for Exchange?" Well, we knew there was lots of interest in Virtual Awareness prior to launch, and we anticipated increased interest post-launch. But in all honesty, it's gone beyond our expectations and one area where we knew early on we had missed was the Exchange side. Fortunately, because of our code base and architecture of PerfectDisk, getting from Point A (no Virtual Awareness for PD 10 Exchange) to Point B (PD 10 Exchange with Virtual Awareness) is pretty straightforward.

Thanks for all the feedback and getting on us on this one. We're on the case. PerfectDisk 10 Exchange with patent-pending Virtual Awareness will be here.

And I get to say it one last time, with a twist...it's a Perfect Ten (with even more Virtual Awareness). Coming real soon.

                  

Releated Post:

• PerfectDisk 10 Release
• PerfectDisk 10 Virtual Enterprise Edition Release