Readers Review Hot Products - 30 Jan 2008

Consolidate Workloads with Server Virtualization
VMware Infrastructure 3

Our organization had several IT needs that couldn’t easily be addressed with our current budget and infrastructure, so we began looking at VMware virtualization products a few years ago. VMware Workstation was introduced into our environment by our systems team first, and that was quickly followed up with a GSX server evaluation. All of that led up to our current IT infrastructure, which is now based on the VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) platform.

We had several needs that VI3 seemed to be the solution for: the need for customized development environments; new product rollouts that consisted of small numbers of low-utilization servers; ways to address our data center capacity, cooling and power concerns; and the need to significantly reduce costs associated with upcoming server replacements. Getting VI3 up and running was a relatively painless process: our internal system engineers were able to put our first two-node ESX cluster into production in a matter of days.

Since we began using VI3, we’ve been able to realize a number of specific benefits. We’ve been able to reduce our server pool using server consolidation, often at a fifteen to one ratio. Our server deployment time went from days or weeks to minutes and hours, thus reducing the overall development cycle of new products and application. We’ve also experienced zero cost hardware replacements—when equipment begins to fails we perform physical to virtual server conversions. We’ve also used VI3 to take snapshots of mission critical servers to enable recovery from failures, and we’re also in the process of converting to a virtual QA Infrastructure. Our goal is to have one-to-one representation of all mission critical applications for QA and testing. Finally, our developers and application used to maintain multiple physical workstations: one for production, one for development, and one for QA. We’ve been able to consolidate all three of those functions onto one physical PC using VMware Workstation.

We’ve had relatively few issues with VMware during our first 18 months of use. I attribute this to the fact that we opted to wait for the VI3 release as opposed to deploying 2.5x. All of our VMware products are purchased through HP, and we’ve found HP’s virtualization support to be excellent.

There are some things I would like to see VMware improve upon, ranging from improvements to the physical to virtual (and potentially virtual to physical) conversion processes. I’d like to see more VI3 integration with other enterprise products, and Storage V Motion [in ESX 3.5] would be a nice addition. I’d also like to see VMware reduce their licensing costs. All that said, we’ve realized substantial costs savings by switching to VMware VI3.

Exchange e-Discovery and Email Recovery
Lucid8 DigiScope 1.1

In our IT environment, users wanted to have the ability to restore the contents of a single folder or e-mail within Microsoft Exchange. Another requested feature was an ability to examine the contents of a specific mail folder without requiring the user to log on to the network as a specific user. I started doing some research on possible solutions, and I came across DigiScope from Lucid8. I visit the Lucid8 Web site fairly often, since I’m also currently using Lucid8’s DigiVault and Go Exchange products.

Installation was straightforward: I had DigiScope up and running in less than an hour, and I didn’t need to reboot or take Exchange off-line to complete the installation. When I did need support during the install process, Lucid8 was very efficient at resolving technical issues quickly. Using WebEx [remote] access, they can log into your system and walk you through the setup process while sharing the desktop. I found the support staff to be very friendly and knowledgeable.

Lucid8 tech support has been good, but the online help manual for DigiScope is very basic: I believe it could have included more extensive and detailed information about how the product functions. I think most of the users of DigiScope are fairly tech savvy, so more information would have been welcome.

Some of my favorite DigiScope features include a user-friendly, Windows Explorer-like GUI; the ability to export emails and folders to multiple formats (i.e., .PST, .MSG, and .XML); and performance adjustment tools that allows you to set the level of CPU / computer resources. I also like how well DigiScope seamlessly integrated with Exchange and Active Directory.

On the first day I used DigiScope, it saved me several hours of time by helping me restore some deleted mail folders. I’ve previously usedexternal consultants to help me with very complex Exchange issues, such as restoring databases. With DigiScope, those calls are now a thingof the past— and so is the extra cost in maintenance.

After using the software over the past 11 months, I’d be happy to recommend Lucid8 to other IT pros—especially if you’re using Exchange and want to save on maintenance costs. Companies that rely on outside support and consultants for their Exchange upkeep can save a lot of money by using DigiScope. In my experience, using DigiScope has paid for itself by eliminating our need for external Exchange help.

Defragment and Optimize Hard Disks
Diskeeper 2008

I work for a PBS television station with millions of viewers throughout the United States and Canada. Our workflow relies upon working computer equipment. We don’t use hammers, drills or ovens to fulfill our business objectives—we use computers, which are prone to having their hard drives getting defragmented over time, which contributes to poor system performance. You wouldn’t use dull knives or blades if you were a butcher, or a broken hammer if you were roofer, or even a dull pencil if you were an architect. Why would we use less than fully functional computers? The built-in defragmentation utility in Windows didn’t fill my needs at all, so we became a true multi- user corporate license holder for Diskeeper in 1999. We’ve upgraded to newer versions of Diskeeper over the years, including the latest release: Diskeeper 2008.

Five versions of the software are offered for businesses, including Professional, Professional Premier, Server, Enterprise Server, andAdministrator. All versions (but Professional) include I-FAAST (Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology), a featurethat helps accelerate the programs you use most frequently througha special defrag mode that puts those commonly used in files andlibraries in a specific location on the hard drive that speeds disk accesssubstantially. Other nice features include an automatic real-timedefragmentation feature (that defrags in the background while youwork), and a FragShield function that keeps your hard drive’s MFT(Master File Table) and paging file automatically defragged.

As for things I would improve about the software, I would like to see more companies go with a ‘buy one license and use it on three PC’s’ mode of licensing. It would be nice if Diskeeper Corporation followed this model.

I’ve seen the boot time defrag on Diskeeper 2007 not work on some computers using external Firewire drives or USB drives, and this problem likely exists in Diskeeper 2008. I’ve found that the root cause for this problem isn’t Diskeeper: Certain motherboards do not support USB drives or Firewire drives until Windows XP boots to a certain point. This is a hardware issue, so potential users of Diskeeper should check their motherboard BIOS if they’re having trouble with the defrag-on-boot option.