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October 31, 2007
Gauging the Impact of Fragmentation with PerfMon
To determine fragmentation's impact on a disk subsystem (single disk or RAID/SAN), you can employ performance monitoring technologies. Window's includes a built in tool called PerfMon (Performance Monitor) that can collect and graph this data. Specifically you will want to direct it to the PhysicalDisk object. Performance monitoring for purposes of determining event-based change (such as defragmentation) requires proper before (baseline) and after comparisons. This means that a similar extended period (e.g. one week) must be compared to determine improvement. No other changes, such as adding new hardware, can be introduced during the test periods. The periods measured must cover, to the degree possible, the same work load.
Here is a sample scenario:
1. On a Friday afternoon, install, but do not activate, an enterprise-class disk defragmenter [Diskeeper Server], and run the tools native analysis functions.
2. Save the defragmenter's analysis reports.
3. Start the PerfMon baseline on a Monday and let it run without any other hardware/system settings changes for one full week.
-Avg. Disk Queue Length (should have no more than 2 per spindle)
-Avg. Disk Read Queue Length (used to further define disk queues)
-Avg. Disk Write Queue Length (used to further define disk queues)
-Avg. Disk Transfer/sec (should be less than 50-55 per spindle)
-Avg. Disk Read/sec (used to further define transfer rate)
-Avg. Disk Write/sec (used to further define transfer rate)
-Split IO/sec (should be less than 10% of Disk transfers/sec value)
-% Disk Time (should ideally be less than 55%, over 70% is typically an issue)
-% Idle Time (to check legitimacy of % Disk Time)
4. Using the disk defragmentation software, run another analysis and save the results.
5. Activate the defragmentation tool the following Monday morning and let it run for two weeks.
6. Using the disk defragmentation software, run the final "after" analysis and save the results.
7. Compare (plot them on the same graph) the first and last week periods and note changes (improvements) in the measured counters from week one (no defrag), to week three (defrag complete and still active). The disk defragmenter's reports will provide you data on the changes to file fragmentation as part of this before-and-after comparison.
8. If desired, stop defrag operations for the fourth week, and continue to monitor disk performance, to note reversal of achieved performance gains. Accompany this with another disk defragmentation analysis.
The handy Performance Monitor Wizard, available at Microsoft's website can ease the learning curve in setting up and using PerfMon.
No counter will independently determine the impact of fragmentation. If the disk is fragmented, many of these counters will show metrics higher than acceptable levels.
hIOmon by HyperI/O:
Diskeeper partner, HyperI/O, has developed a full "file I/O performance" evaluation kit, targeted specifically at determining the impact of fragmentation. Due to it's robust feature set, this is my recommend product/method for experienced Server Administrators familiar with benchmarking and performance evaluations.
Posted by Michael at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007
Optimizing Your SQL Server's I/O Performance
Many IT professionals who purchase Diskeeper originally begin evaluating the product after they experience issue they determine stem from badly fragmented disks.
It starts out that something breaks, or simply slows to a crawl (e.g. SQL Server). As they investigate they use systems management and monitoring tools to narrow down the source of the issue. This is especially true on servers, where split seconds can add up to thousands of dollars of lost revenue.
There are a number of technical articles that delve into specifics that can be used to diagnose this situation. One such paper on SQL Server is Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2005.
In the section I/O Bottlenecks, it describes a number of counters to look for that can help pin point the source of the poor performance. I've also written about these counters in white papers and noted how many are indicators of fragmentation.
As I mentioned, we see customers regularly trial and purchase Diskeeper as they find the software resolves these discovered bottlenecks. For example, we recently had two cases where a SQL Administrator discovered Average Disk Sec/Read was very high on their database servers.
Per the Microsoft article, the following is a gauge of what Average Disk Sec/Read mean:
Less than 10ms = very good
Between 10-20ms = okay
Between 20-50ms = slow, needs attention
Greater than 50ms = serious I/O bottleneck
So when I mean they found a high count for Average Disk Sec/Read, I'm understating the issue as they were seeing 200ms and 300ms delays. That is well into the "serious" part of the scale.
As you would expect, the article provides possible solutions to address that I/O bottleneck. However, one solution not explicitly stated is to defragment. The two IT Professionals that found those really high wait counts ran Diskeeper and, using just the software alone, brought the Average Disk Sec/Read back to around 15 and 30ms. That's a tremendous improvement in performance! Employing some/all of the other appropriate solutions now that the volumes are kept fragment-free will bring these SQL servers into optimal ranges.
It isn't uncommon for defragmentation to be left off a list of solutions, as it is still unknown to many. A clue that you should evaluate a defragmenter is when you read or hear a recommendation to increase I/O bandwidth -such as adding more disks. Example: your SAN vendor tells you to add another controller or array. If there is substantial fragmentation, Diskeeper will typically provide better results, as it actually fixes the issue rather than masking it, and it's a whole lot cheaper.
Posted by Michael at 12:32 AM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2007
Diskeeper 2008 Technical Review
If you use/game on a high-end professional workstation or gaming rig, you might find the the technical review I mentioned in a recent entry of interest. It is now live on the 3dprofessor website. You can read the review here. As part of their evaluation, they compared Diskeeper 2007 to the new Diskeeper 2008 using the software listed below:
-SPECapc for 3ds Max(TM) 9
-SPECviewperf(R) 10
-Autodesk 3ds Max 9 SP2
-SiSoftware Sandra XI SP4
-HD Tach Version 3.0.4.0 (Journalists Edition)
Posted by Michael at 08:10 PM | Comments (9)
October 23, 2007
Diskeeper Maintenance and Warranty customers
Though we released Diskeeper 2008 one year and one week after Diskeeper 2007, we are extending the free software upgrade to anyone who purchase a 1-year maintenance contract the initial week of the Diskeeper 2007 release last year. Our goal is to reward those loyal customers and ensure they get their monies worth. Anyone eligible for free upgrades will automatically be sent links to access Diskeeper 2008 downloads.
All customer's who have purchased Diskeeper from diskeeper.com can go to myDiskeeper and login in using the email address you used to purchase the software. Your password is the same you used when you set up your User Profile online. If you don't remember the password, the website can be used to send it to your email address.
If you purchased Diskeeper in the last 30 days, you are under the 30-day money back guarantee/warranty, and will also automatically receive a free upgrade to Diskeeper 2008. Check your email for the links.
Posted by Michael at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)
Diskeeper 2008 help and info - where to go
The launch of a new product is a busy time for any software company and Diskeeper Corp is no exception. To prepare, we've improved our automation processes and increased staff in all areas that deal with our customers. The release is going very smoothly, but questions always come up, and our staff are hard at work helping everyone out. If you have questions or need assistance, below is a good list of places to find more information, and/or where send your requests for customers in North America:
For technical support, please visit: http://www.diskeeper.com/support/
If you have issues with the website, please email our Web Team: webmaster@diskeeper.com
If you have general requests, such as resending your software purchase/maintenance letter, please email our Customer Support Team at: service@diskeeper.com
You can find additional contact information at: http://www.diskeeper.com/contact/contact.asp
If you purchased from a reseller, please return to them for assistance. If you are located outside the US/Canada, please visit your respective Diskeeper reseller or partner.
Posted by Michael at 01:26 AM | Comments (3)
October 22, 2007
Send us your worst fragmented disks... Diskeeper 2008 is here!
Do you have volumes with really, really low free space? Maybe less than 1%? Maybe you have files in hundreds of thousands or millions of fragments?
No matter how tough the problem, Diskeeper 2008 will handle the worst fragmentation you can throw at it. Diskeeper 2008 offers a host of new features and functionality with a concentration on "core" improvements to make defragmentation faster and more effective. Read all about it at www.diskeeper.com. I'll cover each improvement in more details here on the blog in the coming weeks.
Another exciting announcement is that Diskeeper 2008 is immediately available in 8 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
I'll leave off with one early product review from Professor Brian Robinson at www.3dprofessor.org (a well known technical testing group in the UK).
"The team at Diskeeper most certainly have an exciting new product that, in most areas, showed up to (and in certain applications) a 28% increase in performance over a Windows system with no defragmentation tool installed. [Diskeeper 2008 showed] Up to 14% increase in performance in certain areas over Diskeeper 2007, which is quite a remarkable achievement!" - Professor Brian Robinson.
Posted by Michael at 12:10 AM | Comments (2)
October 15, 2007
Partner Spotlight - PCLive.com
Diskeeper Corporation has been licensing its technologies to partners for many years. This includes promotional actions, such as shipping "lite" versions of Diskeeper, with tens of millions of laptops, desktops and servers sold by some of the world's largest hardware and computer companies (Intel, Lenovo, Sony, Dell, HP, etc...) to providing product to companies who "re-package" the software into a managed services offering.
SecurityCoverage has been a Diskeeper partner for several years, including various editions of Diskeeper in its product line. They recently launched an exciting new service. You can check it out at www.PCLive.com.
They're offering a free security suite (yes free!) as well as an upgraded Premium suite with more solutions (like Diskeeper Professional) as well as 24x7 support for an awesome price (currently $4.95 USD per month).
Read the CNET announcement here.
Here is an early review posted on TMCnet:
"People may think that they're safe on the Internet, but they're not," said Dan Gookin, best-selling author of PC for Dummies and well-known PC expert. "Even with all the nifty new security features of Windows Vista, having a product like PCLive Security helps complete the PC protection picture. Not only that, maintenance is a key, yet often overlooked, part of running a computer. The beauty of PCLive Security is that it provides you with the protection and maintenance you need. Plus the price is really incredible!"
Posted by Michael at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2007
Diskeeper HomeServer Beta - starting soon
Thanks to all those who applied for Diskeeper HomeServer Beta testing. We've had a number of eager volunteers ask where they can get the software to start evaluating. We appreciate your enthusiasm and assistance - it's awesome!
For those of you inquiring, I want to let you know we are completing Alpha testing and our usual rigorous internal certification process.
At Diskeeper Corporation, Alpha testing is what we refer to our "bug testing" field test. What we call a Beta version is synonymous with the industry definition of "Release Candidate". Feedback from Beta helps to polish any rough edges, provide info to marketing about the features you like best, and in the rare event a bug is found, gives us that additional round of user-testing to ensure a solid stable product on final release.
So, if you've already claimed a spot in beta, congratulations! You won't have to wait to much longer. Expect to see the software possibly later this week.
PS: we still have 7 spots available.
Posted by Michael at 02:43 AM | Comments (2)
October 05, 2007
Microsoft WHS Team Films at Diskeeper
As one of the orginal 8 independent software vendors (ISV) partnered with Microsoft to develop fully integrated technologies for Windows Home Server (WHS), we have been closely tied to the WHS development group. Derek (who heads up our Partner Relations), several of our top technical staff, and I have worked closely with them since earlier this year, and met on numerous occasions.
We have all been impressed at their responsiveness to our questions and comments. Over the years, Microsoft has been great about listening to partners, but the WHS group really kicked it up a notch. It's the feedback from partners that is delaying the release, as Microsoft incorporates new functionality based on requests from vendors such as HP - I'd like to leak out the official release date but I'd be in trouble :-). These refinements are helping to finalize an amazing, user-friendly product that tech-savvy home users will love.
WHS has been a long term project at Microsoft, and they wanted to validate the WHS development team with video "success stories". As a key partner they chose to send a film crew to visit the Diskeeper Corporation office and interview several of our engineers who are also WHS users. They plan to edit the footage into a video clip for use internally at Microsoft. It will also likely be featured on Microsoft's partner page, along with a WHS-related clip from hardware/software partner HP.
We're excited that Microsoft chose Diskeeper as their defragmentation vendor of choice for the success story - we had a lot of fun with it!
Posted by Michael at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
New Sitekeeper/Patchkeeper Update
A primary enhancement in this version is the in the ability to handle large numbers (10,000+) of machines. The Sitekeeper database structure and reporting mechanism have been redesigned to speed up the overall performance when working with large numbers of computers. This technology had already been introduced into Diskeeper Administrator and is now ported into Sitekeeper, which shares a common design.
Also, Shavlik Technologies has provided Diskeeper Corporation enhanced functionality that has been integrated into an update for Sitekeeper. As you may be aware, Sitekeeper's specialized patch management module (Patchkeeper) uses technology licensed from Shavlik . Diskeeper Corporation (formerly Executive Software) is now making this update available to Patchkeeper customers.
This new build is required to continue the full functionality of Patchkeeper. We recommend you install this update soon to be ready for Patch Tuesday - coming up next week.
The update is a free download to all Sitekeeper 3.5 Suite and Patchkeeper (stand-alone module) customers. The new build number of 3.5.209. To get the software, simply use the "Check for Updates" feature within your Patchkeeper software.
Read on for a bit more on Diskeeper Corporation's partnership with Shavlik Technologies...
Shavlik Technologies is the pioneer and technology leader in patch management. That is why Diskeeper Corporation sought them out when we wanted to add patch management into our Sitekeeper product over 4 years ago. Patchkeeper leverages an SDK (Solution Developer Kit) licensed from Shavlik. It has been one of the most popular componenets of the modular Sitekeeper Suite, in which you can license only the features you need.
Shavlik became hugely popular with freeware tools and their more advanced enterprise-class full featured products. Even with Microsoft's advances into the patch management field, Shavlik maintains a technological edge - after all it is their specialty. The following article at Redmond Mag is a good overview of the value of Shavlik technology.
Posted by Michael at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
50 Windows Home Server beta testers need to test the NEW Diskeeper HomeServer (English Language edition)!
This is a limited program. Only the first 50 completed and signed applicants will be accepted AND, you must be a customer of Diskeeper (please provide email address used to purchase or register software). You will need to complete testing by October 7th and take a survey of about 40 questions (most are multiple choice). Yes, we understand this is a short time frame, but the software is primed for release and has been through several stages of testing already; we want to get this on the market! You can have the chance to get the first peak at this exciting and fully WHS-integrated version of Diskeeper.
To sign up for the Diskeeper HomeServer field test please visit this site, and select the Windows Field Test Application Form. The contact email address is qtesting@diskeeper.com.
Please note that you will need to sign the non-disclosure agreement. In short this means that you must refrain from discussing the pre-release software publicly. Please read the document for the full requirements and instructions.
We hope you have fun testing the software!
Posted by Michael at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2007
Pedal to the Metal at Diskeeper Corp
It's been a while since the last posting on the blog as September has been an extremely busy month at Diskeeper Corporation. Our marketing and development teams have been working long hours for many weeks to get our latest and greatest software to you. We have numerous software products coming in the near future - every product in the Diskeeper Corporation lineup will have significant releases in Q4 of this year.
We're confident our great new technologies in the pipeline will continue our tremendous success this year. Our Sales team just pulled off our highest-ever sales quarter (Q3), and are well ahead of pace to have a record setting year for the company.
Our CEO and top execs recently returned from China as part of our company expansion; and the release of Diskeeper 2007 into Chinese (simplified and traditional) has opened the floodgates to numerous opportunities in that emerging superpower.
We've also added some great new talent to the software and business development areas in recent months, including some top-caliber C# developers dedicated to Diskeeper Administrator and execs with strong technical background in SAN and security technologies.
Earlier this year we implemented a new programming methodology that has already been paying off with tremendous gains in our software's reliability and efficiency, allowing us to get better products to market faster.
Stay tuned!
Posted by Michael at 11:25 PM | Comments (2)