There are a few questions that often come up with regards to the PerfectDisk virtualization defrag solutions in the vSphere/ESX environments, versus the standard PerfectDisk server defrag.
1. What does PerfectDisk 10 for vSphere offer that PerfectDisk 10 Server does not?
Or in other words, what's the difference between performing a Windows Server 2008 defrag (or earlier server versions) and a virtualization defrag? There are various differences but the following two key points summarize the major points:
A. The vSphere-specific product offers an exclusive, patent-pending feature called "Virtualization Awareness" that allows file system optimization to take place without the contention for resources that normally takes place with automatic background defragmentation. This ensures that optimizations run dynamically without supervision or intervention, while never negatively impacting performance. It also offers integration features for VMware's vCenter and support for vMotion.
B. Licensing for the vSphere product is offered per physical host with volume pricing. This means unlimited Client/Guest licenses are provided once the physical host is licensed. This also means no consideration as to the number of Guests or even the number of CPUs needs to be taken. In the example of a vSphere environment with 10 instances of ESX Server 3.5/4.0 running, that would equate to 10 licenses of "PerfectDisk10 vSphere."
2. Does the vSphere product perform defragmentation on the ESX layer / VMFS? Does it install on the ESX Hosts or just the Guests?
No. VMFS does not support external file system optimization. Installation does not take place on the physical ESX host, a small agent is instead installed on each Windows based Guest.
3. Is any modification of the vSphere environment required in order to use PerfectDisk 10 vSphere?
No. The use of PerfectDisk10 vSphere does not require any modification to your existing configuration.
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The PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console has been updated to Build 127. This latest build provides enhanced support with a VIM plug-in to VMware vSphere Client 4.0 plus a few bug fixes.
The vSphere plug-in allows users to access the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console directly from within the vSphere Client, providing a single point of management for their vSphere-based Windows guests. Using the PerfectDisk Enterprise Console plug-in, users can easily deploy, configure and schedule PerfectDisk, allowing for enhanced disk space management in vSphere environments, for vSphere defrag.
You can “Check For Updates” under Help in the PerfectDisk console, or wait for Autoupdate.
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I was recently invited to speak at a VMware User Group meeting about the impact of file and free space fragmentation in a virtual environment. Before I started the presentation I asked the audience how many had ever defragmented a physical server and about 30% raised their hand. Then I asked how many had ever defragmented a virtual server and about 10% raised their hand. This is a pretty typical response.
Systems administrators running virtual machines seem to overlook the fact that each virtual machine is running its own version of Windows Server and within that machine NTFS is busy fragmenting files and free space. While fragmentation is a performance-stealing problem on physical servers, the problem is compounded on virtual machines where each virtual instance is competing for a finite amount of resources. This leads to resource contention between Windows guests and, with Hyper-V, contention between the Windows guests and the host. It is essential to keep the files defragmented and the free space consolidated on Windows guests to maximize performance and minimize resource contention in a virtual world.
After my presentation one attendee told me his company was having performance issues with several of their virtual servers. They were looking at upgrading the hardware and bringing in a consultant. He knew these virtual machines were frequently updating files, the kind of activity that produces fragmentation, but he never thought of fragmentation as the problem. After sitting through my presentation he was convinced fragmentation was the culprit and we just saved them a lot of unnecessary expense. In complex technical environments it is easy to overlook the obvious when looking for a solution. Sometimes you just need to defrag a computer to get a lot more out of it, and that includes VM's.
In a report by editor-at-large Charles Babcock, Information Week recently reported on IBM's plans to bring the virtual machines of multiple vendors under one management umbrella called IBM VMControl. The new VMControl is due out in December, and no, it won't include any defragmenting PC or server defrag software. But, from a single management console, it addresses a new data center reality - VM sprawl (as opposed to the old physical server sprawl).
So it is with the approach we are taking with PerfectDisk as we move beyond hard drive defragmentation to the new virtual world. We've certainly learned a lot and continue to learn since we started moving in this direction. We've built up our virtualization expertise and continue to do so, both internally and through alliances and partnerships outside Raxco.
On the data center side, PerfectDisk has evolved from its initial ESX offering to more comprehensive solutions for the new vSphere 4 as well as Microsoft's Hyper-V environment. This is in addition to our disk defragmentation tool for VMware Workstation and VMware Server. Now, through the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console, this more heterogeneous environment can be managed and controlled, and there will be additional capabilities added with PerfectDisk 11.
In his article, Babcock reports numbers in the 60% - 80% range for IBM customers using multiple hypervisors. The trend is clear for this still-evolving world of virtualization, and it carries over to virtualization defrag as well. The data center is moving well beyond a simple server defrag. Physical and virtual servers need to be addressed, as do guests and hosts, and all from multiple vendors. With our patent-pending Virtual Awareness technology, we're working hard to build on the foundation we've started, and move forward with our customers, as their virtualization partner.
To help manage the sprawl.
With VMware's recent release of VMware Workstation 7, support is immediately available for PerfectDisk 10 VMware Workstation customers. 7 introduces many enhancements, including installing and running VMware vSphere 4 and VMware ESXi in a virtual machine.
VMware calls VMware Workstation "the gold standard in desktop virtualization." So it makes sense for those that want disk defragmenter software to work seamlessly with VMware products, they look to the gold standard in virtualization defrag.
PerfectDisk 10 VMware Workstation incorporates and automates the disk space-saving “Shrink” and re-indexing found in VMware Workstation, enhancing their effectiveness. It defragments Windows guests and moves all the free space to the end of the disk, allowing the Shrink utility to maximize the amount of valuable disk space it can recover.
The defragment program for automatic defragmentation, re-indexing and shrinking of VMware Workstation - it's only here.
With our recent announcement of support for vSphere 4, PerfectDisk now provides unparralled support for vSphere defrag. VMware has received a great deal of interest with this cloud operating system, as its battle with Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix' XenServer and others shows no sign of abating, but only intensifying. While auto defrag is a key element of any solution for a virtualization defrag tool, any defragmenter program that fails to address the unique complexities of a virtual environment will come up short.
Because vSphere 4 is able to manage large pools of virtualization computing infrastructure, including hardware and software, its overall performance is critical to organizations implementing it. This is one area where a defragmenter program can help. And with its ability to defrag seamlessly in a vSphere environment, providing the patent-pending Virtual Awareness defragmentation that eliminates resource contention and ensures efficient use of resource, PerfectDisk 10 vSphere ESX delivers.
Time to defrag VMware environments like you mean it...with true integration.
Continuing PerfectDisk’s pioneering role in defragmentation for virtual environments, I was happy to announce support for VMware vSphere 4 in the latest PerfectDisk 10 build. We’ve established a great relationship with VMware over the past few years, and as part of this we continue to evolve our support for VMware offerings. Whichever side of the ESX/Hyper-V — or others — debate you come down on, we know defragmentation of these environments is an important piece of getting these systems running at peak performance and efficiency, making the best use of resources while eliminating resource contention.
Upon release, VMware dubbed its vSphere 4 as the industry’s first operating system for building the internal cloud, enabling the delivery of efficient, flexible and reliable IT as a service, and bringing cloud computing to enterprises in an evolutionary way. As the leader in virtualization defrag, it’s a natural for PerfectDisk to lead the way in support for vSphere 4 and vSphere defrag.
Head to the clouds, and remember to defrag -- virtual defrag.
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