The Sharpeware Blog

Category Spacewatch
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Storage Treemaps are another new feature in SPACEWatch Storage Suite 6.  They use a clever mathematical algorithm to display directory trees from across the network - showing lots of data, but visually revealing interesting facts in a simple way.

Invented by the Dutch mathematician J.J. van Wijk and colleagues, and first published in 2000, the algorithm is ideal for analysing structured hierarchical data.

Here's what a Storage Treemap looks like in SPACEWatch 6:



The size of each rectangle is in proportion to the storage space that each tree consumes.  The colour shows how recently used the files are in that tree.  Thus if you find large, pink, rectangles - you should probably take a closer look.

Read more about Storage Treemaps on the SPACEWatch 6 web site at http://www.sharpeware.com/html2/treemap

Posted by Scott McTaggart At 09:37:47 AM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category SPACEWatch
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The first set of enthusiastic SPACEWatch users just got their hands on the latest SPACEWatch Storage Suite 6 beta code.  There are a wealth of new and improved features in this major update - and I'll take a little time in the blog to introduce you to some of them.  This time I'll introduce the Scenarios tool - a great way to look at future costs (and savings).  By the way, before I go any further, if you're interested in trying out the beta then let me know.  Just drop me an email to scott@sharpeware.com letting me know a little about your storage and your issues that SPACEWatch 6 might assist in addressing.

The SPACEWatch 6 Scenarios tool

SPACEWatch 6 Sceanrios tool shows within seconds a baseline prediction of storage growth, then lets you instantly compare this with scenarios that you might implement. For example, see the predicted impact of removing unused files and use this to justify the activity required. Perfect as a planning tool to aid in business case preparation or investment analysis.  And all this is based on a file level audit of your actual data.



On the chart above you can see the baseline in green, and in this example I chose to compare this with what would happen if I removed all file that had not been used for more than three months.  I can take this further and model a change in only part of my network - a single server or file system for example - as well as using other scenarios like removing unwanted file types (mp3 springs to mind!).

However the scenario tool doesn't just give you a chart of storage consumption - it will also calculate the cost/savings involved as well.  All presented in a useful table that you can re-use directly in another application like Microsoft Excel.



In this table you can see how much money I would over the next 12 months by removing those unused files.  What better way is there to support your investment decisions?

Next time I'll introduce you to what SPACEWatch 6 can do at the other end of the spectrum - when analyzing file-level detail with the new file duplicates tool.

In the meantime here are some links if you want to read more about SPACEWatch Storage Suite 6

SPACEWatch Storage Suite 6 links

• Manager's Guide
• Product Overview

Both of the above are PDF files and require the free Adobe Reader.

Posted by Scott McTaggart At 10:56:04 AM Location Edinburgh, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category SPACEWatch
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Finally I'm able to announce that the first SPACEWatch 6 Beta release will be available shortly.  You can read a short summary of this new major release and see some early screen shots at:

http://www.sharpeware.com/html/sw6preview

Do you want to test the beta?  If you are interested in joining the SPACEWatch 6 beta program please email support@sharpeware.com with the subject "SPACEWatch 6 Beta".  Once the program is launched you will receive an email explaining how to obtain the code and provide us with your feedback.

Whilst there are thousands of detail changes and updates in SPACEWatch 6, here's a summary of the more major ones:

• Two new clients: administration and automation functions have now been combined and enhanced in a new SPACEWatch Administrator application.  Use it to centrally manage your SPACEWatch installation.  End-user functions are now consolidated into a new SPACEWatch Client.  Both will work with existing v5 space databases and data files alongside v5 clients.
• New user interface: built around Microsoft's latest "Fluent User Interface" design, as seen in the Office 2007 suite.  No more menus to make finding key functions difficult.  Everything is consolidated into a central "ribbon bar" making use easier and quicker.  All tools have also been re-designed to take advantage of this new interface, making results much easier to view and work with - including features such as the ability to filter results instantly based on given text, or group results by multiple columns.
• New data export options: including the 'save split' - the ability to save any grouped results split automatically into multiple Microsoft Excel workbooks or sheets.
• New File Finder feature called 'DataView':  lets you visualize large sets of results using a multi-dimensional view to quickly discover new characteristics of your results.
• New file/directory features: including much-requested features such as 'send to compressed folder' and 'recreate source directory structure'.
• New data collection options: scan the contents of compressed folders and zip files.
• New 'Scenarios' tool: see the future impact of planned changes and see how much benefit they will bring to your storage.
• Finding Duplicates: this tool has been re-coded for improved performance and now with a user-based duplicates search feature.
• Directory Finder: now you can copy/move/send-to-compressed directory trees direct from the Directory Finder.
• Dashboard: completely re-written, and now with user-settable applet configurations to suite your infrastructure.
• File Types: With one click you can now 'cross-correlate' particular file types with other attributes such as file owners or duplicates.  File type Groups are used in many more places throughout SPACEWatch.
• Web interface: access SPACEWatch reports wherever you are via a browser.

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:57:44 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Coming Soon
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Secure Shell (SSH) is an Internet protocol that lets you establish an encrypted data stream (including encrypted login) for a number of program types that are normally unencrypted ("cleartext").  This means that, using SSH, the forthcoming SPACEWatch v5.7.71 build can securely login to your remote UNIX or linux server and retrieve storage data in a secure manner.

SSH offers two popular login methods, both of which are supported by SPACEWatch:

• Username/password is the easiest to use; as the name implies, you just log in normally, with your regular UNIX or linux username and password. But since the link is encrypted, your password stays a secret.
• Public/private-key authentication is more secure, because your password is never sent over the link at all. (What's sent is an encrypted token using your private key, instead.) To use this method, you have to create two files:

1. a public key to save on your UNIX or linux system, and
2. a private key to keep on the computer that SPACEWatch is installed on (or accessible to it, e.g. on a file server).


SSH configuration options in the SPACEWatch v5.7.71

You don't need any additional software to use this new feature - just add your UNIX and linux hosts as scheduled tasks or directly through the SPACEWatch client interface and get going.  All your familiar analyses and reports will work just they way you expect.

Note that there are some quirks however - but these are to do with how UNIX works, rather than any limitation in SPACEWatch.  For example UNIX systems don't generally store a file creation date.  Instead they have two last modified dates (one for data and one for file properties).

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 03:48:13 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Coming Soon Web Tools
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What device do these screenshots come from?

     

If you guessed a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone then well done. If you guessed the model of phone then you know far too much about the latest hot tech toys (its an HTC TyTN II by the way).  If you got one for Christmas then welcome to my geek club!  

They’re great as a business tool – and you will soon be able to use this (or any other mobile device that has a pocket browser built in) for storage management via your SPACEWatch Storage Suite.  

For example, do you notice the red bar in the first screenshot above?  That’s a volume that is running low on available space.  You can then immediately use the tree summary shown in the second screenshot to see where all the storage is being used.

So how do I get a storage summary from my SPACEWatch space database displayed on my smartphone?  The answer is by using the web interface that will be available in a forthcoming update.  You can use it from a normal browser – or a pocket browser on your smartphone as in the example above.  SPACEWatch will automatically adjust its display to suite your browser.

As you can see, we have a working solution in development.  It won’t be long before customers with maintenance contracts can get a free update that includes these new features.

With the new web interface you can take a look at a range of SPACEWatch space data – and manage your storage wherever you are.  The above example shows available and used disk storage on your servers and volumes in a handy bar chart.  But you can delve much deeper.

   

As with the desktop SPACEWatch client, you can drill down to file level detail.  For example, the first  screenshot above shows another smartphone storage summary – this time top file types.  On this page I can click on any file type link and I’ll see all those files listed… then I can pick one and another click later I can see all the file detail – as shown in the second screenshot above.

You will even be able to carry out searches of your space data remotely and monitor the progress of your space database scan and merge jobs.

So if you’ve ever wanted to take SPACEWatch with you when you’re away from your desk – now you can.  With the SPACEWatch  web interface.

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:51:53 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)