The Sharpeware Blog

Category SPACEWatch New Releases
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We've just posted SPACEWatch Storage Suite v5.7 build 63 to the web site.  This is an update to all editions in the Suite and includes some neat new features.  Here's a run down of the main ones:

Storage Browser

We've ditched the old way of choosing what data you want included in your SPACEWatch analyses and introduced a completely new - and hopefully much more intuitive - approach called the Storage Browser.  Here's a snapshot of what it looks like with a Windows network...



First you'll notice that its all point and click - just browse around your systems and tick on the top-level share/drive/folder you want to include.  It will list all your hidden shares as well!

Of course we've incorporated all platforms into the Storage Browser - whether its UNIX/linux, Exchange or Domino.  Here's what your Microsoft Exchange servers will look like if you're using SPACEWatch for Exchange...



And on IBM Lotus Domino you now get to browse down to sub-folders from the data directory:



Longer directory paths

Many people have asked for this one - we've now increased the maximum directory path supported to 8,000 characters.  It appears that on some large networks you really do need that size.

When SPACEWatch Enterprise/Domino/Exchange v5.7.63 first connects to a SQL space database created with a previous version it will alter the database to include this new feature.

Welcome page

Sometimes you just want to focus on the key tasks - and rather than navigating around SPACEWatch's many task panes and menus we've now created a welcome page to help.  You can turn this off if you want (just tick on the box at the bottom), or leave it to load automatically every time you start.

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:39:10 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category SPACEWatch New Releases
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This update brings some new features and fixes to SPACEWatch Enterprise, SPACEWatch for Exchange and SPACEWatch for Domino.  Read about all the changes.

Get the updated look

Progressively you'll see more Vista-looking features creeping into SPACEWatch Storage Suite.  In this build the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice changes in the File and Directory Finders, reflecting the look of the new Storage Browser introduced with SPACEWatch v5.7.63.



In the above example you can see part of an Exchange user's mailbox displayed in Directory Finder.

Use IBM TSM data

If you're using IBM TSM for backup then you can now use its data with SPACEWatch - removing the need to scan storage twice.  Of course TSM doesn't collect everything you need for SPACEWatch, but for many purposes it is sufficient.  Just look under "Special" in the Storage Browser.

Native Windows authentication now supported on SQL Server

If you're using Microsoft's SQL Server you may prefer to use native Windows authentication to control access to your databases, rather than database authentication (when you need to maintain your own set of usernames).  Well SPACEWatch can now exploit this approach too.

Just choose this new option from the database connection dialog...



Don't go on too long

Are you worried about data collections taking too long and perhaps starting to impinge on other operations such as backups?  If you are you can use a new command line option in your task automation to prevent this.  Using the /K option you can specify a date/time beyond which SPACEWatch will gracefully abort collection.  Any data collected up to that point will be merged into your space database.  Search for 'batch' in the product help for more details.

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:39:10 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category SPACEWatch New Releases
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Watch out for the forthcoming release of SPACEWatch v5.7.70.  For Enterprise, Domino and Exchange Edition users you get an all new tool to help with finding who is using all the space.



The all new User Finder

The User Finder continues the tradition of the existing File and Folder Finders in giving you a powerful - but easy to use - way to find out about how your space is being used.  In this case how file owners are consuming space.

Want to find out the top 50 owners of Audio Files that have not been used for more than 6 months?  Just set your criteria and click on search.  Within seconds you will see the results you want.

We will even given you three different ways of looking at your results so you can find what you want quickly:


Results as a simple list


Results in a Directory-formatted tree


Results in a chart

Notice those two sets of columns for results e.g. "Files" and "Total Files"?  Because I limited the search to "Audio Files" this is telling me how many audio files are owned by this user, alongside the total number of files that owner has created.

What are "Audio Files"?

We introduced the concept of "highlight groups" a while back as a handy way of grouping together related types of files.  You can see them in the Types Summary today.  You can create your own or change the ones we supply with SPACEWatch.  We've extended the use of the highlight groups into the User Finder - so you can now use your own (or the in-built) sets of different file types as criteria to search on.

For example you might have a group called "Unwanted Files" and then generate reports of the top users who created files of these types in the last month - just choose this group in the User Finder "File Types" list, set the Date criteria to "created in the last 1 month" and click on "Search" --- and you're done!



Just like the other Finders, we will also give you some one-click quick analyses.  For example, click on "Most Active" to see which users have been updating files the most in the last month.

See the detail

And again, just like the Folder Finder, if you want to see all the files that make up a particular result in the User Finder - just double click.  In the example above, double clicking a result would immediately list all unused audio files owned by the selected user - wherever they are currently located.

So watch out for the release of SPACEWatch Storage Suite v5.7.70 and get started with the all new User Finder!

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:39:10 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category SPACEWatch New Releases
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We don’t always describe new updates to SPACEWatch in the blog, but v5.7.70 includes some new features that are definitely worth taking the time to explain in more detail.

This update brings some new features and fixes to SPACEWatch Enterprise, SPACEWatch for Exchange and SPACEWatch for Domino.  Read about all the changes.  If you have an up-to-date maintenance contract you can download this update via My Account – if you don’t know how to log in then contact support@sharpeware.com.

Here are a couple of the major new areas of enhancement in this update:

Enhancements to space database maintenance

We've included a number of enhancements to help with automating the maintenance of your SQL space databases.  These include:

• If this is your first data collection to a new SQL database, the structure will now be automatically created for you
• If you collect data remotely, e.g. to a local SPACEWatch data file, you can now automate the merging of these data files into your SQL space database
• We've slightly updated the SQL databases structure in a way that lets us optimize data maintenance - in some cases this will result in an up to 50% performance improvement
• If you really want to, you can now zap the SQL space database before starting a new collection - this will erase all space data (and can't be undone - so please use with care!)
• You can now verify your space database as a routine task - although we recommend only doing this when required (e.g. when data collection was interrupted due to a system or network failure).  This option attempts to validate the data that is already in the database.

The new User Finder

The most significant new feature in this update is the new User Finder. You’ll find this on the new Find – Users menu option.  We previewed this in an earlier blog (see 'Who's used all the space?').  This deceptively simple tool is actually very powerful.

With this new tool can you instantly see the results of analyses like

• top 50 users who have created audio files (where 'audio files' are any file types that fit this description)
• users with files unused for more than 6 months

or even

• top users with unused audio files.

What's more you can see the results rolled up by organization structure as well, using your directory details taken from either Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory or IBM Domino Directory depending on where the files are being stored.

Here’s an example:


Who’s taking up most storage with their audio files?

By the way, what you class as ‘audio files’ can be defined by you: we give you a range of file types to get you started, but you can alter these any way you want – or even create your own set of file types.  We call these sets of file types ‘highlight groups’ and you can manage them from the File Types summary window.  

Go to Data – Summary and click on the Types tab.  Use the Settings button to manage your Highlight Groups.

And here are the same results organized as a tree:


User Finder results organized along directory lines

The User Finder shows you how many files – and how much storage they’re taking up – for each user.  Along side this data it also shows you the total files/storage all files owned by that user.

As with any other area of SPACEWatch you can see detail by double clicking a result – in this case you will see all the files listed.  You can also save the results to a variety of formats and use them in other applications, or print a formatted report.

Finally, you can also visualize your results in a chart like this:


Visualize results in a chart

Posted by Andrew Sharpe At 12:39:10 PM Location Peebles, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)