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.
SPACEWatch ChargeBack is will be entering
the SPACEWatch Storage Suite shortly. It lets organizations minimize
storage cost by developing and applying charging strategies for files stored
in Exchange or Domino email systems, various types of file servers, SAN
and NAS storage infrastructures.
SPACEWatch ChargeBack lets IT demonstrate
to the business the cost of providing email storage, file servers, SAN
or NAS infrastructure.
But more than this, it lets business
users see how to minimize their storage costs by pin pointing where the
top charges are occurring – down to user and server volume.
IT can readily design a charging strategy
that drives the desired use of storage infrastructure – and business users
can choose how best to apply this, using up-to-date data on how they are
being charged.
For example, the charging strategy might
penalize cost centers whose users store large amounts of files that they
do not use – or rewards those who take the trouble to exploit cheaper
storage methods.
Typically email storage is expensive
and file server storage less so – IT could use their charging strategy
to encourage better housekeeping from email users.
ChargeBack Data Cubes
SPACEWatch ChargeBack will use a technology
new to SPACEWatch Storage Suite - multidimensional data cubes. If
you've used OLAP tools before you'll be familiar with the concept --- they're
a great way to let end users quickly work with vast amounts of data. They
can rapidly re-arrange the data and explore it many different ways.
Interested? Then contact us on
sales@sharpeware.com and become one of the first to try it out.
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.
Most users of SPACEWatch
work in IT departments - they're forever trying to understand how those
pesky users are exploiting the storage they're given in ways you don't
expect - and often don't want.
One of the useful features we introduced
into SPACEWatch a while back was the ability to collect together different
(but related) types of files into what we called 'highlight groups' - and
then highlight how much space they were taking up. We bundle some
default highlight groups with the product, like 'audio files' and you can
create your own too.
Well following customer feedback we've
gone one step further and you can now immediately answer questions like
'so who are the top users creating audio files' --- rapidly followed by
'and where are their files so I can delete them'.
The picture above shows what you can
expect from v5.7.65 onwards --- a while new 'Top space users' tool that
lets you group top users by highlight group or server. As with most
other areas of SPACEWatch, just double click on one of the items and you
can see all the detail behind it.
Why don't you share your ideas about
useful additions to SPACEWatch --- just post a comment to the this story
and we'll try our best to include it in a future update.
Over on the main web site you'll see
that we've launched SPACEWatch
for Exchange - extending the SPACEWatch
Storage Suite into Exchange email storage management.
We had excellent feedback from the early
adopters during the beta programme and questions are already coming in
from new users. The most common question is "why don't I see
any data". I thought I'd post an answer to this question here
in case you've also come across this issue.
SPACEWatch for Exchange depends on Microsoft's
MAPI technology to access Exchange. This is not installed in Windows
by default - so you need a Microsoft application that includes it, or you
need to install a Microsoft MAPI client. Here are the options:
Microsoft Outlook 98 or later;
Microsoft Exchange Admin Console;
Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client.
Microsoft
Exchange Server MAPI Client is the most "lightweight" option,
and is a new installation that Microsoft brought out specifically to support
MAPI-enabled applications. To quote Microsoft:
"Starting with Exchange 2007, neither
the Messaging API (MAPI) client libraries nor CDO 1.2.1 are provided as
a part of the base product installation. As a result, there is functionality
missing that many applications depend on. Microsoft Exchange MAPI and CDO
1.2.1 provide access to these APIs, which, in turn, provide access to the
contents of MAPI stores."
You can download the Exchange Server
MAPI Client from
here.
If you have Outlook installed you don't
need to have it running or configure it in any special way. SPACEWatch
just needs access to some of the program libraries that get installed with
it (Outlook also uses MAPI to access Exchange servers).
IBM
have reached Beta 3 of their major new update to Lotus Notes and Domino
- Notes
and Domino 8 --- this is the first
release that developers can test against for release certification. As
a result we couldn't wait to get our hands on it and see how SPACEWatch
for Domino performed.
SPACEWatch
for Domino is our SPACEWatch Storage
Suite member aimed at email storage management for NSF files on file servers
or PCs, or data stored on IBM Domino servers.
The good news is that as of v5.7 build
66 of SPACEWatch for Domino we fully support Notes and Domino 8 - so if
you're planning an upgrade you can use SPACEWatch right now to help audit
your current servers, safe in the knowledge that you continue to use SPACEWatch
for storage management on your new infrastructure.
Early tests with Beta 3 show that performance
on data collection has improved as well - the guys at IBM continue to improve
server performance with every major update to Domino, and Domino 8 is no
exception.
Note that you can use any version of
Notes client from Notes 6 onwards on the same machine as SPACEWatch - and
you can manage any mix of storage from Domino 6 servers onwards.
SPACEWatch
for Domino is "Ready for IBM Lotus Domino software" - which means
its been independently tested by IBM.
SPACEWatch
for Exchange has been released
long enough now to review the typical support calls we've been getting.
Not unsurprisingly the most common question is "why don't I
see any mailbox data". We try to detect most common issues within
SPACEWatch itself, but its not always possible to automatically diagnose
every user configuration. Here are some tips to help get things working...
if you still have problems contact us on support@sharpeware.com and we
can work with you to investigate further.
No Exchange servers listed
If you don't get any servers listed
in the "Add Storage" browser then you are probably not logged
in to the domain and hence don't have access to Active Directory. Note
that if servers are listed you can choose to manage just file attachments
(the default) or get data about messages as well. See "Advanced
options".
No mailboxes listed during scan
If you go to collect data and you don't
see any mailboxes listed this is probably because the account you're running
SPACEWatch under doesn't have read access to the Global Address List on
your Exchange servers.
When you run SPACEWatch for Exchange
for the first time you will be prompted for the account to use. If
you want to change this you need to edit the swatch.ini file in My Documents\SPACEWatch.
Find the entry for "GAL Acccount" and confirm that this
is a genuine Exchange user.
The other common possibility might be
that you don't have an extended MAPI (Windows Messaging) client installed.
This doesn't come by default with Windows so you need to have one
of the following installed on the same systems as SPACEWatch:
Microsoft Outlook 98 or later
Microsoft Exchange Admin Console
Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client
The Exchange Server MAPI Client
is available for free download from the Microsoft web site. Read
more.
No mailbox data
If you get Public Folder data, but no
mailbox data, this is probably because the account you are running SPACEWatch
under does not have access to the mailboxes you're scanning. The
way you grant access depends on the version of Exchange Server you are
using - but you probably don't have it by default, even if you are an Administrator
(this is a "feature" of Exchange).
Below I describe how to grant access
on Exchange 200, 2003 or 2007. Of course you need appropriate Exchange
Admin rights to do this in the first place.
Exchange 2000 and 2003
1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Drill down to your server object
within the appropriate Administrative Group. Expand the server object and
find the required mailbox store within the appropriate Storage Group. Right-click
it and choose Properties.
3. In the Properties window go to the
Security tab.
4. Click Add, click the user or group
who you want to have access to the mailboxes, and then click OK.
5. Be sure that the user or group is
selected in the Name box.
6. In the Permissions list, click Allow
next to Full Control, and then click OK.
Note: Make sure there is no Deny
checkbox selected next to the Send As and Receive As permissions.
7. Click Ok all the way out.
Granting rights to mailboxes located
on a specific server
Use the following procedure to grant
access to Exchange 2000 or an Exchange 2003 mailboxes found on a specific
server:
Note: You must have the appropriate
Exchange administrative permissions to do so.
1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Drill down to your server object
within the appropriate Administrative Group. Right-click it and choose
Properties.
3. In the Properties window go to the
Security tab.
4. Click Add, click the user or group
who you want to have access to the mailboxes, and then click OK.
5. Be sure that the user or group is
selected in the Name box.
6. In the Permissions list, click Allow
next to Full Control, and then click OK.
Note: Make sure there is no Deny
checkbox selected next to the Send As and Receive As permissions.
7. Click Ok all the way out.
Note: It might take some time
before the changes you've made will take effect. The amount of time needed
is influenced by the number of domain controllers, Global Catalogs and
site replication schedules and intervals. On one domain with one site containing
multiple domain controllers it might take up to 15 minutes before you can
begin using these new permissions. On single servers that are also DCs
you can speed up the process by restarting the Information Store service.
Exchange 2007
In Exchange 2007 Microsoft have done
away with enhanced a range of admin features within the management
client by moving them to the scripting interface instead.
In the Exchange Management Shell, use
the following command to allow access to all mailboxes on a given
mailbox store (where "serviceaccount" is the user you run SPACEWatch
under):
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!
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.
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:
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:
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.
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
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.
This
is the Microsoft "Compatible with Windows 7" logo - which SPACEWatch
Storage Suite 6 now qualifies for.
Its an interesting logo in a number
of ways - it signifies benefit for the user, benefit for Sharpeware - and
significant improvement on previous logo programs.
So what's in it for you? First
of all, it confirms that SPACEWatch has successfully been through a battery
of Microsoft tests and passed them all - proving that it will install and
run on any edition of Windows 7 (including the 64 bit ones) without compromising
your security and stability or requiring any strange tweaks to get it working.
You can tell straight away that an application
is likely to work properly on Windows 7 - you don't get those annoying
"User Access Control" dialog boxes for a start. That's
because SPACEWatch has all its program files properly signed, proving that
they come straight from Sharpeware and haven't been altered in any way.
Its also because we don't require you to run the program under elevated
rights for normal use - so even if you have admin privileges you don't
keep getting prompted to use them.
There are many other things that Microsoft
check for - like whether it runs in a multi-user environment properly,
and that it installs and uninstalls cleanly - as well as a range of more
technical areas.
"Under the hood" this certification
helps in other ways. For example, it means that Sharpeware receives
details of any application issues that users agree to send to Microsoft
- and in turn this means we can keep users posted about possible fixes
and updates - all using Windows 7's native support features. So if
you ever see that "SPACEWatch has stopped working" dialog, it
may well be worth clicking on the "Check online for a solution"
option.
Microsoft recently released Exchange
2010, their latest email server.
Its never been easier to deploy a highly available, highly scalable,
Exchange email infrastructure.
This also means that its never been
easier for users to fill up their mailboxes with unused, unwanted and duplicated
file attachments too. This is where SPACEWatch
for Exchange 6 comes in. Just
like the rest of the SPACEWatch
Storage Suite range, SPACEWatch
for Exchange lets you search, analyse - as well as clean up and archive
- all types of unstructured storage. The good news is, it will also
do this for those many thousands of files that will be stored in Exchange
2010 mailboxes.
And if you're still using Public Folders,
you can keep going with those on Exchange 2010 - and SPACEWatch for Exchange
will help you manage those as well.
And it doesn't stop there! You
also get great PST file analysis - including the ability to search, analyse
and archive the contents of PST files themselves.
The first benefit that Microsoft describe
for Exchange 2010 is easy deployment. SPACEWatch
for Exchange support this ethos.
You don't need to install any software on your Exchange servers -
or make any configuration changes.
IBM
have reached Beta 3 of their major new update to Lotus Notes and Domino
- 
SPACEWatch
for Domino is "Ready for IBM Lotus Domino software" - which means
its been independently tested by IBM.
This
is the Microsoft "Compatible with Windows 7" logo - which SPACEWatch
Storage Suite 6 now qualifies for.
