Softek's Softek Performance Tuner

SMS requires a Windows 2000 Server with a 2.4-GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 60-GB hard disk space .Net Framework, SNMP and SQL Server Enterprise Edition 2000 SP3. I tested it on a lesser machine in our Real-World Labs® in Green Bay, Wis., and it ran well, but the number of resources I could have tracked concurrently was reduced. For the SAN environment, I put an agent on a four-processor Compaq DL580 Windows 2000 server and used a Q-logic Fibre Channel-host bus adapter card to connect to a SANblock 2-Gbps/FC enclosure with 14 73-GB drives partitioned in four 135-GB arrays.

Application installation was easy--the software practically configured itself and automatically linked to the preinstalled SQL Server resources it needed. Manually configuring the agent on the Compaq server was only a little more challenging.

SAN Watch

The Java-based console provides a dynamic, drop-down menu system, from which you can create an ad hoc query to define which resources to monitor. This user interface can manage thousands of storage resources and sort them by device type, name, file system, operating system, performance statistics and server type. It also allows detailed sorting queries.

With my Compaq server identified, I could see data being collected and graphed in SPT's monitor window. The basic monitor window tracks data throughput in KB per second; system responsiveness in milliseconds; and service index, which indicates optimal usage on a 0 to 100 scale. These numbers provide the near real-time information used to generate reports and alerts on problems with storage-device availability, throughput or saturation.

More than 100 other metrics--including Windows- and Linux-specific statistics for cache, processor, storage and system performance--can be captured as what Softek terms raw data. These can be graphed and analyzed to track long-term information to establish storage-performance patterns, compare multiple devices and identify peak demands. With this data, you can create action sets, which link device-performance parameters to automated e-mail alerts or SNMP traps.SPT is surprisingly simple to use, once you get used to its query- creation process. SPT is only an informational tool, however, and does not offer any automated performance-improvement tools. In all fairness, neither do any other ESRM packages.

Steven Hill owns and operates ToneCurve Technology, a digital imaging consulting company. Write to him at [email protected].