ezSAM Analyzer


BlueSAN Technology ezSAM

ezSAM Analyzer

Introduction The Analyzer module of ezSAM provides the easiest and most efficient way to find out how effectively the storage space in different file servers and NAS systems in your computing environment is utilized. With a single click, you can discover, analyze and review the space utilization for all the file shares in your computing environment across multiple domains.

Analyzer is a core module and every other ezSAM module depends on some level of functionality of this module - it is always bundled with other modules. But, the Analyzer module could be used stand alone as a storage environment analysis and monitoring tool for file servers consolidation, file virtualization and data center consolidation projects. 

ezSAM Analyzer is an agent-less environment in which there is no need to deploy any agent program in the file servers that are being analyzed. An Analyzer can support the analysis of hundreds of file shares or a few dozen file servers. Depending on the hardware configuration on which the Analyzer is deployed, it is capable of analyzing 2-10 million files per hour. With few strategic deployment of the Analyzer, the file service environment of a large enterprise could be analyzed in a matter of days. 

An ezSAM Analyzer works stand-alone, but in a large environment that requires deployment of multiple ezSAM Analyzers, the analyzed information could be centralized  by deploying the ezSAM server side component ezSAM Controller. 

Apart from the ezSAM family of products, BlueSAN Technology provides consulting services for various data center management projects of enterprise customers. In consulting engagements, for certain number of file shares (or certain amount of disk space), BlueSAN provides the ezSAM Analyzer for free. In the product form, the Analyzer works only for Windows File servers, but in consulting engagements, the product could be customized to analyze the file services from Solaris, all different variations of UNIX (Linux, AIX, HP-UX) and NAS systems. In near future, support for all these File Server environments will be available as an ezSAM module termed Analyzer+.

Required Steps: The Analyzer produces the following reports for all shares/local disk drives with a single click.

Summary Information:

  • This report provides information on amount of space available, total space used, total number of files, number of users using the file system and which user is taking up how much space etc.
  • Shows what type of files (e.g., office files, audio files, video files etc.) are taking up how much space.
  • Shows how the overall space is taken up by smaller files vs. larger files.
  • Shows how the overall space is taken up by files that has accumulated over time but not used since.

Inactive Files:

  • This report specifically deals with files that are inactive in the file shares and have not been used within a given amount of time.
  • Shows the space taken up by these inactive files - grouped by user, file types, file size and file access date.
  • Provides a listing of all these files so that you can take action of moving out or deleting these files through the Optimizer module.

Recently Used Files:

  • This report deals with files that are active in the folder (i.e., used recently as specified in Storage Analysis Filters).
  • Shows the space taken up by active files - grouped by user, file types, file size and file access date.
  • Also provides a listing of these active files so that you can replicate these files to another folder/system through the use of Replicator module and have a business continuity solution.

Files created and/or modified after last vaulting:

  • This report provides information on the files that are created and/or modified within the shares/folders since a reference time in the past (usually the time of last vaulting operation).
  • Shows the distribution of files according to users involved, type of files and size of files.
  • Provides a listing of these files to the Vault module of ezSAM so that these files could be compressed, encrypted and saved locally and remotely to achieve a very effective data protection and disaster recovery solution.

Duplicate Files:

  • This report deals with duplicate files in the shares/folders and shows the distribution of these files - grouped by user, file types, file size and file access date.
  • Provides a list of these duplicate files so that you can take action of moving out or deleting the unneeded copies.
  • In the enterprise and SMB version of the product, duplicate analysis across a given set of folders within a domain or within a given set of computers is available as an add-on functionality.

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