By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
May 2002

Program Overview

DiskAlert 2 is an important utility program that uses new technology to provide early warning when a computer hard disk is no longer 100% reliable. In most cases, after the program provides such a warning, you have enough time to swap out the problem disk before disaster strikes. Alerts are sent immediately by your choice of phone, pager, e-mail, or even a pop-up message. The product will also alert a user when configurable free space thresholds have been exceeded.

Until now, information systems staff have had no way of knowing ahead of time which disks were going to go bad. With DiskAlert 2, these professionals can now be more proactive about hard disks installed in their system, as well as the state of their health, thus protecting individual desktop users and their company from costly data loss and downtime.

Without backup processes, most companies would be in big trouble. However, even with a sound backup process in place, today's large disks and RAID arrays make restoring from backup more troublesome and time-consuming than ever. The results are longer and costlier downtime and business delays. Not only that, not all lost data is recoverable, causing further loss of time and money.

With DiskAlert 2, companies do not any longer have to wait for disaster to strike. They can still use their backup procedures, but with DiskAlert 2, these procedures can now stand as the last line of defense against hard drive failure, since DiskAlert 2 is designed to serve as their first line of defense against data loss.

Operational Features

Which Disks Does It Monitor?

DiskAlert 2 monitors IDE hard drives, SCSI hard drives, software RAID arrays, and Adaptec, Compaq and AMI MegaRAID hardware RAID controllers on any server or workstation running Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, or Windows XP.

How Does it Work?

DiskAlert 2 monitors the various types of disk errors, throughput and other information from the operating system and disk drives. Using proprietary algorithms, it then automatically determines disk health, alerting staff when a disk starts to get into trouble.

The product comes in two versions, including the Desktop version and the Administrator version. DiskAlert 2 Desktop is designed to monitor disk health and free space on stand-alone laptops or desktops running Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows XP Home or Professional. The Desktop version will NOT install on systems running Windows NT Server or Windows 2000 Server.

DiskAlert 2 Administrator will install on all versions of Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP including Server. You need DiskAlert Administrator if you want to administer DiskAlert over a network, you want to monitor disks on a server, or you want to monitor disks in a RAID array.

DiskAlert 2 Administrative Console (DiskAlert Administrator)

The DiskAlert 2 Administrative Console is only available in the DiskAlert 2 Administrator version. The Administrative Console remotely installs agents on networked servers and workstations, and automatically watches over the health of these disk drives throughout the entire Windows 2000, Windows NT, or Windows XP-based network. It also monitors the availability of free space on user-selected drives throughout the enterprise.

Using the Administrative Console, you can set various types of alerts to be sent via e-mail, pager, or telephone (including your cell phone). These alerts are based on thresholds that can be reset by the administrator.

Assistant Console (DiskAlert Administrator)

The DiskAlert 2 Assistant Console allows other administrators to look at the disks and check up on things from their own workstation or server. The Assistant Console is read-only and does not allow installation, uninstallation or reconfiguration of DiskAlert.

Disk Monitoring Agent (DiskAlert Administrator)

The DiskAlert 2 Disk Monitoring Agent is installed on each machine where disk drives are to be monitored. In the event that a threshold is exceeded, the agent sends a message to the Administrative console, which in turn sends the appropriate alert as preset by the administrator.

Monitoring Disk Drive Health

The DiskAlert 2 Disk Monitoring Agents poll disk drives gathering key information related to the health of each selected drive. DiskAlert 2 analyzes this information to give you early warning of disk drive trouble or disk drive failure.

Monitoring Free Space

One of the biggest problems information system administrators face is running out of disk space. The DiskAlert 2 Disk Monitoring Agent can be set to monitor available free space, alerting the administrator should levels drop below a configurable threshold.

Adding Machines to be Monitored

Using a wizard on the DiskAlert 2 Administrative Console, you can quickly and remotely install and uninstall Disk Monitoring Agents on any servers or workstations. Additionally you can use the Assistant Console wizard to install and uninstall Assistant Consoles on any server or workstation.

DiskAlert 2 Works With RAID

DiskAlert 2 works with software RAID and some hardware RAID configured under Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. DiskAlert 2 currently supports hardware RAID controllers from AMI Mega RAID, Adaptec, and Compaq. Support for additional hardware RAID cards is being added all the time.

Using DiskAlert 2 In A RAID Array

With RAID arrays, as with all disks, the first sign of trouble is usually failure. RAID is an "after-the-fact" solution, meaning you lose a disk and then you do something about it, like waiting for the opposing team to score before you send in your defense. Plus, in RAID configurations, there is a major loss of performance whenever a disk goes down or is having trouble. With hard drive failures being the leading cause of data loss, it is best to try and prevent such an eventuality with an early warning system. This is the main benefit from running DiskAlert 2 with a RAID array.

System Resources

DiskAlert 2 places virtually no hit on a system's performance. DiskAlert 2 polls one hard drive for a brief instant once a minute. After polling one hard drive, it goes to the next, and so on. The polling frequency is user-selectable, and is by default set to a value of one minute, which is very long in computer terms. There are no disk reads or writes during the polling of a disk drive, as information already existing in the disk drive and the operating system is merely retrieved. Should there be a change in the disk drive status, then about 2k to 3k of data is written to a log file.

Ease of Use

DiskAlert 2 is designed to "set it and forget it." You can also centrally view the health and available free space of all your disk drives in the system from the Administrative and Assistant Consoles. By using the Administrative Console, you can quickly and remotely add or remove disk drives from being monitored.

Security of Operations

DiskAlert 2 is very secure. You must have administrator privileges to install and configure the product.

Automatic Detection of Hardware

DiskAlert 2 automatically detects all the individual physical disks on your system. You then have a choice as to which disk drives you would like to monitor.

Configuring Disk Alert 2's Alerting Functions

Using the DiskAlert 2 Administrative Console, you can centrally set up alerting methods on a global basis, which apply to all disk drives being monitored, or you can apply specific alerting methods to individual disk drives.

Number of People That Can be Alerted

As many people as you like can be set up to be alerted. You can also have different people alerted for different disk drives. For example, you can have person "X" paged and called immediately when there's any trouble with the web server disk drives, while having person "Y" e-mailed whenever there's a disk problem with a non-vital workstation disk drive.

What The Alerts Tell You

The health of a disk drive is categorized as healthy, warning, critical or failed. Depending on how you've configured the notification alerts, you are informed when a particular disk has entered a state that is less than healthy. The alert gives you the status, and the identification of the disk. Additionally you can be alerted if disk drives are running out of free space. The free space alerting levels are user-selectable.

Use of SMART Technology

SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. SMART was developed by disk manufacturers to help monitor disk health. However, each disk manufacturer implements SMART to their own specifications. Since these implementations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, it is difficult to monitor them consistently through one GUI.

DiskAlert 2 uses SMART data being sent from SMART-enabled disk drives. However, DiskAlert 2 goes far beyond SMART by collecting key data from disk drives, the operating system, and RAID cards, and by using special algorithms to determine the health of a disk drive. DiskAlert 2 is a most reliable indicator of potential disk failure.

Working With Older Hard Drives

Using the proprietary algorithm, DiskAlert 2 can monitor drives of any size, speed, or age running on a Windows 2000 professional, or Windows NT workstation or server, even those where SMART is not enabled. This is especially important because older drives have a greater risk of failure.

Viewing Disk Drive Data Over the Internet or Via Modem

If you have a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you can connect to the agents on your machines via the Administrative Console and view the disk drives being monitored as if you were on-site. Additionally, using Remote Access Server (RAS), you connect via modem viewing any machine and its disk drives via the Administrative Console.

For remote servers and RAID arrays, you should install an Administrative Console at each remote site. This way, you can be automatically informed when a remote disk starts to get in trouble.

Support For Operating Systems

DiskAlert 2 supports Windows NT 4 (service pack 5 or higher with Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher), Windows 2000 (all service packs with Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher), and Windows XP with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. The administrative privileges are required to install a disk monitoring agent on any machine. This maintains security on your Windows system.

Work on Notebooks and Laptops

DiskAlert 2 works on any notebook running Windows NT/2000/XP.

Work with Windows 95, 98, 98 ME

At this time, DiskAlert 2 only supports Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems.

Tie Into Other Management Interfaces

Currently DiskAlert 2 is a standalone product.

Super Included Features

Optimized for Windows XP
The only reliable, affordable early warning program now available
Proactive management power to save server and desktop data
Simple, inexpensive product to protect a company’s servers
Automates detecting and evaluating warning signs of impending disk failure
Delivers instant alerts by email, phone, pager and screen pop-up messages
Know at all times the status and condition of hard drives
Easy to set up
Installs and configures from a central console
Deploys across a network in minutes
Provides single control point for monitoring all disks within a network
Zero administration
"Set it and forget it technology"
Completely transparent
Uses minimal system resources
Works on SCSI and IDE disks
Supports Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Works with software RAID and most hardware RAID controllers
Warns if disks get too full and free space falls below user-defined thresholds

Targeted Customers

DiskAlert 2 Administrator is designed to support the hard disk monitoring function from the server, and the Desktop version is designed to be run on individual desktop machines. With the tremendous cost to companies when servers fail, naturally this means all savvy IS staff have at least set up typical backup processes and standard RAID arrays, in order to assure ease of access to data once a hard drive fails. As most experienced computer users have learned, the failure of a computer hard drive is not a question of if it will fail, but when the drive will fail. So, in addition to these standard data backup processes, DiskAlert 2 will also enable IS staff to be alerted BEFORE the drive fails. This is what makes this super utility so valuable in most all computer network operations. The ability to work with a hard disk drive before it fails is far easier and less costly than having to work around the problems after the drive fails.

Running DiskAlert 2 on individual desktops is just a "no-brainer." In addition to being essential to making the Administrator version of DiskAlert 2 work best, this also provides the necessary alert time before desktop drives fail and the workstation users experience data loss due to this failure. The ability to know ahead of time before such a failure occurs will greatly benefit IS staff looked to by workstation users to help them protect their data.

Executive Software has created an essential tool that will help network administrators keep their disks running at top efficiency. If you want to prepare in advance for disaster, rather than wait until it strikes, then you need this tool.

Price

$ 42.00 - Desktop - electronic download, 1-4 licenses
$ 44.95 - Desktop - CD and printed documentation

$249.95 - Administrator - electronic download, 1-4 licenses
$259.95 - Administrator - CD and printed documentation

Volume licensing is available for this product in both the Desktop and Administrator versions.

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

DiskAlert 2 installs and runs on any PC running Windows NT 4 Server or NT 4 Workstation, or Windows 2000 Server or Professional. The DiskAlert Administrator console requires 2.3 MB disk space, plus 370KB for each drive being monitored locally on the same machine the Administrator is installed. Client machines require 1 MB disk space, plus 370KB for each drive being monitored on the client machine.

About Executive Software International

Executive Software was founded July 22, 1981. During this time, the company has continued to establish industry standards for the IT community with products that increase system performance and simplify management for enterprise-class networks. Developers of Diskeeper, an industry was created and the product continues to be the world's leading disk defragmentation software for the enterprise.

Executive Software's Diskeeper, originally released in 1986 for the Digital VMS platform, was the first and original "Set it and Forget it" automatic disk defragmenter for the enterprise. On November 22, 1999, Diskeeper became the first-ever Microsoft Certified defragmenter, available now for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000.

The company provides fragmentation analysis, disk defragmentation, automatic data caching software, powerful file and disk management software, and the most complete file recovery system for lost files on NT/2000 and mixed Windows networks. 

The company's system management tools include the performance-increasing Diskeeper which, according to "PC Data," is the number one network defragmentation utility, selling to over 93% of the enterprise market.

Products for VMS on the VAX and Alpha platforms include I/O Express, Diskeeper, FragGuard, and Filemaster.

Contact Information

Colleen Toumayan
Director of Publicity
Executive Software International
7590 N. Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, California 91504
818-771-1600, Ext. 1610
800-829-6468
FAX 818-252-5516
FAX 818-252-5114
ctoumayan@executive.com
infodesk@executive.com
www.executive.com
www.diskeeper.com
www.execsoft.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.