Notes from the Trenches

Extreme Performance: The Gigabit Connection

As promised a few months ago, here is the report on SnapshotCM performance when using gigabit routers. For this test, I created a one GB file. I used an HP-UX IA-64 server and a Windows XP (HP Xw8000) system for this test. Neither would be considered the latest hardware. The IA-64 system has 15K SCSI disk drives, the XP system has 7200 RPM SATA drives. Both are dual processor. XP was the SnapshotCM server and HP-UX the client. Check in took 86 seconds, or 11.7 MB/s. Check out topped out at 19 seconds, or a bit over 50 MB/s. I suspect this is the maximum write speed of the SCSI disk. Still, this is two and a half times faster than the 100Mb/s network. Checking out server compressed files did not speed up the results.

The XP system ran 30% CPU utilization during these tests, and this is a 4 year old system. My conclusion is that disk IO is the most likely bottleneck on a GB network and that a Gb network, with disk hardware to match, can improve raw throughput. It also shows that the SnapshotCM architecture is not, at least yet, the bottleneck.

Window Sharing Available for Demos, Problem Solving

Most of you have used window / desktop sharing software. If you haven't, all you need to know is that it allows a remote user to share a window or his whole desktop with you so that you can see what they see, and vice versa. Optionally, the remote user can control the window with their mouse and keyboard. In short, you can call in the expert, watch them control your machine, solve your problem, and get you back to work, in just minutes, from anywhere.

The first time I used such software, perhaps 15 years ago while at Hewlett Packard, I was impressed with just how productively one could interact with a colleague who was hundreds of miles away. It became a standard tool for me. Today's web and PC based solutions work as well as what I used back then, which makes be happy to report, this functionality is back in by tool box.

True Blue Software has licensed GoToMeeting which provides secure windows sharing. So if you need a demo, training, or if a hard to describe problem can best be demonstrated live, let us know. We are available (and virtually on your desktop) to help.

E-mail Us

Send your comments, questions and suggestions to support@truebluesoftware.com.

To see SnapshotCM in operation, download a fully functional SnapshotCM evaluation at http://www.truebluesoftware.com/.