Removing Boundaries Between Physical and Virtual Environments

Virtualization is a current key trend across all IT segments.  The benefits of virtualization are well known and widely leveraged since data can now be stored and managed over diverse virtual environments in large data centers – or simple standalone servers. Even the most populous segment – home users, can now virtualize their existing software or make cross-platform configurations.

This article highlights how Paragon ConnectVD Technology addresses many data management challenges on diverse virtual and physical machines. ConnectVD allows a myriad of tasks to be performed with ease in a virtual environment – such as partitioning, data transferring, imaging, copying and many other complex tasks.
<h1>Virtualization Challenges</h1>
One of the key benefits of virtualization is that you can run as many virtualized environments on one physical computer using currently available hardware.  The number of serviceable systems may widely differ when using a single physical computer/single system approach or when leveraging dozens of virtualized systems. However the capabilities of IT personnel and administrators are not unlimited and expanding number of virtualized systems may cause a significant work backlogs.

Another thing to consider is that there are many different types of virtualization software. The main vendors are VMware, Microsoft, and Oracle, who offer incompatible solutions with many versions: enterprise or home user; bundled to the OS or independent; copyrighted by license or open-sourced. Managing and transferring data between these environments can be highly complex and nerve-wracking if things go awry.

These vendors naturally provide instruments for data management, migration, and conversion on virtual machines, but there are few vendor independent software tools that support all types of virtual machines. Administrators are typically faced with using many different tools simultaneously to perform tasks such as copying files between VM’s or virtual disk conversions.

Additionally, a typical VM is a complex environment that completely copies the physical computer’s partitions, file systems, one or several operating systems, software and data. On each level a special type of management is needed, which may or may not be provided by the VM software. If you recently installed all the necessary utilities, tools and management software to one or several physical machines, now you have to repeat this process with many virtualized clones. Having software that provides tools for the external management of data on dozens of VM’s from an original single copy is quite handy.

In brief, the major virtualized system management issues are the following: efficient management of a large number of virtual machines  using a limited number of physical servers; the need to support data transfer and management between different types of VM’s; and the need for universal data management tools that can service as many VM’s from the outside physical world as possible.

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Go Virtual

Enjoy Working in a Virtual Computing Environment – Even if You’re Not Technically Savvy – with Paragon Software Group’s Go Virtual

Home users can now enjoy hazard-free benefits of virtualization; migration from PC to virtual machine is easy, reliable and free!

IRVINE, CA, July 12, 2010 – It’s time to upgrade to a new operating system, but the thought of all the unknown issues may hold you back.  What if your favorite applications haven’t been updated to work with the new OS? There may be unintentional software glitches or bugs that will damage your host computer. One solution would be to create a virtual clone of your current computing environment to test any changes or upgrades before going live on your own PC, but migration to a virtual machine might be too complex and expensive for an average home user. How do you even begin to go virtual?

Paragon Software Group (PSG), the technology leader in innovative data security and data management solutions, invites you to Paragon Go Virtual with the new easy-to-use, free migration tool created for PC users who want to work in a virtual environment without technical risk. How does it work? Paragon Go Virtual allows you to make a virtual clone of your PC in three easy steps: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/go-virtual/how_it_works.html

Working in a Physical to Virtual (P2V) environment has benefits.  Avoid negative system conflicts by creating a virtual clone of your current physical system before migrating to a new computer – try new software in a safe environment and decide whether it works and is exactly what you need before making it a permanent addition to your collection.  Or save your virtual environment to a USB hard drive and use it from anywhere at any time, just as if you’re working from your own PC.  With P2V, you can also take advantage of an up-to-date powerful computer while still having access to favorite applications from an old computer.  And, if your old computer is corrupted or you lose data in a transfer, but you have a backup image of your old system made with Paragon software, you can virtualize it using Paragon Go Virtual installed on your new PC.

Previously available only to businesses and advanced users, migration to a virtual machine — because of its complexity and high cost – could be time consuming and complicated for an individual PC user.  Individual users were often required to search for several third-party software tools, and then ensure that these tools were compatible with their new machine before completing the process.  Paragon Go Virtual quickly and efficiently solves these problems by providing a complete solution compatible with all major formats of known virtual machines, including Microsoft (Virtual PC), VMware (Fusion, Workstation, Player) and Oracle (VirtualBox).  Further, Go Virtual requires no additional tools for and after the migration process.

“Since most existing migration tools are aimed at businesses and professional users, Paragon came up with a quality solution for everyone to suit a wider range of users with simplicity, efficiency and the most reliable performance results.” said Konstantin Komarov, CEO. 

Key Features & Benefits:

• Full Windows OS Support – Guaranteed support for any Windows operating system since Win2K (excluding server editions).
• P2V Migration – Migrate a physical system to a virtual machine.
• Migration without rebooting Windows – Hot processing of locked (in-use) hard disks lets you migrate a computer without rebooting and interrupting Windows.
• P2V Adjust OS to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool and to make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware.
• Smart Driver Injector – Makes the process of adding new drivers smooth and easy.
• Performance – Paragon Go Virtual performs approximately 20% faster (your results may vary).
• Selection of virtual hardware – Go Virtual offers the user a selection of virtual hardware types. Freeware tools typically do not.
• Migration of offline systems – Freeware tools support the migration of operating systems currently running, but they have problems migrating offline operating systems, especially when there are more than one OS on the disk. Go Virtual performs these operations with ease.

Availability:

Paragon Go Virtual is available for immediate download, free of charge: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/go-virtual/index.html

A Major Problem With Solid State Drives (SSD)

The Misaligned partitions problem is even more important for SSD drives than for traditional hard disk drives. Many modern SSD drives have an internal memory page size 4096 bytes or larger accordingly to 4K size, which are some analogue for 4K sectors. Thus all previously mentioned problems are the same for SSD partitions alignment.

This issue of SSD misalignment was highlighted in a recent OCZ forum where it was stated:

Take note here, partition alignment with SSD is the most important factor you have to deal with when installing your new drive. Tuning the drive’s alignment can add 30 to 50% more performance so failing to apply the correct alignment could ruin the experience you have with the drive.

There is one crucial SSD issue besides file system speed decline (which is not so noticeable in comparison to traditional HDD). It is the SSD memory cells degradation after some amount of write operations. So if partitions on SSD are misaligned beside downgraded system speed you put your solid state drive in danger. After partitions alignment, PAT eliminates all redundant read/write operations and thus provides speed boost and grants the SSD a longer lifetime.

Is SSD alignment an issue for you? Find out here. Read the rest of Why Misaligned Partitions are a Problem for SSD.

Volume Snapshot for Mac OS X

The only snapshot based backup solution for comprehensive protection of both data & systems!

Easily create an exact point-in-time copy of your data & system, and when a disaster strikes – get everything back in minutes. Unlike Time Machine and other file-level backup utilities, our solution has very fast backup and restore capabilities. Now you can backup running applications and locked system files, and if your system fails – there is no need re-install, just boot from the Mac® OS X Install DVD and launch the restore operation. This is a huge time saver compared to other methods.

True live protection

Traditional backups involving file archiving has a number of drawbacks, like:

• Running applications usually require exclusive rights for processed files, thus preventing a backup program from copying them.
• During a volume backup to ensure accessibility of files and the data integrity, a program requires suspension and/or termination of all running applications. For high-capacity disk systems, this could take hours.

Snapshot-based backup easily solves these problems. It’s a common industry term denoting the ability to record the state of a storage device at any given moment (make a snapshot), and then preserve that snapshot as a guide for restoring the machine in case of emergency.

Fastest Recovery

The old way: In case of a system malfunction (it fails to boot), you should re-install the system first. To do that, you need to boot from a distributive CD and install the system (~40 minutes). After that, you need to set up Time Machine and roll back to the required state of the system. This process is time-consuming as it involves re-installation of the operating system.

The better way: With Paragon Snapshot for Mac you don’t need to re-install the system, just boot from a Mac OS X Installation DVD and restore via Disk Utility. Moreover, data retrieval from snapshot is accomplished through private interfaces, which is faster, than processing files on a file system level. Reduce the number of steps it takes to restore your system with Snapshot for Mac®.

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