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DymaxIO Technical FAQs
Installing DymaxIO across your network
There is a file called “vreboot.txt” that is not getting deleted after a successful reboot. This file would be located in the root of your C: drive. Delete this file and the reboot prompting will cease.
Analysis and Defragmentation
The new defragmentation engine that handles File FAL(File Attribute List) fragmentation is the only defragmenter that can safely defragment the FAL without making it grow. It also dynamically determines how often to process these effected files by the severity of the FAL fragmentation.
A new Free Space Consolidation engine has been added to handle volumes with extreme free space fragmentation and supports FAL(File Attribute List)-SAFE defragmentation.
In many cases, this type of file can be defragmented after you reboot your system.
Hiberfil.sys is the file where Windows saves memory data when the system hibernates. This file cannot be moved at all. You can either ignore it, or disable Hibernate mode, which will delete the file.
Visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730 for more information on how to disable hibernation on Windows operating systems.
Technical FAQs
Yes, we have many customers running DymaxIO on systems with multiple HDDs and SSDs, including nVMEs, and we have not had anyone report an issue with it.
In fact, our Chief Architect is running DymaxIO on his system with multiple nVMEs and multiple HDDs with no issues and great results that we published, with screen shots, to our blog https://condusiv.com/unveiling-the-magic-chief-architects-astonishing-dymaxio-results-revealed/
Yes, it is and it works like a charm!
As a precaution, DymaxIO does look to see whether CHKDSK is set to run against a volume before we defragment it. Where CHKDSK is found to be enabled, DymaxIO assumes something is wrong with the volume and therefore should not be touched until the trouble is cleared up. The only thing that should help clear up the CHKDSK flag would be to reboot that machine, at which point CHKDSK should run and clear up the trouble.
CHKDSK ( short for Check Disk) is a utility command available on computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems. CHKDSK is used to detect and correct errors on a volume.
CHKDSK gets scheduled to run if the operating system detects a possible problem on a volume or if the user schedules it to run.
For safety reasons, DymaxIO will not run on a volume that has been flagged to run CHKDSK.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730714(WS.10).aspx
No, there is not. DymaxIO is not the originator of the message but a relay point. DymaxIO carries out communications with the operating system so that it can do its job. Once the operating system sees a bad sector it lets DymaxIO know and in turn you, the user, are notified so that you can take the proper action to correct it. The only step that will handle this message is to run a CHKDSK successfully.
No, DymaxIO only supports 64-bit.
Yes, RAID volumes suffer fragmentation much like a single physical disk does. The difference though, is that this fragmentation is splayed over several platters. That’s not to say that it fragments worse or slows performance even more but rather that each platter could contain multiple pieces of the same file rather than one consolidated piece of the file on each platter. Diskeeper can help with this and will treat the RAID volumes in much the same way it would a single physical disk, while also giving more precedence to the RAID Controller to still control things like striping.
Yes, it certainly can. As database files can become fragmented in the same fashion that all other files can become fragmented, the result can increase the I/O’s necessary to access these files. Compound that with the frequent use that databases go through and the problem can be very evident. DymaxIO works just fine with a variety of databases, small and large, ranging from SQL, Exchange, SMS, Sybase, Oracle, Informix, etc.
DymaxIO is not however a solution for the “internal fragmentation” that a database may suffer. Such “internal fragmentation” may still require a reindex (found within the database management itself).
It is possible to run DymaxIO on a Virtual Machine so long as it runs on a Windows platform. DymaxIO can help improve performance within the Virtual environment.
Download Issues / Questions
Download and Installation Instructions To download and install DymaxIO please follow these instructions:
- Click the download link to start the download.
- When the File Download dialog box appears click the “Save” button and save to Desktop.
- After the download is completed, locate the Download Manager icon on your Desktop and double-click to run.
- Specify your destination folder where you would like to download the installation package(s).
- Select the “Save” button to start your download.
- Once the Download Manager has completed downloading your product, locate the installation package within the destination folder and execute.
- Follow the prompts within the installer to complete the installation of DymaxIO.
Note: Please make sure the executable file and the license file are located inside the same directory before executing the installation process.
Additional Instructions: General Download Instructions: To ensure a successful download, we recommend quitting / disabling any other programs, including virus-protection / firewalls and any third-party download managers. These programs can and may interfere with your download process.
Try downloading your product. If this fails please go to the next step below.
Delete your Internet Explorer Temporary Files:
- Quit Internet Explorer and quit any instances of Windows Explorer.
- Click Start, click Control Panel, and then open (double-click) Internet Options.
- On the General tab, click Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files.
- In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the Delete all offline content check box, and then click OK.
- Click OK.
Learn more about How to Delete Temporary Internet Explorer files Try downloading your product.
If this fails go to the next step below. Server error or file not found error: Sometimes, if the link gets wrapped onto two lines in your email then the whole link does not get used. If this appears to be the case, try copying the first line of the address and pasting it into the address bar of your web browser and then copying and pasting the second line into your browser (at the end of what you already pasted). If you continue experiencing problems with the download, please respond by including a screenshot of your desktop. This will help us assist you to get your product.
Sometimes an error can occur during installation leaving you with a partly installed product which then causes subsequent installation attempts to fail as well. This can also happen when uninstalling a product.
Fortunately, Microsoft has created a Fix it utility that you can run to clean up installations.
Please visit the following website to learn more about the Microsoft Installation Fix it utility.
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall
Run this program to resolve problems that prevent our software from being completely uninstalled.
Once this is done, you should be able to install your purchased software without any issues.
For download links to your purchased software, please visit http://my.condusiv.com and login using the email address that you provided when you purchased your software.
General
DymaxIO is safe because it uses mechanisms built in the Microsoft operating systems such as the move API and maintains cache coherency, file security and permissions information, and file content integrity. DymaxIO does not alter the content of a file or a database. The only change to file attribute-type information is the physical location of the file on the volume.
Windows built-in defragmenter does not have the strength to keep up with fragmentation. As fragmentation builds up, it becomes a much harder challenge to handle. Fragmentation builds up rapidly and in a very random manner. Even with light computer activity or minimal use, your computer becomes fragmented. This will usually be sooner than later and will often result in a hit against your system’s performance. Eventually, this will also diminish the reliability of the system. Even cleaning up temporary internet files does not solve the need to defragment daily. Other files on your system will eventually become fragmented regardless.
You can compare the concept of a car needing an oil change. Without this normal maintenance, you would damage your engine. Although the concept applies, it is actually more critical for computers. Fragmentation occurs at the hard drive level. As fragmentation accumulates, the hard drive becomes the bottleneck. Often, hard drives spin at the same revolutions per minute (RPM- similar to a car’s engine RPM) that our car’s engines do. Also consider that most of us are usually at our computers longer than we are in our cars. This requires the need for daily defragmentation. A task that the built-in defragmenter cannot stand up against. DymaxIO offers a complete easy-to-use interface and preset scheduling options which make it easier than ever to schedule defrag jobs. DymaxIO removes the need to ever have to remember to defragment your computer. This is because it runs using “Set it and Forget It” technology. It is recommended that you purchase or try DymaxIO and set it up to run at least once per day. This ensures peak performance. Keeping in an effective schedule (that suits your life style and the use of the computer); you can ensure a constant return of your investment, your computer.
No. USB attached storage is no longer supported.
Yes, DymaxIO is just optimizing blocks of data, so it does not matter if the data is encrypted or not.
Yes, automatic defragmentation with DymaxIO can significantly enhance the performance of a disk array. Multi-disk arrays, such as RAID 5 arrays, are seen by the operating system as a single disk, known as a virtual disk. The operating system builds a master file table (MFT) that arranges files on the virtual disk and requests data from the RAID controller based on its layout in the MFT. If a file is fragmented into several pieces, the OS must make multiple I/O requests, one to retrieve each chunk (or fragment) of data from the disk.
A common misconception is that fragmentation does not affect a disk array because files are stored across multiple drives. It’s important to remember that, even on a single drive, the physical layout of the drive is different than the logical layout of the drive. At the logical level, the disk is represented as a series of contiguous blocks. This is the “picture” that the disk presents to the operating system. At the physical level, factors such as multiple heads and platters, rotation of the disk, etc., determine how blocks of data are placed for optimal retrieval speed; blocks that are logically contiguous may not be physically next to one another (in fact, they probably won’t be). Likewise, with a disk array, the physical placement of the data blocks is not important as far as DymaxIO is concerned. The disk array controller handles all that; the operating system sees a single logical drive (the virtual disk). Therefore, disk arrays see the same benefits from automatic defragmentation with DymaxIO as do single drives.
In providing a solution to fragmentation, it is not acceptable to force users off the disk while performing routine defragmentation. To do so would be a case of the cure being worse than the disease. Access to fragmented files is better than no access at all.
The best solution is to defragment online with users active on the same disk. DymaxIO was designed with this in mind. During most of the time DymaxIO is processing a file in its online mode, DymaxIO shares the file with any other users that may access the same file. The last step of processing the file, however, involves locking the file for a very brief period, a matter of milliseconds. If another user requests a file that DymaxIO has locked, that request is suspended for the brief period until DymaxIO releases the file. Then the request is serviced. There is never an interruption of either process as a result of this delay.
This solution allows DymaxIO to defragment open files safely, whether they are open for read operations or for write operations.
Yes! If you are creating and deploying drive images, distributing DymaxIO is easy to do. Simply install DymaxIO on the Gold image with the default installation or any particular adjustments to settings that you intend to propagate to your systems. The program can then be deployed as part of the image with no additional administrative work needed.
As a tip, it’s always a good idea to defragment the image before distributing it, to ensure that the clients receive a “clean” drive at the beginning.
DymaxIO has no special “bad block” handling logic.
DymaxIO uses the Windows MoveFile.API to read from and write to all clusters on a volume. The Windows Operating System however, can detect that an I/O was attempted to a bad cluster and can then return an error to DymaxIO. The Windows Operating System will then mark the volume as “dirty” and require that CHKDSK run to clean it up.
Wherever CHKDSK is defined on a volume, DymaxIO will not run until that is cleared up.
An item of interest is the fact that ANY database will over time experience “internal” fragmentation. This is where records are removed from the file, but the space it occupied is still there and is either reused for a new record or has to be skipped over. Most databases have utilities to restructure the files, but without defragmenting the other files or consolidating the free space, the rebuilt database file will be physically fragmented.
DymaxIO will work just fine in environments with live large databases, whether they be Exchange, SQL, SMS, Sybase, Oracle, Informix, etc….
In most cases these databases are made up of large container file(s) that are pre-allocated in size at the point of creation, but if the size increases beyond the initial value they will become physically fragmented. DymaxIO never restructures the internal contents of the file. After defragmentation a file it will be a bit for bit duplicate of the original. Therefore any holes or ‘records marked as deleted’ within the database are still present and you will need, from time to time, to restructure your database files per the recommendations of their respective manufacturers.
People sometimes use the word fragmentation to describe the condition of a file which has its records (internal contents) scattered about within the file, separated by numerous small gaps. This type of fragmentation may be a problem with the application which maintains the file; it is not inherent in the operating system or disk file structure.
There are two types of fragmentation with which we are immediately concerned: file fragmentation and free space fragmentation. File fragmentation concerns computer disk files that are not whole but rather are broken into scattered parts, while free space fragmentation means that the empty space on a disk is broken into scattered parts rather than being collected all in one big empty space. File fragmentation causes problems with accessing data stored in computer disk files, while free space fragmentation causes problems creating new data files or extending (adding to) old ones.
Taken together, we refer to the two types of fragmentation as disk fragmentation. It is important to note that, when talking about fragmentation, we are talking about the file as a container for data and not about the contents (data) of the file itself. People sometimes use the word fragmentation to describe the condition of a file which has its records (internal contents) scattered about within the file, separated by numerous small gaps. This type of fragmentation may be a problem with the application which maintains the file; it is not inherent in the operating system or disk file structure.
Internal fragmentation reflects the “holes” and wasted “free space” within a given file. A database would be a good example. Let’s say you have 250,000 records represented in the file. If an individual record is removed, the location is simply marked as deleted. In the course of doing business hundreds, perhaps thousands of records are added and deleted. It doesn’t take long for the internal organization of a database file, its indexes, and other related files to quickly become quite disorganized. The speed of locating a particular record or segment of information is directly related to the amount time spent skipping over these holes or internal fragments.
DymaxIO handles the disk (file and free space) fragmentation only. Under no circumstance does DymaxIO change or alter the internal contents of a file. This would be a very dangerous thing to do as one would have to have a very intimate knowledge of a given file structure and be able to detect changes as the various databases evolved with new releases.
The tools for databases deal with this internal record fragmentation by rearranging the internal records on the fly when possible, and at times requiring a whole new copy of the database to be created and each record copied to the new file. Unless this copy is done to a freshly formatted partition or a partition with a single chunk of free space large enough to contain the entire database the chances are very good that this new copy will become physically fragmented. You may actually have worsened your performance due to additional disk head seeks.
DymaxIO is certified for Windows Clustering. To run DymaxIO in a Clustered environment, perform the following steps:
1. On the system that has control of the clustered disks, install DymaxIO.
2. Fail the clustered disks over to the other system, install DymaxIO.
After performing the above steps, DymaxIO will run on the clustered system that remains in operation after the other clustered system has experienced a system failure. DymaxIO will also run on the clustered disk/partition in an active-active cluster, optimizing the clustered disk/partition on the system that currently has control of the disk/partition.
Note: DymaxIO’s IntelliMemory feature will be disabled on Active/Active clustered environments.
DymaxIO is fully compatible with SAN and NAS systems, be they connected via a Fibre channel, iSCSI, or other means. If a volume is considered to be “local” to the system (as in a SAN) DymaxIO can defragment it.
Yes you can and because any hard drive present will fragment as usual, DymaxIO can take care of that.
Yes, we offer academic discounts for educational institutions. Please contact your preferred reseller or request an online quote. We do not offer special discounts for students online.
We only provide download versions. After your download is complete, you are allowed to make a backup of your DymaxIO on a CD for future use.
Intelliwrite
IntelliWrite is the ground breaking technology that prevents the majority of fragmentation from ever occurring, dramatically improving Windows system performance.
A small percentage of fragmentation is not preventable and will be eliminated by Automatic Defragmentation. The combination of IntelliWrite and Automatic Defragmentation will keep your system running at optimum performance in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Prevention of fragmentation with IntelliWrite has been found to be more efficient than other defragmentation methods. IntelliWrite reduces the need for disk head movement and results in a reduction of system resource usage and power consumption.
Note: IntelliWrite requires more than 2 GB of free space to run.
IntelliWrite is available in DymaxIO.
When enabled, IntelliWrite is the ground-breaking technology that prevents the majority of fragmentation from ever occurring.
Open the Volume Properties task group and select the IntelliWrite option to navigate directly to the IntelliWrite properties page.
In the Computer pane, select the volumes you want to address and toggle the checkbox to the desired setting. Click OK to save your changes and close the Volume Properties console, or click Apply to save your changes and keep the Volume Properties console open.
IntelliWrite requires more than 2 GB of free space to run.
IntelliWrite Fragmentation Prevention
This section of the Dashboard tab explains that IntelliWrite increases system performance by preventing fragmentation before it happens.
IntelliWrite System Statistics for All Volumes Since the Previous Day
This section of the Dashboard Tab includes statistical information regarding fragmentation prevented by IntelliWrite, fragmentation eliminated by Automatic Defragmentation, and a sum of the two numbers since the previous day.
It is important to note that the amount of fragmentation prevented is an estimation determined by a large number of factors and extensive testing. The IntelliWrite graphs are designed to approximate fragments prevented across a wide range of applications and must incorporate various types of file writes and modifications into a singular display. In some cases the charts may over-estimate and in other cases, underestimate. For example, on SQL Server® the graphs may overestimate about 10% of the fragmentation prevented, on Microsoft® Office documents it may underestimate the number of fragments prevented by 80%. What is important is that with IntelliWrite enabled, fragmentation is being handled, before it happens. The end result of having Diskeeper with IntelliWrite and Automatic Defragmentation working is a system running at peak performance in the most efficient way possible (without fragmentation).
The statement: “Proactive prevention is the most energy efficient method to eliminate increased storage power consumption caused by fragmentation,” points out that when IntelliWrite is handling your system’s fragmentation, it is reducing the amount of disk head movement previously needed to accomplish defragmentation and therefore is reducing Diskeeper’s total system resource footprint.
System Fragmentation Prevention Graph
This section of the Dashboard tab shows system fragmentation prevented by IntelliWrite in real-time. In the graph, fragmentation prevented every second, within the last minute, for your entire system, is displayed in green. The scale on the left side of the graph pertains to the number of fragments that have been prevented and the scale along the top of the graph pertains to the seconds in the last minute.
Statistical Information for Selected Volume(s) Since the Previous Day
This section of the Dashboard tab shows statistical information for selected volume(s) since the previous day. The columns of the table include the name of the selected volume(s), whether or not IntelliWrite and Automatic Defragmentation are enabled, the number of fragments prevented, the number of fragments eliminated and file read/write time % improvement.
On the home page look under ‘File System Optimization’ > ‘Fragments Prevented and Eliminated’ for activity.
1) Does the volume in question have more than 2GB of free space? If not, then free up some disk space on that volume and wait for an hour. IntelliWrite® needs more than 2GB of free space in order for it to be enabled on the volume; Diskeeper checks the free space status hourly and enables or disables IntelliWrite accordingly.
2) Verify that IntelliWrite is enabled on the volume by checking the status of IntelliWrite in the Computer Pane. If it is not enabled, then enable it.
DymaxIO checks the free space status hourly and enables or disables IntelliWrite accordingly. If you have just created more free space on the volume, you may have to wait up to an hour before the status of the volume is updated.