Xangati, the recognized leader in infrastructure performance management, today unveiled a new release of its Xangati Management Dashboard (XMD) suite, including significant enhancements to both its Virtual Infrastructure (VI aka server virtualization) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) multi-host Dashboard solutions, empowering virtualization managers with 360 degree cross-silo visibility and unparalleled context for managing and troubleshooting their virtualized infrastructures. This is the third major XMD release within a year and incorporates new capabilities that provide full context regarding dynamic storage interactions; detailed insights into the activity within the VM – without adding guest-level software agents; and live and continuous views of PCoIP statistics for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) implementations through a technology partnership with Teradici, also announced today.

In addition, Xangati simultaneously announced new breakthrough pricing of the XMD – shattering entry-cost barriers by providing the highest functionality available in any infrastructure performance management solution at an unbeatable price. Further accelerating enterprise initiatives, Xangati announced that all of the new XMD capabilities would be included in a free single host tool – Xangati for vSphere – FREE (formerly Xangati for ESX) – which can be downloaded and used immediately to solve problems, without costing IT one cent.

“Xangati allows you to look within the VI or VDI environment – allowing you to view interactions occurring across the infrastructure,” said Roger Lund, vExpert. “Xangati enables administrators to quickly and easily see and assess how different parts of the infrastructure impact the other. Currently, in my opinion, no one does this as well as Xangati. Now, with this new release, they’ve added even more value, by increasing storage insights, going deep inside the guest VM, and providing a live and continuous view into PCoIP. To me, Xangati has great value for any VI admin.”

“As the technology leader in both server virtualization and VDI management, our goal is to provide customers with the most comprehensive products possible to track and analyze all of the dynamic interactions within their virtualized environment,” said Alan Robin, CEO of Xangati. “This blockbuster release allows us to do just that by giving 360 degree cross-silo visibility into what’s causing a performance issue through the actionable context of our incomparable alert recordings. Now Xangati goes deeper into network and storage than any other performance management solution in the same product module. At the same time, we’re taking our price/performance to new heights by dramatically lowering the price for the XMD product suite.”

Xangati Management Dashboard Suite: New Capabilities

The new XMD release includes the following new product capabilities for the VI and VDI Dashboards:

Deep Storage Performance Tracking and Analysis

• Live, historical and performance health tracking of datastores, including:
  • Datastore-to-ESX and datastore-to-VM interactions; and
  • Interactional metrics including: latency, IOPS, storage throughput.
• Added storage depth for ESX servers and VMs enabling full 360 degree visibility into infrastructure interactions, including:
  • Top Ten VMs per ESX host for IOPS, latency and storage throughput; and
  • Automated alert recordings for storage interactions, allowing managers to quickly identify storage latency issues, for example, showing which VM is impacting which datastore.

In addition, the XMD now provides the ability to share vCenter storage information with a storage administrator without providing a vCenter login.

“Xangati already allows us to solve problems faster than any other solution we’ve tried,” said Endre Walls, Chief Technology Officer at Resources for Human Development (RHD), a national nonprofit organization. “After seeing its new storage functionality, we’re excited about the even deeper insights it will bring into our infrastructure. This new release goes further in eliminating all blind spots and allows us to immediately capture – and record – any significant storage fluctuations that are impacting performance. Most importantly for us, we were able to find a solution that was more flexible, feature-rich, and cost-effective than the competition. We have found a partner who provides continual support and advice and is there when we need them.”

Deep Insights into VM Activity without Adding Guest Level Agents

• Pulling of Window Management Interface (WMI) statistics to deliver insights directly into which processes are hogging critical resources. This functionality works for the VI/VDI as well as the physical infrastructure. Use case examples include:
  • Server virtualization – administrators can immediately see that a specific process of a poorly coded proprietary application is bogging down the CPU; and
  • VDI – administrators are automatically alerted if a desktop anti-virus (AV) service is slowing down other desktops and adversely impacting the experience of other end users.
• Performance statistics are available in live navigational windows and can be tied in with Xangati’s DVR recordings for a specific Windows machine so there is full 360 degree context of its activity.

In addition to these WMI views being tied to a specific identity, there is a live Windows System Viewer that allows insights for up to 10 systems in a live and continuous fashion at once. The XMD differs substantially from other systems that allow you to only see these views for one system at a time and often lose the recent past by not having scroll bar views.

“The fact that we don’t have to add guest software agents to the Xangati VDI solution is huge for us,” said Jason Morris, IT Services Manager at Concord National – Prairie Division. “It allows us to easily scale VDI management as needed, so we can actually see what’s happening across multiple systems – giving us the ability to meet the management needs of any number of desktops being added to our infrastructure. Now, by completing the picture with the addition of storage insights, Xangati hits a real home run.”

Real-time Visualization of PCoIP Performance Statistics

Through Xangati’s technology partnership with Teradici, Xangati is first to market with the ability to present live and continuous graphically rich insights into PCoIP statistics for VDI implementations. Through this partnership and this new software release, VDI administrators can see inside the PCoIP protocol in terms of how much of a session is image vs. audio vs. USB redirect. This information and other performance related statistics, including end-to-end latency will be available ad hoc or through Xangati recordings, which enable comprehensive insights for VDI troubleshooting.

And lastly, the XMD also now integrates other key hypervisor performance metrics – including CPU Ready, Memory Swap and Balloon Driver. These metrics will be included for tracking via Xangati’s Performance Health Engine – a key component of its Management Dashboard suite. The Performance Health Engine includes a real-time health index that continuously monitors the status of every object impacting the virtualized environment and alerts managers to potential problems.

Xangati for vSphere – FREE: A Fully Featured, Free Single Host Tool

Xangati has incorporated all of the new capabilities offered in the XMD product suite into its free single host virtualization management tool, Xangati for vSphere – FREE. Xangati for vSphere – FREE also includes all of Xangati’s trademark features, including its live and continuous scroll bar with drill down navigation; automated DVR recordings and patent-pending Performance Health Engine which provides advanced analytics for both VI or VDI implementations.

Featuring a simple GUI-based appliance set up directly from the vSphere client, Xangati for vSphere – FREE can be easily downloaded and up and running immediately for problem solving across all silos, including network, storage, server, desktops, clients and applications. Xangati for vSphere – FREE is a full-featured product in direct contrast to other point free tools that cover a specific silo such as server, network or storage. As a direct result, Xangati for vSphere – FREE serves as the most comprehensive troubleshooting free tool on the market.

Pricing and Availability

The new XMD suite is generally available now. The XMD for VI is priced at $149 per socket.* The XMD for VDI is priced at $10 per desktop.* All of the new capabilities have been incorporated into the XMD suite at no additional cost, unlike other solutions that charge for separate reporting, storage and WMI modules. For more information about the XMD release, go to http://xangati.com/products/management-dashboards

The release candidate for Xangati for vSphere – FREE is available immediately for limited download and will be made generally available on September 12, 2011, at absolutely no cost.

See Xangati at VMworld Booth #471

VMworld attendees can visit Xangati’s booth at VMworld Las Vegas and see a live demonstration of the XMD’s new capabilities, as well as Xangati for vSphere – FREE. The XMD is also being used by VMware to manage its VDI vCloud supporting the VMworld labs at the conference. The first 500 visitors to the Xangati booth will also receive a virtualization collector’s item – a “Blame Wars: The VI Admin Strikes Back” limited quantity edition VMworld 2011 poster.