Xangati 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.

Xangati also 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.

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.
- 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.
- 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.

Insight 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.
- 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.

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.

VMworld attendees can visit Xangati at Booth #471 at VMworld Las Vegas and see a live demonstration of the XMD’s new capabilities, as well as Xangati for vSphere – FREE.

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.