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I've been a Diskeeper customer nearly as long as I've worked in information technology (20 years). I've also reviewed Condusiv's previous version here at 4sysops;
Condusiv recently released Diskeeper 18, and it is the best upgrade I've seen from them in many years. Let's check out what's new and what's changed in Diskeeper.
If you aren't familiar with Diskeeper, it is disk optimization software that, instead of "defragging" your mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs), it proactively provides intelligence to Windows disk writes to ensure that all types of storage never suffer from fragmentation. And with Diskeeper’s DRAM caching, you can further improve performance.
One preliminary point: Diskeeper comes in three editions:
These editions represent a hard system requirement; that is, you cannot install the Professional or Home versions on a Windows Server computer, and vice-versa with the Server version and Windows Client computers.
Oh, one more thing--the previous Diskeeper version is 16. For whatever reason (perhaps to reflect the magnitude of this release), Condusiv skipped version 17.
No reboot required
To me, Diskeeper's biggest pain point was its reboot requirement after initial installation and product upgrade. I dislike restarting my primary workstation, but I like restarting my production servers even less because doing so affects more people.
Diskeeper 18 (all editions) now install and update with no reboot requirement. This is the culmination of a long journey by Condusiv, and I'm so happy for them that they finally achieved this milestone.
Revamped dashboard
For the past several Diskeeper versions, Condusiv has emphasized quantitative metrics. This data is important because Diskeeper can demonstrate precisely how much time the tool saves you in storage input/output (I/O) operations.
Case in point: look at the following screenshot, which shows the Diskeeper Server "Time Saved" Dashboard:
Diskeeper 'Time Saved' Dashboard
Recall the patented Diskeeper technologies that work under the hood to optimize your drives over time:
- IntelliWrite: Ensures that disk writes prevent excessive fragmentation to reduce unnecessary I/O operations
- IntelliMemory: Caches frequently accessed data in RAM to serve up fast ("hot") reads, reducing I/O operations having to go all the way to storage to complete.
The I/O Performance tab gives you even more statistics, including average, minimum, and maximum input/output operations per second (IOPS) and total disk space processed by Diskeeper. You can also see exactly how much physical RAM is being dynamically used by the IntelliMemory cache. Note that IntelliMemory will only use available RAM not being used by other system or user processes.
Diskeeper IO Performance Dashboard
According to Condusiv's documentation, you should give Diskeeper at least 24 hours to calibrate itself before you see meaningful statistics on the Dashboard and Reports tabs.
Recall that Diskeeper runs as a Windows service and has a notification tray icon. The tool was designed to be "set it and forget it," neither requiring the administrator to run manual defragmentation operations (although you can do that) or schedule the tool to run every week or month.
Diskeeper service and tray process
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In the previous screenshot, you can see that I have Diskeeper Administrator as well as Diskeeper Server installed on my test Windows Server 2016 computer. Speaking of which...
Diskeeper 18 Administrator
Diskeeper 18 Administrator is a separate product that is useful for businesses who volume license Diskeeper and SSDkeeper and need to simplify software deployment and maintenance. The Administrator console is a thick client application that uses SQL Server (Express Edition is fine) as a back-end data store.
Diskeeper 18 Administrator console
Diskeeper 18 Administrator can manage the following Condusiv products:
- Diskeeper 18
- Diskeeper 16
- Diskeeper 15
- SSDKeeper
What's neat about Diskeeper 18 Administrator is that not only can you automate Diskeeper installation, maintenance, and report gathering, but you also can remote control Diskeeper on managed nodes directly from the console. I show you that in the following screenshot.
Remote control in Diskeeper 18 Administrator
Pricing and wrap-up
Go visit the Diskeeper purchase page to get pricing information for:
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- Single-user license
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You should consider registering and downloading the free 30-day trial. Let me know what you think of Diskeeper in the comments! All Condusiv products are easy for me to review and recommend because (a) I use them myself every day; (b) they function exactly as advertised; and (c) I know some Condusiv staff and they are kind, intelligent, and helpful people.
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Thanks for the great review…I’m definitely upgrading! BTW, per Condusiv Support, the reason there was no version 17 is because their numbering scheme is based on year of release and a new version was not released in 2017.
Cheers!
–Rich Langsford