Help choosing replacement Hyper-V host machines and connected storage

JohnFromSTL

@JohnFromSTL said:

Is DPACK the best tool to use? And would you happen to have a contact name for someone at NTG? I've spoken with someone from Dell but their lousy tool keeps dropping connections to the DPACK Web Service and this gentleman isn't very responsive at all.

Several @ntg people right here in the thread

I have several DPACK results uploaded, should I just post them here?

scottalanmiller

Sure

JohnFromSTL

@scottalanmiller said:

Sure

I've slacked off a bit since having knee surgery this Tuesday.

StrongBad

I suppose, this one time, we can accept that excuse. But only with a doctor's note.

JohnFromSTL

[https://files.secureserver.net/0sxI5pJa5UT5Ux](22_oct_ (17_hr_25_min)-official_report_10_30_2015)
https://files.secureserver.net/0she5PgIAN9ho5 30_oct_[(12_hour)-official_report_10_30_2015]

Dashrender

@JohnFromSTL said:

[https://files.secureserver.net/0sxI5pJa5UT5Ux](22_oct_ (17_hr_25_min)-official_report_10_30_2015)
https://files.secureserver.net/0she5PgIAN9ho5 30_oct_[(12_hour)-official_report_10_30_2015]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

Man, you have some IOPs to spare. 95% at 457 IOPs, and a peak of 4165.

scottalanmiller

@JohnFromSTL said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Sure

I've slacked off a bit since having knee surgery this Tuesday.

How are you doing now?

JohnFromSTL

@scottalanmiller said:

@JohnFromSTL said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Sure

I've slacked off a bit since having knee surgery this Tuesday.

How are you doing now?

Thanks for asking. I'm doing okay, it's still sore (of course I pushed too far too soon by coming back to work earlier than I should have) but it feels better than it did before the surgery. I had a complex tear in lateral meniscus of my left knee, a cyst on the meniscus due to the tear and Grade IV chondrosis (http://www.cartilagehealth.com/acr.html) of the tibial plateau. I nearly lost my leg in a forklift accident when I was 17. I've had over 40 surgeries as a result of the accident. It's pretty trashed, but at least I can walk. I'm not complaining, there are others who haven't been as fortunate, so I'm grateful for what I can do. I should post pics from the surgery when I return next week for a follow up appointment.

JohnFromSTL

@Dashrender said:

@JohnFromSTL said:

[https://files.secureserver.net/0sxI5pJa5UT5Ux](22_oct_ (17_hr_25_min)-official_report_10_30_2015)
https://files.secureserver.net/0she5PgIAN9ho5 30_oct_[(12_hour)-official_report_10_30_2015]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

Man, you have some IOPs to spare. 95% at 457 IOPs, and a peak of 4165.

Does it make a difference that I didn't select the individual VMs when running the DPACK analysis but selected the Hyper-V hosts instead? Our heavy usage is sporadic. The VMs which give us the most grief are SQL 2005 and Oracle 11g.

scottalanmiller

@JohnFromSTL It will matter as far as getting granular data and figuring out which VM is doing what. But for overall capacity it will be fine.

DustinB3403

I can't find a download link for DPACK.

Isn't is free software?

Dashrender

@DustinB3403 said:

I can't find a download link for DPACK.

Isn't is free software?

Nope, it's provided by Dell (and prehaps other vendors)

scottalanmiller

@DustinB3403 said:

I can't find a download link for DPACK.

Isn't is free software?

Free, yes. Public, no.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

Nope, it's provided by Dell (and prehaps other vendors)

Dell internal app. Only Dell can provide it and only Dell can decrypt the output. Only Dell and select partners (NTG was the first and may remain the only) that can read them back for you. NTG reads back from non-sales engineering, Dell reads back from a sales channel capacity planning person who specs a 3-2-1 system for you from the details.

Dashrender

So NTG has both the DPACK installers and the decryption software, so no need to talk to Dell at all?
@Minion-Queen ?

Deleted74295

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

Nope, it's provided by Dell (and prehaps other vendors)

Dell internal app. Only Dell can provide it and only Dell can decrypt the output.

Seems some people have cracked it.
https://www.freelancer.co.uk/projects/C-Programming/Decode-the-Dell-dpack-file/

Dashrender

@Breffni-Potter said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

Nope, it's provided by Dell (and prehaps other vendors)

Dell internal app. Only Dell can provide it and only Dell can decrypt the output.

Seems some people have cracked it.
https://www.freelancer.co.uk/projects/C-Programming/Decode-the-Dell-dpack-file/

Interesting.. I wonder if the solution is for sale or going to be publicly posted?

Deleted74295

@Dashrender said:

Interesting.. I wonder if the solution is for sale or going to be publicly posted?

Pretty sure Dell's T&Cs prohibit selling the solution and their lawyers will come after anyone who tries it.

Now, if the soloution just ended up being distributed outside the control of anyone one individual, they would have a hard time. DPACK is a major tool in their sales arsenal for products. Maybe the engineering guys will re-write DPACK to counter it.

Dashrender

@Breffni-Potter said:

Maybe the engineering guys will re-write DPACK to counter it.

That's just a never ending battle.

Deleted74295

As the software and video game industries have learned, you cannot copy protect your software, ever. It's a never ending game of whack-a-mole.

Apparently, this is all he had to do. Little bit of PHP.

<?php

$contents = file_get_contents("7daycapturePPP2.iokit");

$newlines = 0;
for($i = 0; $i < strlen($contents); $i++)
{
   if( ord($contents[$i]) == 10) {
      $newlines++;
      if($newlines == 2) {
        $original_header = substr($contents, 0, $i + 1);
        $contents = substr_replace($contents, "", 0, $i + 1);
        break;
      }
   }
}
echo $original_header;
echo zlib_decode($contents);
?>