Help choosing replacement Hyper-V host machines and connected storage
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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I can't find a download link for DPACK.
Isn't is free software?
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@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)
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@DustinB3403 said:
I can't find a download link for DPACK.
Isn't is free software?
Free, yes. Public, no.
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@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.
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So NTG has both the DPACK installers and the decryption software, so no need to talk to Dell at all?
@Minion-Queen ? -
@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/ -
@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?
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@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.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Maybe the engineering guys will re-write DPACK to counter it.
That's just a never ending battle.
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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); ?> -
@Breffni-Potter said:
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);
?>LOL, did you just ask him and he gave you the info?
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Pretty much!
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@Dashrender said:
So NTG has both the DPACK installers and the decryption software, so no need to talk to Dell at all?
@Minion-Queen ?No, you always have to "get the DPACK tool" from Dell. And Dell always has to physical decrypt it. But you get to choose if a 3-2-1 capacity planner sales person provides you with the results or if an NTG engineer does. In one case the results are presented as just capacity numbers for scaling your nodes and SAN. In the other it is a generic assessment that will help to look at broad needs including architecture and system design.
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@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/I'm not surprised. I doubt Dell goes to great lengths to lock it down.
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@Dashrender said:
@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?
Not if that guy is based in the UK. And why would someone pay for it if Dell provides the results for free?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Not if that guy is based in the UK. And why would someone pay for it if Dell provides the results for free?
I don't consider a sales pitch free, And I'm wondering since they went to the efforts of doing this free thing for you, will they put the high pressure on the sales pitch?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Not if that guy is based in the UK. And why would someone pay for it if Dell provides the results for free?
I don't consider a sales pitch free, And I'm wondering since they went to the efforts of doing this free thing for you, will they put the high pressure on the sales pitch?
That's a good point. My only counter to that is that.... nearly anyone willing to go through the effort of avoiding that sales pitch and using a solution like this to work around it likely will not be swayed by the sales pitch. Maybe I'm wrong, but I am guessing that that is true.
It is a pretty high pressure process, from what I am told.
