SolarWinds Releases Storage Response Time Monitor Free Tool

Server virtualization can improve network efficiency; it can also bring about a variety of new challenges that demand unique responses. SolarWinds Inc. announced its latest virtualization and storage free tool, SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor, to help target storage IO problems caused by server virtualization in real time.

"If a user is experiencing a slow response time on a virtual machine (VM), SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor can quickly and easily give a snapshot report into how VMware data stores are performing direct from the user’s desktop in real time," said Jonathan Reeve, SolarWinds’ Senior Director of Product Management. "Using this data, the user can then determine whether there is a VM issue or if the issue is related to storage."

Storage Response Time Monitor connects to VMware vSphere and monitors the top five host to data store total storage response times, providing users with the top five VMs using the connections from an IOPs perspective.

For iSCSI and FC data store types, Storage Response Time Monitor breaks down the total response time into ‘kernel latency’ (time spent in the host) and ‘device latency’ (time spent in the SAN).

Storage Response Time Monitor highlights:

• Get at-a-glance insight into host to data store connections with the worst response times, and the busiest VMs using those connections
• See a breakdown of the data store including type, and device versus kernel latency to understand if the bottleneck is in the host or the SAN

Users that need more insight into storage performance and capacity can download a free trial of Storage Manager, Powered by Profiler to monitor storage performance, isolate hot spots, automate storage capacity planning, map VMs to physical storage, and more.

Used together, SolarWinds Storage Manager and SolarWinds Virtualization Manager integrate to provide visibility from the virtualization layer all the way to the underlying physical storage.

Pricing and Availability
Storage Response Time Monitor is free and available on the SolarWinds website. Pricing for SolarWinds Virtualization Manager and SolarWinds Storage Manager start at $2,995.