Solid-State Drive Compatibility and Optimization

With the growing popularity of solid-state based hard drives,  Centurion Technologies is proud to annouce that we are fully compatible with this particular hardware.

Listed below are a few tips on keeping your Solid-State Drive optimized:

Enable TRIM.

Because of the method used by systems to handle write/delete operations, SSDs may slowly degrade in performance over a relatively short period of time. TRIM support has to occur in the operating system and in the SSD’s firmware. Microsoft has implemented TRIM support in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 RS, and so far they are the only major operating systems to offer native TRIM support. As for TRIM support on the SSD’s firmware, please refer to the manufacturer for this information.

Ensure that your computer is operating in AHCI mode.

Most computers will automatically install a SSD in AHCI mode. At times, this may not be the case. There is roughly a 10-15% performance decrease while a SSD is running in IDE mode, due to the lack of plug and play installation of SATA devices and Native Command Queuing.

Update your computer’s chipset drivers.

Keeping your Chipset drivers up date ensures that you have the most efficient management of data  transmission through the SATA bridge.

Disable System Restore.

System Restore allocates restore points within many SSDs that do not play well with the device. Typically a few weeks is all it takes for System Restore to degrade SSD performance enough for TRIM to not function efficiently.

Disable Drive Indexing.

The purpose of drive indexing on a hard drive is to allow for quicker access times to particular files. Because access times on SSDs are near instantaneous, it is commonly believed that indexing does little more than just increase the total number of writes to the ssd, resulting in a lesser life cycle.

Disable Drive Defragmentation.

By default, Windows 7 has Windows Defrag autoamtically disabled. This is not always the case, however, and should be taken into consideration. The mechanical difference in SSDs allow for far less fragmentation on the drive. Enabling Windows Defragmentation schedules will drastically increase your ssd total writes and decrease the lifespan and performance.

Advanced Smart Control Network Configuration Scenarios

There are several ways to configure Smart Control Resource Managers. This document explains the more common configurations of SCRM to SCRM communication.  Connecting SCRMs will allow them to share client management responsibilities.

A Hierarchy Relationship makes one SCRM the Master and central license server while allowing sub servers to fully control their local clients. The difference between a Primary and Secondary SCRM is that only the Primary will facilitate licensing and product updates. This structure is most useful for organizations with remote locations.

A Helper Relationship gives all license, schedule, Energy Saver and ScreenView privileges to the Primary SCRM while allowing the Helper SCRM to control the Protection, Power and Miscellaneous commands to the client computers. This scenario is used when multiple administrators are sharing management of the same set of clients.
 

 

Peer Relationships gives all license, schedule, Energy Saver, and ScreenView privileges to the Primary SCRM of a subset while allowing a SCRM that is the Primary of a different subset to control the Protection, Power and Miscellaneous commands.These are used when administrators are sharing responsibilities over two separate subsets of machines.
 

Optional Directory Protection

SmartShield has a new feature, Optional Directory Protection (ODP). ODP is designed to optionally remove a directory from being protected by SmartShield. This allows a user to specify directories to allow changes that persist from boot to boot. Directories that have been marked for ODP allow files and folders to be saved, changed and deleted. This feature will allow the user profile directories like My Documents and Desktop to accept changes. ODP can also be used in Program Files sub directories to allow the possibility for updates to a program without disabling protection. Rather than redirecting saves this all-new technology allows you to save directly to the hard drive. This removes the need for the special storage space; therefore you are only limited by the size of your hard drive.

ODP on Smart Shield Client

Open up the client and click the Storage Configuration button.

Navigate to the Optional Directory Protection tab.

On this tab, select the folder(s) that need to be excluded from protection. In this example, the desktop and my documents have been selected. Press Submit.

Enter the password for the SmartShield software.

Your changes will take place after reboot.

The “List Directories” button will show all of the directories that are excluded from protection.

ODP on Smart Control Resource Manager

Access ODP through the File Menu: Client Control > Misc. Configuration > Optional Directory Protection

Or through the right click menu of a client Misc. Configuration > Optional Directory Protection

The Optional Directory Protection screen will show up.

From the Smart Control, you can now enter the directory to exclude from protection. If the directory exists on the targeted computer(s), it will be excluded from protection. Conversely, if protection needs to be restored to a directory from the Smart Control, check the box before submitting the form to return protection.

Select Yes to continue, or No, to return.

That is all there is to it! Optional Directory Protection is a simple yet powerful way to use SmartShield to be more productive than ever before while computing in a safe environment!

Restrictions:

ODP will not allow Junction Points, Reparse Point or System Directories.

ODP may also affect the way system files or shortcuts are used and created.

Changes or Updates that require updates to the registry will not be compatible with ODP.

SmartShield with Smart Control

Managing Environments Over 1000 clients

Every day we speak to Smart Control users that are expected to do more with less. Whether you are managing 25 clients in a library or 5000 clients across a campus, you need the ability to track and control them in one location. We have posted on our website and our blog the minimum requirements for a Smart Control. Smart Control can be installed on a machine with 512 MB of RAM (not shared to other devices), XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, or Server2008 as the operating system. These minimum requirements will work for any smaller implementations of Smart Control and SmartShield, but as the number of clients grows so do the hardware requirements for the Smart Control server. As we tested for version 2.1.10 we set a benchmark of connecting ten thousand machines. Using a virtual environment we were able to manage this large number of machines with the following configuration.

Server 2008 Operating System

3.1 MHZ Quad Core Processor

16 GB RAM

Slowed the keep-alive time to ten minutes via the Smart Control preferences panel. We recommend slowing down the keep alive to one minute for every thousand machines pointed to the Smart Control.

10,000 machines / 1,000 machines per minute à 10 minute keep alive

At this time we are confident that this configuration makes it possible for almost any deployment we have encountered.  This testing leads us to believe that the Smart Control may be able to handle even more clients given more advanced hardware.  As you are implementing your Smart Control/SmartShield network please contact us with any question or for tips on configuration.

Preparation for Update:
1. Please make sure that all schedules have the correct passwords before installing on Smart Control Resource Manager (SCRM) due to the fact that we have updated how bad passwords are handled in the schedule.
2. Plan to update all Smart Controls first. The SCRM to SCRM communications have been updated to be more efficient but both Smart Controls must be on the newest version.

Smart Control Updates
•    Major SCRM to SCRM communication changes. All SCRMS must be on the same version.
•    Extended last column in Log Viewer to include longest line of information.
•    Added the ability to change the Keyboard and Mouse unlock phrase from the SCRM
•    Under Client Properties -> Groups tab that list all the groups that the client is a member of.
•    Schedules with bad passwords will fail with no action (no fallback) on the client computer.
•    File Transfer entire directories with all subfolders and files
•    Improved client icons in grid
•    Add or change Secondary Smart Control for the reporting clients

V-Control
•    Corrected password bug on Windows 7 x64 clients.
•    Corrected service registration issue in msi installer.
 
Clients
•    Optional Directory Protection (ODP)
•    Will allow the user to select directories to disable protection permanently.  This change is done at the kernel level rather than the file system as it is in Directory Exclusion. This is a different technology from Directory Exclusion and is much more robust and user friendly.
•    Can be set from the configuration panel, command line or Smart Control.
•    Schedules with bad passwords will be refused and no fallback actions taken
•    Change Keyboard and Mouse unlock phrase (Only works on 2.1.10 or newer clients with 2.1.10 or newer Smart Control)
•    Additional validation in scheduling for lower fail rate.
•    Directory Exclusion is still available to clients who have it configured or by adding a parameter to the ctsrgui.exe.config file. 
•    Ability to add a secondary Smart Control.
•    Client cannot receive product updates or licenses from secondary Smart Control.
•    Client pop-up windows push to front as well as sending other windows to back.
•    Windows Update failure
•    In the event that Windows updates fail a System reboot is scheduled to avoid clients being locked out with red blocked screen.  More error handling has been added to catch update and COM exceptions.

In response to a customer request, Full Directory Transfers will be available in Smart Shield and Smart Control version 2.1.10. Directory Transfer will allow the user to duplicate a Smart Control directory and all of its contents on the Smart Shield client. This feature has many applications with regard to client maintenance and data consistency. 

To use this feature, select the client(s) you wish to add a directory to and then click the file transfer option. You will see the new button labeled “Add Directory”.

Click the button to see a directory selector window. Then use that window to select the directory you wish to transfer.

Click ok and select your client destination location. Then the process works exactly like file transfer.

Progress can be tracked via the File Transfer Manager.

Controlling Smart Shield from a Second Smart Control

Starting with version 2.1.10 SmartShield will have the ability to report to a second Smart Control. The primary Smart Control, which is the one entered at install or through the client configuration panel, will have the ability to assign a second Smart Control to a client. The Secondary Smart Control will receive keep-alive messages from the client and will be able to fully control the client including schedules and ScreenView. The only restrictions are that licenses and product updates must come from the primary Smart Control. This feature was created to facilitate management of clients from a local Smart Control and centralized Smart Control.

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For clients that have Managed Licenses

For Clients that are Standalone Licensed

Many customers have requested that Smart Shield have functionality to work with System Control Center Manager (SCCM). We have found that Smart Shield’s entire disk protection makes running updates in protected mode impossible to manage. The solution we have devised for SCCM managed machines is to stop all SCCM updates from running while protected, then allow SCCM updates when unprotected. This will allow users to schedule a maintenance window via the Smart Control so that updates can run. This eliminates the possibility of updates being run then removed on protected client machines.

888.265.6055
support@centuriontech.com

Hogan Haake
Support Manager