DisParity Storage Manager

DisParity Storage Manager, or DSM, is a graphical user interface and front-end for the disParity command line utility. Its main purpose is to make the process of using the utility easier and more user-friendly, as well as add aditional features like drive management and configuration management. In addition, new features not present in disParity.exe can be added, such as parity duplication.

disParity is a snapshot based data protection utility that calculates parity from data on multiple hard drives. It can take any number of data volumes and allow them to be protected by a single parity volume in the event of a single data drive failure. It can use any Windows accessable location (folder, drive, network share, removable storage, etc) as either parity or data. It's fast, lightweight, and the perfect solution for maintaining data integrity on home media servers where files do not change often.

DisParity Storage Manager was designed mainly as a simplified front end for the disParity command line utility. You are able to complete all of the major tasks required by the average user without ever having to tamper with configuration files or run a command prompt. DSM also helps manage your drives by displaying important information such as drive size and current used space and, with future versions, can incorporate scheduled updates, as well as log analysis.

In a normal disParity array, you can have a single parity volume protect an unlimited amount of data volumes. In this configuration, all of your data volumes are protected by the single parity volume. In the event of a single data volume failure, the parity can be used to restore all of the missing data on that volume. However, if the parity fails or gets corrupted, your data is no longer protected, and a second failure of a data volume leaves you with data loss.

With DisParity Storage Manager, you can have multiple parity volumes, eliminating this particular edge case. For example, in a 6-volume array, 2 volumes can be setup as parity while the remaining 4 can be designated to store data. As with a regular disParity array, you can survive a single data drive failure without any loss of information. However, with the added security of a second parity drive, you can also survive the failure of a single parity drive without compramizing the integrity of your data protection.

The main functions of DisParity Storage Manager revolves around the main drive list window. This window gives you access to all of the available functions of DSM, as well as view used drive space for each volume.

The top blue menu bar contains 3 main sections: Array, Drive, and Options.

• Array - Functions that modify the array itself (Add, Stats, Update)
• Drive - Functions that modify a single drive (Recover, Undelete, Remove)
• Options - Extended options for disPairity and DSM

Each menu item may open a submenu with additional items, most which perform a particular action using disParity. It is important to note that not all functions ask for confirmation before executing. In order to perform an action on a drive, a drive must be selected. Click any of the drive names or total sizes to select a drive. The first drive is always selected by default.

Above the drive list is the status text. Here you can easily see the health of your array and read updates to what issues DSM has detected.

To add a volume, select Array from the blue menu, then Add from the submenu. The Add a Drive window will open. Follow the instructions given to add a drive to your array.

To remove a volume, select the drive you would like to remove, then select Drive from the blue menu, then Remove from the submenu. Confirm the drive you would like to remove, then click Remove to remove it from the array. You can remove bad or missing drives.

There are two ways to update your array; Create and Update. Create will generate a brand-new parity, and will take the longest time to complete its task, while Update will look for changes in the array and only update what has changed.

To create or update, select Array from the blue menu, then select whichever function you would like to execute. These functions may not ask to confirm your decision.

Getting statistics is also easy; just follow the instructions above and select Stats. Statistics will be generated and displayed. Warning: The Alpla Preview has not implemented the engine that performs log parsing. This function may not work.

If you have read the previous How To's, it should be farely obvious how to perform the rest of the DisParity Storage Manager functions. Just click the appropriate section then your desired command from the submenu.

It is important to note, however, that not all of the disParity CLI functions have been included inside of DisParity Storage Manager. This is because some of these functions have limited use and do not add features to the DSM application.

Both disParity and DisParity Storage Manager have several options that you can modify. Here is a short description of each one:

• Ignore Hidden Files - Ignores hidden files when creating and updating parity mirrors.
• Change Temp RAM - Set the amount of memory you would like the disParity worker to use. You can only set between 16MB and 1536MB of memory; all other options will auto-adjust to this safe range.
• Change Temp Folder - Set a specific folder to hold temporary files that the disParity worker creates. The default option is where the DSM program is located.
• Show Workers - Show the disParity workers as they work. Good for seeing file progress.

There are many other options in the disParity command line utility, such as test and verify. These functions have been deemed to be least-useful and have not been implemented into this version of DisParity Storage Manager. Unfortunately, the config.txt that is placed in the DSM folder is incompatible with the disParity command line utility.

Q: What version of disParity does DSM contain?
A: As of the 0.4.0 Alpha Preview, DSM was built on disParity v0.21

Q: What if a newer version of disParity comes out?
A: Just replace the disparity.exe in the DSM folder. As long as Roland didnt make any huge changes from v0.21, everything should just work.

Q: What was this programmed in?
A: DSM was programmed in AutoIt Script version 3.3.6.0 (which is based on C++), developed on an AMD X2 processor running Windows 7 Professional x64 while listening to Deadmau5. ^_^

Q: The config.txt looks different. Why?
A: The DSM config.txt is based off of disParitys config.txt, but they are not the same. DSM uses a simple but proprietary method to determine the number of drives and their positions. Please, do not modify the config.txt by hand in the Alpha Preview as not all error trapping functions have been implemented.

Q: Aditional Developer Notes Please?
A: Sure thing. DSM has been in development for over a year, off and on. See the change history for a more detailed analysis of the progress that has been made. This Alpha Preview is not feature complete, but the core functionality of the program and its integration with the disParity CLI should be 100 percent.

v0.4 ALPHA PREVIEW - December 3, 2010

• Restarted programming from scratch; over 95% new code
• Complete overhaul in the way the program functions; paradigm shift in the way it is developed
• GUI update - minimalistic, tweaked color palette, unified look
• Removed idler and update, parse engine unimplemented
• Maximum number of drives increased to 30
• Tweaked the format of saved logs
• Better drive management
• More informative status window
• More options
• This is only a preview and is not feature complete.

v0.3.3 BETA UNRELEASED - September 2, 2010

• Split development into two parts, a service and a graphical display
• Recoded for a single worker at a time
• Changed how log files are saved
• Recoded background idle function
• GUI overhaul; simpler, minimal interface with better visual feedback

v0.3.2 BETA - April 10, 2010

• Restarted programming from scratch. No reused code at all.
• Reduced amount of elements and information shown
• Maximum number of drives increased to 16
• Multiple parity drives now available
• Program runs multiple disparity processes to update parity mirrors
• Settings saved in a specialized config.txt
• Logs neatly stored into LOGS folder
• Program resources neatly stored in RESOURCES folder

v0.3.1 UNRELEASED - February 1, 2010

• Much of the developed code for 0.3 ALPHA was reused (tweaked I/O, etc)
• Redesigned main window again; More information displayed and more stylized
• Reduced child windows
• Maximum number of drives increased to 15 (16 including parity)
• Created an options window to contain disParity v0.20 options

v0.3 ALPHA UNRELEASED - November 16, 2009

• Complete redesign of code
• Capitalized 'D' in disParity Storage Manager
• Settings now save to an INI file, also saves more info about drives
• Tweaked file I/O
• Redesigned child windows, now are thinner and contain less info
• Main window redesigned: removed status light and changed window and element sizes

v0.2 BETA - September 10, 2009

• Fixed missing parity location fatal bug
• Redesigned child windows
• Redesigned first-run sequence
• Reduced code by >200 lines
• Debugged code and fixed major 0.1 errors

v0.1 BETA August 23, 2009

• Initial Release

DisParity Storage Manager
Created by Paul Bryan
(c)2009-2010 Paul Bryan Engineering
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Created by Roland Vilett
(c)2009-2010 Roland Vilett
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