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VFM® 5.8 Software—Description

This page contains feature descriptions and installation requirements for VFM (Virtual File Manager®) 5.8 software. After reading this information, click the link at the bottom of the page to go to the download page.

Features

VFM is a file virtualization solution for managing distributed storage environments. VFM enables storage administrators to create a single view of a heterogeneous enterprise file system that might consist of NetApp® storage systems, Windows® servers, and UNIX® servers. Using VFM, administrators can carry out management operations on large amounts of data without disrupting client access. VFM is installed on a Windows server and requires no agents to be installed on Windows or UNIX clients.

VFM provides the following benefits:

Eliminates any need for client reconfiguration if data is moved to a new location
Reduces downtime in case of a disaster
Provides file-level heterogeneous replication and migration for NetApp storage system/Windows/UNIX data
Operates in heterogeneous, multi-vendor, multi-architecture environments
Lowers the cost of storage management and decreases the total cost of ownership

Changes in VFM 5.8 include the following:

VFM Enterprise Edition or VFM Migration Edition

You can purchase a license for either the full-featured VFM Enterprise Edition (VFM-EE) product or the VFM Migration Edition (VFM-ME) product. The VFM-ME product might be appropriate for you if only want to purchase the VFM product as a tool for data migration.

More flexible namespace creation policies

You can populate your namespace with links that target shares that are subdirectories of shares. When searching for shares that match a string and folders within shares that match a path you specify, you can optionally select to create links that directly target shared subdirectories. The Namespace Creation wizard also enables you to create a customized template that you can use to arrange search results in the namespace.

Report enhancements

The Replication Status Report shows additional information about a replication task

Files in Sync—The number of files that were not transferred because the source and destination were identical.

Bytes in Sync—The number of bytes contained in synchronized files.

Files Copied—The number of files copied to the destination.

Bytes Copied—The number of bytes copied to the destination.

Files Failed—The number of files that were not copied to the destination because of an error. This information also appears in the Replication Tasks view for a replication policy.

Replication performance

Faster data transfer is provided with VFM 5.8

Improved scalability and responsiveness in large configurations

System Requirements

VFM 5.8 has the following minimum system requirements for installing software components:
VFM component	Operating system	Browser	Disk space*	Video
Server	See below	-	200 MB	-
Client		Internet Explorer, 5.5 or later	35 MB	1024 x 768, 256 colors
Monitor		-	125 MB	-
Self-extracting installation file	-	-	155 MB	-
*Add 80 MB for temporary disk space required during the installation process. For example, if you are installing the server, the total required disk space during installation is 280 MB. As you use VFM, additional disk space is needed to store items such as published reports, namespace backups, application snapshots, and captured namespaces.

VFM components must be installed on local fixed NTFS disks.

VFM 5.8 operating system requirements are based on the roots you plan to manage through VFM:

Microsoft® Windows 2000 SP 2 or later or Windows XP Professional is required to manage roots on Windows NT® 4 or Windows 2000 servers.
Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows Server™ 2003 is required to manage multiple roots on a single Windows Server 2003.
If the number of connections used between VFM components and the connections used by other processes on the system could exceed the limits on inbound connections imposed by Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional, install the VFM server on a Windows 2000 server or Windows Server 2003. These limits are documented in the Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles 122920 and 314882.
Windows Script Host 5.6 or later is required for all versions of Windows.

VFM installs and uses Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine as part of the VFM server or VFM monitoring agent.

VFM installs the Microsoft .NET Framework if it is not already on the system.

NOTE: NetApp® storage systems must run Data ONTAP® 6.1 software or later to be recognized by VFM. The storage system-hosted namespace feature requires Data ONTAP 6.4 or later.

Product Documentation

To view the user guides for VFM, click here. After installing VFM, see the Readme file, readme.chm, in the installation directory for additional technical information.

NOTE: If you are using the Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5.0 browser and are having problems opening any of the Acrobat® files, you might need to upgrade your browser by downloading the latest Service Pack. Alternatively, you can right-click the link to an Acrobat file and select "Save Target as..." to download the file, or use the Netscape Navigator® browser to access the file.

Software Download Instructions
	After you confirm that your servers and storage systems meet the requirements, proceed with the download by clicking CONTINUE .

Part number 215-02333-A0