How much additional memory and disk space do virtual applications consume?
Updated: 29 Jul 2010 | 4 comments
Q:
Julie queried: The documentation indicates that the Virtual Software has basically "no overhead". I'm thinking that there is probably a disk space factor, at least. Is this true and, if so, can you tell me an approximate size for each virtual layer? Are we talking MB or KB or GB? Also, how about memory considerations?
A:
Good question, Julie! Apps in layers consume the same amount of disk space as if conventionally installed, with perhaps a small additional amount for duplicate files which would be shared files in the conventional world. No additional RAM required. Even fully loaded, our filter driver consumes less than 1 MB of kernel memory.
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Comments
I was wondering
I was wondering that in the future it might be possible that the layer could be compressed, similar to image files.
Or would this affect the performance?
Grtz!!
Ives
Layer Compression
This isn't on the roadmap, but we'll keep it in mind.
Any existing compression tools will work just fine with SVS layers. I use the built-in "Compress old files" feature of Windows.
Scott Jones
Product Manager
Altiris, Inc.
Scott Jones
Business Critical Engineer, Endpoint Virtualization
Symantec Corporation
www.symantec.com
Only when deactivated?
I think it would be wonderfully hand to be able to have the layers compressed when they are deactivated. That way they take less space on the hard drive when not in use.
If the Administration Panel had the ability built in to perform compressing/decompressing action as part of the activation/deactivation it would be so wonderfully seamless and simple that everyone could use it.
Of course, this sort of thing is better left as an option. It would take more horsepower to activate and deactivate layers if it was compressing/decompressing them at the same time (though I've seen 7zip is very fast even in "ultra" compression (which is often very impressive) and I think that's open source, they may have some pointers for a capable and worthwhile compression method that'd be speedy and not so system resources needy at the same time). As an optional thing it'd allow users that have less RAM or slower CPUs to not use it (or just those that like to know when their hard drive is getting "too full") to not have to take the time for the additional step(s).
On diet Disk?
If you are on Diet Disk space, probably, you can import only the needed VSAs. If you feel deactivating some layer, better delete them and re-import them when its needed.
Probably you may store all the VSAs in a CD or DVD or even a Thumb Drive / USB Stick. It happened for me to see one of my friend’s computer with 4GB Compact flash disk, where the disk space is a premium. We tried altiris and it worked out very well and he is very happy, as he all needs is an external old hard disk.
PS:I’m not sure, during the time of your post, the VSA existed or not as I’m a new bee to this.
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