poolIt Frequently Asked Questions

poolIt brings affordable storage virtualization to the desktop. It lets you consolidate your storage resources by combining multiple volumes. poolIt solves many common IT challenges: data can be unified and accessed through a single volume; storage capacity can be expanded dynamically; runtime policies ensure data gets stored on the optimal volume based on file type, available space, performance, usage, etc.

poolIt appeals to anyone looking to reduce the number of volumes they must manage. poolIt enables easy and transparent data movement between physical volumes without affecting users.

poolIt creates a thin virtual layer on top of your physical drives in order to help you:

• consolidate storage resources
• increase storage capacity with virtually no downtime
• optimize storage performance utilization
• transparently transfer data from one storage device to another
• repurpose storage resources by flushing content back into the remaining pool
• better match the type of data with your available storage devices
• reduce storage maintenance costs
• eliminate the risks traditionally associated with “very large” file systems
• better manage removable devices
• overcome 2TB limitations

Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Please refer to the Minimum System Requirements for specific OS builds.

No it doesn’t. Your drives must be formatted BEFORE poolIt can manage them.

No. The performance of the individual drives doesn’t change.

Yes.

No, data is actually stored on the pool members, so by deleting the pool you simply disband it and can access data from each individual member.

No. Any given file must reside entirely on a single drive. Users will get an error message saying the drive is full when trying to save a file that doesn’t fit on the target drive, even though there might be space left on other drives.However, you can adjust the soft limit to ensure the largest file will fit. For example, on a 1TB drive, a 70% soft limit will trigger poolIt to start filling a new pool member when it reaches 70% capacity. This mean the last file before the switch can still be 300GB in size before the member runs out of space.

No, all pools and settings are preserved after you upgrade to a higher edition of poolIt.

SmartWrite™ policies are used to tell poolIt where to write data in the pool. The policy you chose depends on your workflow and how you want to manage your storage resources.

The following policies are available:

Fill up:

• When a pool member is full, data goes to the next one. Pool members are assigned a priority number.
• Great for expanding storage capacity. Just keep adding new volumes in the pool, as needed. It just takes a few seconds to increase storage capacity.
• Can be used to optimize SAN performances: Each workstation creates its own pool from a common set of drives. By assigning different drive priorities, each user effectively ends up writing to its own “RAID”. Yet, everyone can see and access all the content as if it was stored on one and the same drive.

Harmonize:

• Stores data on whichever pool member the current folder already exists.
• Great with removable devices. Keep data organized in the most natural way, based on the drive’s existing content.
• Can be used to optimize SAN performances: Project folders can be created on different drives. Everyone works off the same pool, but different projects are assigned to different physical drives.

File-type:

• Stores data on whichever pool member the current filetype is assigned. Project data can be stored on secure RAID6, while video files can be stored on faster RAID0 drives.
• Great to better match the type of storage with value of data.
• Great to optimize backup policies based on value of data.

Last accessed:

• When your primary drive capacity exceeds the set limit, oldest data gets moved (a scheduled operation) to a near-line volume until limit has been met again. Users continues to see all files on the pool, but older files now come from the near line volume. A “Near line” volume is any volume defined as such in the pool. This can be a remote NAS or highly compressed volume.
• Great when working with faster and more expensive storage technologies such as fast RAIDs and solid state drives

No. There’s no need to reformat a volume when adding it to a volume pool. Volumes that can be added to a pool can be formatted and can contain data.

No, you can add volumes that contain data to the pool and it will remain visible in the pool.

Yes, but only if you run Server edition of poolIt.

No, the pool size equals the sum of the sizes of all volumes added to it.

The OS must be able to mount the individual volumes for poolIt to manage them. In cross-platform setups, you should consider using metaSAN/metaLAN.

Yes, both poolIt Pro and poolIt Server let you pool network shares.

There is no 2TB limitation. In fact, poolIt can be used to combine multiple 2TB volumes together without resorting to dynamic disks.

Yes.

Tiger Technology Resellers provide frontline End User support. Tiger Technology assists its Resellers by telephone, email and can offer on-site support options. Please note that you will be requested to provide your poolIt product key in order to validate your support eligibility.

Evaluation licences allow you to test poolIt before purchasing the software. An Evaluation licence is fully functional and can operate for 30 days. Software download is done through the poolIt web site.

You can tell if a software release is a major one by looking at the version number. If the version number on the left side of the decimal point has changed, it's a major version. For example, version 1.0 is the current shipping release; the release of version 2.0 would be an example of a major version. Major versions are only available to those covered under the Tiger Technology Subscription Program.