DataCore: Design Issues

The existing administration application presents the user with tree hierarchies of objects: one tree for system objects, another tree for “host” objects that receive virtual storage.  At any level, the status of objects is shown.  However, from a higher level, Ian cannot know if there is an object at a lower level with a problem and has to dig for it.

Figure 1 shows a virtual disk with a warning. Looking at the tree on the left, the folder of virtual disks shows nothing. The server at the next higher level shows nothing. The top-level object shows nothing.

Users can see data in so many ways, it is difficult to understand where to go to get it. In Figure 1, two different trees on the left show “Virtual Disks” selected, so it is easy to lose track of which data is being presented on the right.

In addition, there is a “Virtual Disks” icon on the left of the “ribbon” at the top plus two “Virtual Disks” tabs at two different levels in the details section on the right.

Note also that the tabs are about more objects. There is nothing to lead to how to actually do anything.

Actions are usually in right-click menus on objects in the trees with often different menus for the same objects when shown in tables in the details. The number of actions in the menus can be overwhelming, even given an attempt at grouping the actions. See Figure 3.

In Figures 2 and 3, you see information on how a subset of virtual storage is protected. It does not show the big picture because it only shows virtual storage associated with a single SANsymphony server or a single “host” destination. Also, the table in Figure 2 only shows what protection is in effect. To actually protect the data on any virtual storage object in the different ways supported by SANsymphony, the user would need to go to each virtual storage individually and then go to up to four different tabs to enable and manage it: Settings, Snapshots, Rollbacks, and Replication. See Figure 4.