Defrag with Smart Array Controller

[r_34]

Is it necessary to defrag drives connected via a Smart Array Controller in W2K? How would windows accurately determine fragmentation when it sees the disk as only one drive when in actuality the data is spread over many physical spindles?

[Claude Boileau]

Hi

No its not necessary to run defrag on the drive. They are ready to configured right off the box. You just need to configure from the Array configuration utility and then access it from the disk admin of your OS.

good day

[r_34]

Perhaps my question was misunderstood since language seems to be an issue. I know how to configure drive arrays and access my disks through the OS. I want to know if I will realize any performance gains by defragmenting drives connected via a smart array controller after the drives have been in service for a while. Obviously the smart array controller must have an impact on how the OS sees drive fragmentation. I would like some more info if possible.

[Jason_212]

I would like to know too. I have seen and talked to product engineers at Executive Software (make Disk Keeper) and they say you should run it (of course there product). They say even on Arrays you should run it.

[Jens Baumann_2]

From what I have found out by simply trying it out, it DOES improve performance. Of course W2K does not "see" the disks as they physically are, but it doesn't do so for most of the disks, even IDE ones (they all are "lying" to the Bios anyway). Defragmenting assures that the file data is ordered correctly in order of access, even when the data is physically spread over several disks. When I tested a server with a heavily fragmented disk before and after a defrag, bootup time was cut in half after the defrag and copying files around on the server after the defrag also took noticeably less time. So - yes, defrag on a server with an Array controller definitely does help. But I guess it depends on what you use the server for whether you need to do it regularly or not, or whether it even is necessary to do it at all. When it is a file server used by users who do a lot of creating/deleting/modifying larger files, a scheduled defrag might make sense.