Defragging a nas - dl380 g4 storage server

[Andrew_271]

We have 2 (mirrored) DL380 G4 Storage servers with about 5 terabytes of disk space (about half full) running Windows 2003 Server/

We use OpenView storage mirroring to get our data to the second server.

How often, if ever, should I be defragging the 2TB volumes? Should I be doing it on a regular basis? If so, can I use windows 2003 built-in defrag utility or should I look at a third party one?

Not sure if we'd see any performance or free space increase with regular defrags. Thanks!

[Chris.Thomas]

The first thing to do is open a command prompt and run the command:

defrag -a -v

This will show the current fragmentation. Storing users documents will typically cause lots of fragmentation after a while but a defrag will give you minimal performance gain. Large Outlook PSTs (not supported but often done) would benefit from a defrag and so would any database files such as Exchange Server and SQL server.

The defrag frequency is commonly chosen by periodically checking the fragmentation and applying the guidelines above.

Third party defraggers usually want to achieve as near zero fragmentation as possible, typically through continuous 'real time' defragmentation. This may or may not benefit users depending on the service overhead.

[Andrew_271]

Here's a report on one large volume that recommends a defrag:

Windows Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2003 Microsoft Corp. and Executive Software International, Inc.

Analysis Report

Volume size = 1,956 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 1,418 GB
Free space = 538 GB
Percent free space = 27 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 11 %
File fragmentation = 23 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 1,862,386
Average file size = 872 KB
Total fragmented files = 33,025
Total excess fragments = 308,221
Average fragments per file = 1.16

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 0 bytes
Total fragments = 0

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 91,028
Fragmented folders = 13,948
Excess folder fragments = 88,916

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 2.80 GB
MFT record count = 1,954,766
Percent MFT in use = 66
Total MFT fragments = 3

You should defragment this volume.