[THIN] Re: Defragmentation utility for Citrix & IPSs

Hi Jeremy,
 
As a list of things that aren't static, the ones I can think of up front are:
 
User profiles
print spool files
eventlogs
installation logs (windows installer and IM)
contents of temporary directories
internet cache
hotfixes
service packs
 
There are probably many more ;-)
 
The problem isn't so much these files being fragmented, but the stupid way the 
o.s. uses available disk space.
 
Every time a file gets written to disk, it gets written to available free space 
starting at the front of the disk. So if I've just deleted 200 2k files from a 
clean, defragmented file system, that leaves 200 2k "holes". If I now write a 
400K file to disk, it'll fill those 200 holes and I'll end up with a file with 
200 fragments. 
 
That makes for hugely slower writes
 
If a file is contiguous, and this goes for even a big file, it can be cached 
efficiently and that makes for a lot faster reads. The opposite, for a 
fragmented file, is that cache efficiency goes down and read i/o is a lot 
slower.
 
When you run defrag, it does 2 things (may need to be run multiple times):
 
1. read fragmented files and write them to a contiguous space space. 
2. move the exisiting files around so that the "holes" are filled, making any 
free space contiguous.
 
A properly defragged partition will perform better. Considering that the disk 
subsystem is heaps slower than the memory or cpu data bus, it makes sense to 
keep your disks performing as well as possible.
 
Diskkeeper optimises directory layout as while as defragmenting files/disk 
space making things a bit better yet.
 
But seeing as the o.s. has a reasonable defragging utility, at the very least 
we probably ought to use that.
 
Now all I've got to do is remember to do that myself ;-)
 
regards,
 
Rick
 
Ulrich Mack 
Volante Systems 
Level 2, 30 Little Cribb Street 
Coronation Drive Office Park 
Milton Qld 4064 
tel: +61 7 32431847 
fax: +61 7 32431992 
rick.mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

________________________________

From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Jeremy Saunders
Sent: Sat 17/09/2005 9:38 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: Defragmentation utility for Citrix & IPSs








Hi Rick,

Given that your applications are constant, and the pagefile has been set so
that the start and max have the same values, with pagefrg also being run,
then what actually needs to be defraged? I'm reading this thread and am
confused about why people are scheduling defrags to occur ever day.
Profiles load, and then unload. So wouldn't you just do a defrag after
installing a new app?

Cheers.
                                                           
 Kind regards,                                             
                                                           
                                                           
                                                           
 Jeremy Saunders                                           
 Senior Technical Specialist                               
                                                           
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 formerly known as Logicalis                               
                                                           
 Level 2, 1060 Hay Street                                  
 West Perth  WA  6005                                      
 AUSTRALIA                                                 
                                                           
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 P:  +61 8 9261 8412            F:  +61 8 9261 8536        
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             "Rick Mack"                                                  
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                                       [THIN] Re: Defragmentation utility 
             17/09/2005 04:45          for Citrix & IPSs                  
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                   thin                                                   
                                                                          
                                                                          




Hi Brian,

Significant file fragmentation can become a real performance problem.
Diskkeeper is certainly a good solution from the viewpoint that it can stop
fragmentation from happening.

However directory defragmentation aside, a freeware utility, "autodefrag"
which acts as a front end for the defrag GUI for Windows 2000, or the
native command line utility "defrag" for Windows Server 2003 works just
fine for file defragging. Schedule a defrag run on a regular basis and file
fragmentation stops being a problem.

The other thing to watch out for, if your pagefile size is set to the
default (grow as needed), is pagefile fragmentation. This can really hurt
you if significant paging is going on. Always set the start and maximum
pagefile sizes to the same value, and use pagedfrg (www.sysinternals.com)
to make sure your pagefile is contiguous. If you want to get paranoid about
your page file, putting it in a separate partition in the middle of the
disk will make it about as efficient as it can be short of using a solid
state disk.

regards,

Rick

Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
Level 2, 30 Little Cribb Street
Coronation Drive Office Park
Milton Qld 4064
tel: +61 7 32431847
fax: +61 7 32431992
rick.mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

________________________________

From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Claus, Brian
Sent: Fri 16/09/2005 11:23 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Defragmentation utility for Citrix & IPSs



Looking for feedback on Diskkeeper.  I'm getting a lot of fragmentation on
Citrix server drives and I'm looking for a good solution...can anyone offer
their experiences?



Anyone using Tipping Point IPS?  What are your opinions on this IPS vs
others (notably Trend's new virus wall utility)?



Thanks much!

____________________

Brian Claus




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