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prot88
Contributor
Contributor

Defragment (again?)

Sorry if that question as been posted many times but I didn't found a clear response to this question.

(sorry about my poor english too Smiley Wink )

I have a large virtual disk on a windows xp host.

Guest is a linux runing a web server since 2 years.

I noticed that this server is coming slower with months. I have analyzed cpu load and after much settings I think that cpu is utilzed by hard drive transactions.

Because linux file system no need (?) defragmentation, I didn't do anything in that way.

But I saw vmware "defragment" feature and I analyzed drive containing my huge virtual drive with windows defragment tool : it's a large red stripe !!

Must I defragment this drive (only used by VMWare virtual disk)?

With Windows utility or VMWare feature ?

Thanks

Yves

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vmroyale
Immortal
Immortal

Hello,

The following is from the Help file for Workstaion 6.5.1 - slightly shortened though!

If the virtual disk is “growable” rather than preallocated, defragment it by using the Workstation defragmentation tool:

1. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.

2. Click Utilities and choose Defragment.

3. When the process is finished, click OK.

4. Run a disk defragmentation utility on the host computer.

I usually use contig from sysinternals to do the defrag, but the built-in Windows defrag tool will work fine as well.

Good Luck!

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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prot88
Contributor
Contributor

I have just seen another clue :

When my linux top shows 15% cpu,

My windows host says that vmware takes 30 or 40 %.

Defrag ??? ( I ask to be sure... 120 Go defragmentation will take hours... not very cool for a web server)

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prot88
Contributor
Contributor

VMRoyale : thanks for the reply.

My virtual drive is preallocated.

Must I do it ?

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vmroyale
Immortal
Immortal

Just do the defrag on the Windows host, after you shut down the VM, and you should be all set.

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
prot88
Contributor
Contributor

Sure !

I will do it and I tell you in few hours.

Thanks

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khughes
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Power down your webserver and run the defrag tool on your Windows box which holds your virtual disk files. You might need to run it a couple times with the windows built into make sure you get everything sorted out.

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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prot88
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunatly, defragmentation didn't help me.

Virtual disk was fragmented in 10 parts only.

It was not reason of my loss of cpu Smiley Sad

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