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 )
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
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!
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)
VMRoyale : thanks for the reply.
My virtual drive is preallocated.
Must I do it ?
Just do the defrag on the Windows host, after you shut down the VM, and you should be all set.
Sure !
I will do it and I tell you in few hours.
Thanks
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
Unfortunatly, defragmentation didn't help me.
Virtual disk was fragmented in 10 parts only.
It was not reason of my loss of cpu