HARDDISK DEFRAGMENTATION IN WINDOWS2003 DOMAIN CONTROLLER

There are no realy gotchas.
To be honest I would be suprised if it would need defragmenting unless you are using it for something other than a Domain Controller!?

I have exchange2003 installed in the same server and i have only 2gb of free space in the boot partition "C" drive.please suggest.

If you have exchange I wouldn't defrag the drive.
Also defragmenting the drive will not provide you with more space.
Do you have another volume you can move the exchange database to?

If ao have a look at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821915
also have a look at my article here on exchange defragmentation: https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/Exchange-Offline-Defrag.html

if you find the article useful please vote for it :)

If you would like defrag solution try Diskeeper server edion. You can try it for a 30days and then you have to buy a license. We have diskeeper on all of our servers running nonstop and it is great.

Hi Marek,if i use diskeeper server version to defragment will affect my exchange database,as exchange2003 installed in the same server.pls advice.

I would not use any defragmentation tools in a disk with am exchange database on.

What I know is that people behind diskeeper are people who originally developed Microsoft defrag and Microsoft certified and approved Diskeeper so it should be save. If you are worried, backup the server before installing diskeeper, but my opinion is that it is safe. Have a look here http://www.diskeeper.com/defrag/dk-email-servers.aspx and also on Diskeeper testimonials https://www.diskeeper.com/products/reviews/search.aspx

Performing a disk defrag is not going to get you any disk space.  The only way you willdo that is by reducing the amount of data on the disk!

I can defrag all the partitions in the server which includes my exchange database partition after taking necessary backup ?

As I said my advice would be mo

Besides Exchange, a disc defrag on a DC is a no worrie task. On a 2008 DC a disc defrag is scheduled by default once a week.

 

A DC is a computer that host  the active directory database.
The AD database is automatically defrag (not with defrag system utils) with an internal mechanism to optimize performance.
So if you use your DC as indicate in best practices guides only for authentications and GPO applications you have nothing to do.

Thanks for the Explanation,My intention is to increase the performance of the DC,as its boot partition has only 2gb of free space,need suggestion to do cleanup without deleting sytem files.

Delete content of the folder
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download (downloaded system updates)
%temp% (temporary file folder)

delete hidden folders contained in c:\windows
$hf_mig$ and all the $NTUninstall*

but attention. if you delete this folders you are not be able to correctly uninstall system patches or Service Pack

If your system is stable there aren't issues to make this deletions.

From appwiz.cpl uninstall unused utilities and services.

Did you read my earlier posts about moving the exchange database?

A defrag WILL NOT get you more disk space!

Leew has a very good article here on clearing up you boot partition: http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

Yes I read your Posts,What i understood is, if do the offline defrag my logical space will freeup from the exchange database but not the white space of the exchange.hence i have more logical freespace on the exchange database partition and my whitepsace is 18gb,i am not going to do offline defrag as suggested by you.
tell me if i can try some trusted utilitys to maintain the Win2k3DC&Exchange2003.Regards GiriPrasad.S.

If you have 18gb of White space then it
probably is worth doing an offline defrag of the exchange database

do you have another volume you can
move the database to?

Is it good to use ESUTIL to do a dfrag or use thridparty utility like Diskeeper pls suggest.

thanks,i will be using the esutil command with the switch "t" as i do not have enough space in the c partition to run the esutil.if i do this way,do i have to do anything (like moving the old log etc...)after the offline defargemnet is complete.

No, all of this should be done for you.
There is occasion when I have seen the temporary database not get deleted properly afterwards.  If this happens once you have remounted the store and you are happy it is working you can delete the temporary file.

Excellent,professional response.once again Thanks.

BEFORE YOU DEFRAG!!!

Is the volume you want to defragment on a single physical disk or on a RAID array?

Defragmenting a RAID-5 array for example won't improve performance since the filesystem is technically fragmented by design. Plus it'll take FOREVER as the RAID controller tries to rebuild the checksums for all those files moving between disks. YIKES!

I think the author is talking about an Exchange defrag rather than a file system defrag.  Hopefully they now have the correct way to go from the posts i posted earlier.

Manual defragmentation of exchange databases is not necessary. Exchange databases are configured by default to  as the system is configured by default to run a defragmentation process daily between 1 and 5am

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804

I assume the question was regarding filesystem defragmentation from the post:

"I can defrag all the partitions in the server which includes my exchange database partition after taking necessary backup ?"

Are you doing online backups of exchange through your backup software?  This purges the log files and performs some other database maintenance procedures.  Exhange log files can take up alot of space.  You might also want to inforce limits on the user mailboxes if adding another volume cannot be done.

Sgiri > you have accepted one of your own posts as the answer when there are perfectly good answers provided.  If you did this by mistake then you need
to click the Accept Solution button next to the answer that helped
you the most.