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VM Disk Defrag

Hi All

I want to be able to run the following command as a scheduled task:
vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -d myDisk.vmdk
But I cannot find any option is the task scheduler to run custom commands

Any Thoughts on how to run this command through the task scheduler? I am running ESX version 4.0

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Stephen

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bgoering

I don't believe vmware-vdiskmanager is available in ESX or ESXi, it is the tool for hosted VMware products such as VMware Workstation or Server. What you might want to do is run third party defrag tools such as DiskKeeper or SpeedDisk within the guest os rather than trying to do that at the ESX server level. But I would do that sparingly if at all because of the I/O load you are putting on the server and the contention it would cause to other virtual machines sharing the datastore.

Personally I do not run any defrag utility in my virtual machines.

Hope this helps

coolsport00

Yes, that option is not available in Task Scheduler. You can use a 3rd party tool as "bgoering" mentions or just schedule a task within Windows. (Linux systems don't require defragmentation). Here are a couple articles with useful info:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004004
http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_increase_vmware_performance.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555098

I've seen both sides of the argument whether to defrag a VM or not; I've always (personally) found it to increase performance on my VMs. But, I would schedule before or after business if it's a production VM/Server

Hope that helps...

Regards,
~coolsport00

OTNAdmin

ASKER

Thanks for the tips guys, so there is no way to do this from within virual center?

Who about using some CLI method?

bgoering

None I am aware of

coolsport00

No...no way.