Diskeeper Case Study:Holland & Knight

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Volume 2 • Issue 6

Diskeeper Tips & Tricks

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Diskeeper Corporation, formerly ExecutiveSoftware®, was founded on July 22, 1981. During this time, the company has logged manytechnical achievements in the VMS and Windows®

industries with products like Diskeeper.

Diskeeper Corporation is a global corporationdistributed in six continents—North America,South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.Our software products are distributed in everymajor country in the world. Due to our size andfocus on system management tools, you cantrust that our products will always be dependableand that the technical support you receive will be among the fastest and most knowledgeable in the industry.

For general information onDiskeeper Corporation or any ofour products, please email,telephone or write to us. Ifthere is specific informationyou require, contact any of thebelow suitable representativesand they will be pleased to helpwith any inquiries.

About DiskeeperCorporation

Contents

What’s New in Diskeeper 10? 3Diskeeper Tips & Tricks 5The Impact of Disk Fragmentation 6New Diskeeper 10 Gives Holland & Knight a Performance-Boosting Solution 8The Diskeeper Corporation Maintenance Agreement 9Fragmentation Cripples the Performance and Speed of Your Entire Network 10Self-Tuning Disk Drives Eliminate PerformanceBottlenecks and Heighten ROI 11

General Contact info:Diskeeper Corporation

7590 N. Glenoaks Blvd.Burbank, California

91504 USATel: (800) 829-6468

Fax: (818) 252-5514Email: info@diskeeper.comWeb: www.diskeeper.com

Technical: technicalsupport@diskeeper.com

PR: Colleen Toumayan—ctoumayan@diskeeper.com

Sales: salesinfo@diskeeper.com

Contact Details

Diskeeper Corporation Products

For more information on our products, call us at 800-829-6468 code 9250 or

go to www.diskeeper.com/newsk49

Diskeeper®

The Number One AutomaticDefragmenter™

Undelete®

Worry-free dataprotection and

instant file recovery

Sitekeeper®

Systems managementsoftware and patch management made simple

W hether you’ve usedDiskeeper before or not,you may already be famil-

iar with some of its features, butversion 10 represents a milestonein the progression of Diskeeperdevelopment. New users will findDiskeeper to be easy to use, yetcomprehensive in its capabilities.Experienced Diskeeper users willrecognize familiar features, pre-sented in a new, more streamlinedway. This list gives a summary ofwhat’s new in this version.

Breakthrough I-FAAST™ TechnologyIntelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAAST)improves file access and creation by up to 80% (average 10%-20%).This is the first industry implementation of “Disk PerformanceCalibration,” the modern evolution of the outdated and inconclusivedisk optimization strategies of the past.When I-FAAST is enabled, Diskeeper runs specially engineeredbenchmarks on your disk volumes to learn their performancecharacteristics. Diskeeper then transparently monitors volumes for file access frequency on an ongo-ing basis to determine which files arerequested most often. Special analysis tech-niques prevent Diskeeper from being “fooled”by files that have been recently accessed.Using newly developed technology, Diskeepersequences the files to take best advantage ofboth the logical characteristics and physicalcharacteristics of the volume. The sequencingprocess is integrated with background defrag-mentation, so it’s virtually transparent to you.I-FAAST intelligence allows Diskeeper to adaptto changing situations — so if the demands on agiven system change, Diskeeper automaticallyadjusts its behavior accordingly.This feature is included in Diskeeper Server Enterprise, DiskeeperServer Standard and Diskeeper Professional Premier editions.

I/O Smart™ EnhancementsI/O Smart has been enhanced to completely eliminate perform-ance slows related to disk I/Os incurred by defragmentation.I/O Smart technology actively “listens” for I/O requests. During aDiskeeper defragmentation job, if another application or process

needs access to the hard drive,Diskeeper intelligently pausesdefragmentation until the other pro-gram I/O requests are fulfilled.Once that happens, Diskeeper getsthe go-ahead to resume defragmen-tation until another request comesalong. Combined with its high-speedengine, Diskeeper can easily defrag-ment using the “spaces” betweenI/O requests, even on busy servers.This feature is included in allDiskeeper editions.

Core Defragmentation Engine EnhancementsImprovements to innovative Diskeeper technology provideenhanced defragmentation in low free space conditions (even forvery large files) and unsurpassed free space consolidation. Furtheradvancements to “comprehensive” defragmentation will consoli-date a volume’s free space into one or a small handful of chunks.Here is an example test comparison between Diskeeper 9 andDiskeeper 10 on a Windows XP Professional system:

Windows XP Professional (with severe file and free spacefragmentation, and 17% free space)

Terabyte Volume Engine™ (TVE) ImprovementsThe new TVE has improvements to consolidate free space morethoroughly. The TVE is specially designed for volumes with a largenumber of files. It is the fastest and most resource-conservativedefragmentation technology ever developed. Also note the TVEnow supports volumes 60 GB or larger, instead of the 100 GBhigher limit in Diskeeper 9.Diskeeper users with large volumes benefit from faster defrag-mentation, lower overhead and dramatically reduced total cost ofownership (TCO).Here are some sample TVE performance numbers:This feature is included in Diskeeper Server Enterprise Edition.

Number of excess fragments Before 129,112 129,112After 0 0

Number of free space fragments Before 34,432 34,432After 8,851 5

Elapsed CPU time (Hr:Min:Sec) 1:36:11 1:18:06Number of Defragmentation Runs 29 2Peak Memory Size 5,080 4,768Virtual Memory Size 3,384 3,168

Diskeeper 9 Diskeeper 10

On a terabyte Standard TVE Time Improvement(1,000GB) Engine Time Hr:Min:Sec

volume Hr:Min:Sec

250,000 files 00:29:35 00:10:07 192%

500,000 files 01:07:11 00:17:52 276%

1M files 02:30:36 00:33:49 345%

2M files 06:46:30 01:05:49 518%

New improved user interface including Historical Reports continued on page 4

10?WHAT’S NEW INDISKEEPER

3

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Smart Scheduling EnhancementsThe improved Smart Scheduling™ is more proactive and adjustsmore quickly to changes in volume fragmentation levels.Rather than your “best-guesses” as to the optimal frequency ofdefragmentation for a particular volume, Diskeeper SmartScheduling algorithms are tuned to dynamically adjust automaticdefragmentation based on a volume-level rate of fragmentation.This gives you proactive defragmentation — before fragmentationbuilds up — preventing system performance issues, and subse-quently providing faster defragmentation run times.This feature is included in all Diskeeper editions.

New Historical ReportsDiskeeper now gives you an easy-to-access Historical Report ofdefragmentation results and cumulative fragments eliminated.View fragmentation and defragmentation trends over days.

Support for 64 bit Windows Operating Systemsx64 support is included in Diskeeper Professional Premier, DiskeeperServer Standard and Diskeeper Server Enterprise editions.Diskeeper Server Enterprise also now supports Itanium® processors.

Redesigned User InterfaceThe Diskeeper console has been redesigned for both simplified“basic” use and intuitive “advanced” product configuration.The new console design is included in all Diskeeper editions, butnote that Diskeeper Home Edition does not include advanced con-figuration options.

Non-Administrator Access to DiskeeperNow you can allow your non-Administrator users to control Diskeeper.This feature is included in Diskeeper Professional and ProfessionalPremier editions, and is controlled by a System/Network Administratorvia Diskeeper Administrator.

Group Policy Administrative TemplatesAll Diskeeper editions (except Home Edition) include Group Policytemplates to manage product settings and scheduling via the GroupPolicy feature included with Windows Active Directory®. These tem-plates have been updated with new functionality in this version.

Improved ReportingThe new Job Report contains comprehensive data on file frag-mentation, drive health and file access times for each of your diskvolumes. The new Job Log reports on defragmentation activity foreach day and defragmentation job type. Also, all these reports cannow be printed or saved directly from within Diskeeper.

Efficient Defragmentation of Large FilesThe Diskeeper algorithms used for efficiently defragmenting largefiles to the point of performance gain can now be combined withthe three specialized defragmentation methods available inDiskeeper — Quick, Recommended and Comprehensive.This feature is included in all Diskeeper editions.

Product Update/Upgrade ImprovementsDiskeeper and Diskeeper Administrator can be configured to auto-matically check and report on available updates and upgrades.Diskeeper clients can now be configured to retain all previous set-tings and report data when updated and upgraded.___________________________________________________________

Download the 30-day, fully functional trialware today andtry new Diskeeper 10 for yourself!www.diskeeper.com/newsk51

Enthusiastic Cheersfor Undelete:Recover Lost Files Instantly!

Even “saved-over” versions of Microsoft Office files!

How many users have called your Help Desk ina panic saying they’ve lost or overwritten a crit-ically important file? The Windowsserver recy-

cle bin doesn’t protect files deleted by networkclients. Restoring files from backup takes forever, andmay not get the latest version of the file. And neitherbackup nor “snapshots” can help if a user has savedover the version he or she needs.

Now there is a solution — new Undelete 5!Undelete 5 replaces the recycle bin with aRecovery Bin™ that captures and protects alldeleted files, no matter how they were deleted.Undelete works in real time, so it always has thelatest version of the file — and in the case ofMicrosoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® files, itcan even recover earlier “saved-over” versions.

Best yet, recovering files with Undelete 5 is instant—all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse. Undelete 5even gives you the option of letting users recovertheir own files from server Recovery Bins!

• Undelete 5 Server Edition captures and protects deleted files on your servers

• Undelete 5 Client allows network users torecover their deleted files from the server

• Undelete 5 Professional Edition provides localfile protection plus Client functionality

“We are very happy with the product and itsextreme ease of use. It’s true that I can gener-ally get lost files from my backup tapes, butusing Undelete is much faster and easier.Undelete also lets me restore lost files thathaven’t been backed up to tape, but wereeither modified incorrectly or deleted.

Jeff Vargason,Barr Nunn Transportation, Inc. ”

Download Trialware Now! at www.diskeeper.com/newsk50

What’s New in Diskeeper 10?continued from page 3

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In order for Diskeeper to have access to move fileson NTFS volumes, both SYSTEM and ADMINISTRA-TOR must have full control over a file (or the direc-tory folder it is in). Diskeeper includes a batch filethat sets the access permissions on a volume toallow Diskeeper to run properly. This batch file iscalled setdkacls.bat, and it is located in the direc-tory folder where Diskeeper is installed.

If you find you have made files inaccessible toDiskeeper, or that you have some files inacces-sible to Diskeeper, open a command prompt win-dow, change directory to the Diskeeper installa-tion directory, and type:

setdkacls x:

where x: is the letter name of the volume onwhich you want to change access permissions.

The setdkacls.bat procedure automates the fol-lowing sequence of commands:

cd /d x:

cd \

cacls * /e /t /c /g Administrators:F System:F

For more information about the cacls command,type cacls /? at a command prompt.

This batch procedure will only work if the accountyou are logged onto has been granted access tothe file(s) you want to defragment.

How do I set access permissions toallow Diskeeper to defragment my files?

Diskeeper is certified for Windows clustering. Torun Diskeeper in a clustered environment, per-form the following steps:

On the system that has control of the clusteredvolume(s), install Diskeeper and schedule it.

Fail the clustered volumes over to the other sys-tem, install Diskeeper and schedule it.

After you perform these steps, Diskeeper will runon the clustered system that remains in opera-tion after the other clustered system has experi-enced a system failure. Diskeeper will also runon the clustered volume in an active-active clus-ter, defragmenting the clustered volume on thesystem that currently has control of the volume.

Note: The Diskeeper Boot-Time Defragmentationwill not run on clustered volumes.

Does Diskeeper support Windows clustering?

Fragmentation of the Master File Table (MFT) onNTFS volumes and your paging files can impairthe performance and reliability of your computer.Since the operating system relies heavily on theMFT and paging file, the effect of fragmentationis often much greater than when a normal file isfragmented. Special measures must be taken todefragment these files, so it is better to preventtheir fragmentation in the first place.

The Frag Shield™ option in Diskeeper helps youconfigure your MFTs and paging files as recom-mended in published Microsoft guidelines.Following these recommendations will help keepthese critical system files contiguous.

How do I configure the MFTs and paging files?

DISKEEPER

TipsTricks&

In most cases, if the account you are using is nota member of the Administrators group, you will notbe able to install or operate Diskeeper. We recom-mend that you simply use the “Set It and ForgetIt®” feature to set a schedule to allow Diskeeper torun in the background on all systems. Since the“Set It and Forget It” operation runs under the SYS-TEM process, there is no need for an administratorto be logged in when it is running.

However, if you are using Diskeeper Administratorto deploy Diskeeper to your remote computers, youdo have the option to allow non-administrator usersto control Diskeeper on each remote computer.

How can I run Diskeeper from an account that is not a member

of the Administrators group?

6

The following are excerpts from arecent whitepaper written by JoeKinsella. To read the full document, goto www.diskeeper.com/itpro

W hile there is little dispute amongIT professionals regarding the

impact of disk fragmentation on systemperformance, no independent guide-lines exist to recommend the frequencyof defragmentation across an infrastruc-ture. Some IT professionals use defrag-mentation as a measure of last resort,defragmenting only after system per-formance has sufficiently degraded to

make its impact directly noticeable tousers. Others proactively schedule diskdefragmentation regularly, with theintent of eliminating the gradual accu-mulation of fragmented files.

While just about every IT professionalhas his or her fragmentation horrorstory — about a system on which frag-mentation had so severely degradedperformance that it was unusable —very few can offer more than anecdotalevidence regarding the use and impor-tance of defragmentation software.

I recently decided to put fragmentation

to the test, with the intent of answeringtwo basic questions:

1. What impact does fragmentationhave on user and system activities?

2. How quickly does fragmentation accu-mulate as a result of these activities?

This white paper will outline the resultsof the testing, draw conclusions, andmake recommendations regardingmanaging fragmentation across yourinfrastructure.

To assess the impact of fragmentation, Iran a series of tests using Microsoft

A W H I T E P A P E R F R O M W I N D O W S I T P R O M A G A Z I N E

Figure 1

Low Medium HighBaseline Fragmentation Fragmentation Fragmentation

Application Test Image Image Image Image

Microsoft Word Load 30 MB document 17.7 18.4 28.3 50.9(seconds)

Microsoft Word Save 30 MB document 2.9 5.4 23.5 46.1(seconds)

Microsoft Word Document text search 16.9 29.4 53.0 70.4across 100 MB ofWord documents (seconds)

Microsoft Outlook Search for matching emails 46.3 95.1 78.5 77.8in folder (seconds)

Microsoft Outlook Archive of messages in a 241.5 288.5 285.4 378.4folder (seconds)

Microsoft Outlook Restore of messages from 52.3 116.0 106.1 140.0an archive (seconds)

Microsoft Internet Retrieve non-cached Web 10.4 27.2 19.1 37.0Explorer pages (seconds)

Microsoft Internet Retrieve cached Web 9.8 15.9 24.2 26.5Explorer pages (seconds)

Grisoft AVG Anti-virus scan of 48.9 175.5 112.3 215.5My Documents (seconds)

Microsoft Anti-virus scan of 64.5 144.3 112.3 87.3Anti-Spyware My Documents (seconds)

IMPACTTH

E

OF DISK FRAGMENTATIONby Joe Kinsella

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Word, Microsoft Outlook, MicrosoftInternet Explorer, Microsoft Anti-Spyware,and Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus Scanner. Eachtest started with a fresh image restoredto the disk using imaging software. Filesrequired for the test were then copied tothe disk, which resulted in fragmentationcorresponding to the different types ofimages. For a summary of the testresults, see Figure 1.

Recommendations:The demands on hard disks in a corpo-rate environment have steadilyincreased over the last several years,due in large part to increased Web surf-

ing, increasing usage of host-basedsecurity applications (e.g., anti-virus,anti-spyware), and the increased appli-cation of hotfixes and service packs. Asa result, defragmentation is increasingas a problem, affecting the perform-ance and availability of corporate com-puters, making it increasingly importantto have a policy to manage it.

Based on my experience in the lab, Istrongly recommend a proactiveapproach that includes daily defrag-mentation for critical systems (or sys-tems requiring peak performance).

In addition, I strongly suggest the use of

automatic defragmentation software inorder to minimize the administrativecost of managing and the downtimerequired to implement your defragmen-tation policy.

As a general rule, more frequentdefragmentation will reduce both thetime and system resources required tomaintain performance.

Joe Kinsella is the director of develop-ment for SilverBack Technologies, anintegrated IT and security monitoringsoftware provider. He is a CISSP withexpertise in application and systemsdevelopment.

Celebrate! Whether you’re still applying patches manually or you have a management system in place,you need to buy Sitekeeper 3.5!

Sitekeeper makes patch management as easy as clicking your mouse. No dedicated hardwareneeded, no dictionary-size manual to read —Sitekeeper is so straightforward that most first -time users can completely automate their patchmanagement in under an hour.

Sitekeeper also handles and automates hardwareand software inventories, license compliancereports, and even remote automated softwareinstallation — and it’s incredibly affordable. “This was our first use of Sitekeeper (specifically

the Patchkeeper module) at this level and itworked flawlessly. In less than an hour, I hadautomatically patched 94 servers.

“Before we used this product, this effort wouldhave required two dedicated days from me to doeach server individually. Talk about ROI! Mymanager was very impressed as well.

John O’BrienSenior Network Systems EngineerKeane, Inc.

Automated PatchManagement is

Now Easy with Sitekeeper!

”Download trialware today and see how easyautomating your patch management can be!

www.diskeeper.com/newsk52

8

Holland & Knight is a busy multi-prac-tice law firm with offices throughoutthe U.S. and affiliates worldwide. Thefirm’s 1,200 attorneys provide com-prehensive services in litigation, gov-ernment and business law, real estate,

and private wealth management. Anenterprise IT team led by CTO RalphBarber maintains a global computerand communication infrastructure thatenables seamless attorney-client con-nectivity regardless of location.

A key focus for IT staff is maintainingthe 3,000-machine PC fleet that H&Kprofessionals rely on to maximize per-sonal productivity. Until recently, routineadministrative procedures included aperiodic disk defrag process designedto reduce file fragmentation. But latelast year the IT team realized that thisprocess was missing many mobile lap-top machines that were out of theoffice and off the network.

At an annual meeting of Holland &Knight attorneys, a group led by sys-tems engineer Richard Bywalski was

performing routine maintenance onattendees’ laptop PCs, and investigat-ing complaints of slow system perform-ance. “What we found was that many ofthe hard drives were 30 percent, 40percent, even 60 percent fragmented,”

explains Bywalski. “Weknew that just wasn’tacceptable.”

The team consideredtasking local IT person-nel with manually de-fragging each of its 500laptop machines, butinterrupting the work ofattorneys who bill hun-dreds of dollars an hourwas equally unaccept-able. A successful solu-tion would have to runtransparently in the

background without affecting users orreducing productivity.

THE SOLUTIONH&K evaluated several defrag automa-tion solutions, including one fromDiskeeper Corporation that wasalready deployed on many of the firm’sservers. The client system version,Diskeeper 10 Professional Edition,offered a wide range of policy-basedautomation options, including the abil-ity to initiate a defrag cycle wheneverthe Windows screensaver launches,and to pause that process instantlywhen user activity resumes.

“The screensaver mode was extremelyappealing to us,” says Bywalski. “It wassomething we only found in theDiskeeper product, and it perfectlyaddressed our need to maintain client

system disks without interrupting ourusers. We also liked the ability to set thedefrag schedule and policy for eachmachine at deployment and then just for-get about it. Once it’s deployed you reallydon’t have to give it another thought.”

After an intensive test lab evaluation,the H&K team agreed to licenseDiskeeper 10 Professional Edition forits entire PC fleet. Deployment wascentrally managed from IT headquar-ters in Tampa, Florida.

“To minimize user impacts, we set upthe installation process to run automat-ically at 3:00 a.m.,” explains Bywalski.“The next morning I’d import the newlyinstalled machines into DiskeeperAdministrator for central monitoring andmanagement.”

THE IMPACTTwo weeks after completing the initialDiskeeper deployment, H&K believesit has found its defrag solution. “Wecan see in Reports Manager thatwe’ve defragged a lot of machines,”says Bywalski. “Our IT staff who haveDiskeeper on their machines havenoticed a definite per formanceimprovement, and we have fewer helpdesk calls about laptop performance.The systems that were most affectedby fragmentation returned to normalperformance as soon as we installedthe Diskeeper software.

“With our laptop machines we were per-forming a manual maintenance task ina non-proactive manner, chasinghotspots and responding to help deskcalls,” adds CTO Barber. “We knew weneeded a proactive solution that wouldreduce the workload on our IT staff,improve the productivity of our users,and help centralize and standardize akey area of client system support.Diskeeper has given us that solution.”

See how Diskeeper can boost per-formance and productivity at your site.

New Diskeeper 10 Gives Holland & Knight aPerformance-Boosting SolutionTHE CHALLENGE

Download Trialware Now! at www.diskeeper.com/newsk53

“With our laptop machines we were performing amanual maintenance task in a non-proactivemanner, chasing hotspots and responding to helpdesk calls. We knew we needed a proactive solutionthat would reduce the workload on our IT staff,improve the productivity of our users, and helpcentralize and standardize a key area of client systemsupport. Diskeeper has given us that solution.”

—Ralph Barber, CTO, Holland & Knight, LLP

9

The Diskeeper CorporationMaintenance Agreement—KEEP YOUR SOFTWARE CURRENT AUTOMATICALLY

Receive upgrades

automatically when new

software versions are

released

Would you like to always have the most currentversion of your software at the best possibleprice— even at a savings of up to 50%*?

Diskeeper Corporation Maintenance Programsare available for volume license products(Diskeeper, Sitekeeper and Undelete).

With a 1- or 2-year Diskeeper maintenance agree-ment, you’re guaranteed to get new versions ofDiskeeper at no additional cost. Purchasing main-tenance for your volume license gives you a dra-matic cost savings of up to 50% compared to anupgrade purchase. Maintenance can pay for itselfwith only one upgrade!

Maintenance Program Benefits:Free updates and upgrades provided automatically.

Cost Savings: our 1- or 2-year maintenance pro-gram is up to 50% less than the cost for buyingupgrades.

Easy Budget Management: our renewable mainte-nance programs make it easy to budget for futureexpenses. Furthermore, no additional costs areincurred for upgrades as they are covered underthe maintenance program.

Convenient Website Downloads: quick and easyaccess to downloading updates from our site.

Efficiency: have the latest and greatest versionsof the software, which always includes the new-est features and enhancements.

With a maintenance agreement on your volumelicense software, you will be among the first to auto-matically receive your free upgrade to your productduring the agreement period. This way, you alwaysstay up-to-date on your software, have the newesttechnology available and enjoy the benefits.

A maintenance agreement also provides the advan-tage of being able to budget your software costs forthe next 1–2 years (depending on contract length).

If you have any questions regarding the DiskeeperCorporation Maintenance Program, please contactyour favorite reseller or a Diskeeper Corporationsales representative at 800-829-6468 code 9251.

*savings depends on product purchased and volume license level of software.

Customers are taking advantage of our special enterprise licensing program called the Diskeeper Corporation Premier Customer Program.

Find out how to join the growing list of companiesthat are putting Diskeeper Corporation software on every system at their site!

Call to see if you qualify for special volume license pricingand incentives, as well as award-winning personal techsupport. Speak to your corporate account representative,or have your preferred reseller contact us.

Call 800-829-6468 code 9252.Email us at premier@diskeeper.comRequest a site-wide quote online now—www.diskeeper.com/newsk55.

Premier Treatment for Our Valued Customers

10

Download our free utility today—find out the fragmentation level of everymachine at your site!The Disk Performance Analyzer for Networks™ is a freeutility that detects and reports severe fragmentation-related performance loss on your networked systems.

The Performance Analyzer provides single-pointanalysis of each system’s disk performance. It iden-tifies performance bottlenecks that might otherwisego undetected—turning machines into sluggish,maintenance-hogging headaches.

Download this free utility and find out today howfragmentation is severely affecting the performanceof your systems. With Disk Performance Analyzer forNetworks, you can zero in on the machines thatneed attention and handle them before they turninto help desk problems.

Download this free utility today! www.diskeeper.com/newsk54

Fragmentation Cripplesthe Performance and

Speed of YourEntire Network

11

Self-Tuning Disk Drives EliminatePerformance Bottlenecksand Heighten ROI By Drew Robb

Executive SummaryThe size of today’s hard drives bogglesthe mind. 80GB is the norm and disksten times that size are emerging.Coupled with this surge in disk capac-ity is an explosion in file sizes. Tenyears ago, the average drive containedmainly Word documents, each a fewKB in size. Now, multi-MB PowerPoints,MP3s and PDFs litter the hard drive.The problem is that drive I/O speedhas not kept up the pace. As a result,it has developed into a serious bottle-neck in system performance.

Consider the facts: Processor speedsare measured in billions of operationsper second; memory is measured in mil-lions of operations per second; yet diskspeed remains pegged at hundreds ofoperations per second. This disparity isminimized as long as the drive’sread/write head can just go to a singlelocation on the disk and read off all theinformation. But the huge gulf in speedbetween a disk and the CPU/memory isa severe problem when the disk is badlyfragmented. Instead of taking half a sec-ond to open, a badly fragmented textdocument can take half a minute, andgraphics-laden PowerPoints muchlonger. Not all of the extra work, how-ever, is readily noticeable to the enduser. Even after the user sees the open-ing screen, the system can still be work-ing in the background to assemble allthe remaining pieces. File fragmentationnot only lowers performance, it leads toa catalog of woes such as slower virusscans and backups, databases corrup-tion and premature hardware failures.

The Disk Is the Performance BottleneckFile fragmentation was originally a fea-ture, not a bug. Digital EquipmentCorporation (DEC) developed it as part

of its RSX-11 operating system as arevolutionary means to handle lack ofdisk space. But much has changed inthe 35 years since the debut of theRSX-11. At that time, a typical harddisk boasted a capacity of 2.5MB, andthe entire disk had a read time of fourminutes. Compare that to what isavailable today:

• The Hitachi Data Systems Lightning9900 V Series scales to over 140TBand the EMC Symmetrix DMX3000goes up to 170TB.

• 40GB is now standard on low endDell PCs and you can choose drivesten times that size.

• In May 2005, Hitachi and Fujitsureleased 100GB, 2.5˝ drives forlaptops.

• According to IDC, total worldwideexternal disk storage system salesgrew 63% last year, surpassing1,000 Petabytes.

• In 2007, Hitachi is releasing driveswith a three-dimensional recordingtechnology which will raise diskcapacity to 230 gigabits of data persquare inch, allowing 1 terabytedrives for PCs.

The explosion in storage capacity hasbeen paralleled by the growth of filesizes. Instead of simple text docu-ments measured in a few kilobytes,users generate multi-megabyte PDFfiles, MP3s, PowerPoint presentationsand streaming videos. A single com-puter aided design (CAD) file can runinto the hundreds of megabytes, anddatabases can easily swell up to theterabyte class.

As drive I/O speed has not kept up withcapacity growth, managing files and

optimizing disk performance is a majorheadache. While the specific numbersvary depending on the hardware used,we are still orders of magnitude apart:

• Processor speeds are measured inbillions of operations per second.

• Memory is measured in millions ofoperations per second.

• Disk speed is measured in hun-dreds of operations per second.

This disparity is minimized as long asthe drive’s read/write head can just goto a single location on the disk andread off all the information. Similarly,it isn’t an issue with tiny text fileswhich fit comfortably into a single 4Ksector on a drive. But the huge gulf inspeed between a disk and theCPU/memory is a severe problemwhen the disk is badly fragmented. Asingle 9MB PDF report, for example,may be split into 2,000 sectors scat-tered about the drive, each requiringits own I/O command before the doc-ument can be reassembled.

This is even a significant situationwith brand-new hardware. A recentlypurchased HP workstation, for exam-ple, was found to have a total of 432fragmented files and 23,891 excessfragments, with one file split into1,931 pieces. Two hundred andninety directories were also frag-mented right out of the box, includingthe Master File Table (MFT) with 18pieces. Essentially, this means thatthe user of this new system neverexperiences peak per formance onthat machine.

To read the full articlevisit our website:

www.diskeeper.com/newsk56

© 2006 Diskeeper Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The Diskeeper Corporation logo, Diskeeper, Disk Performance Analyzer for Networks, Executive Software, Frag Shield, I-FAAST, I/O Smart, NumberOne Automatic Defragmenter, Patchkeeper, Recovery Bin, Sitekeeper, Smart Scheduling, TerabyteVolume Engine, Undelete and “Set It and Forget It” are trademarks and/or registered trademarksowned by Diskeeper Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Excel,Windows, PowerPoint and Windows Active Directory are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporationin the United States and other countries. Itanium is a registered trademark of Intel. All other trade-marks and brand names are the property of their respective owners.

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDGlendale, CAPermit #61

7590 N. Glenoaks Blvd.,Burbank, California 91504 USA1-800-829-6468www.diskeeper.com

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Customer Success“Diskeeper is fantastic. As NetworkAdmin, the most valuable feature forme is the automated defrag on week-nights. By having Diskeeper installedand automated to run nightly, it helpsus reduce associate service calls for‘slow performance.’ Every call avoidedsaves the company a little money.

“Diskeeper is on every system. A largenumber of laptops also benefit fromDiskeeper’s automated defragging tokeep them in top performance andaway from our shop.”

— Donald Furrow-Scott,Network Administrator, Gilbarco

Visit our website: www.diskeeper.com/newsk57

Diskeeper WinsRedmond Reader’sChoice Award!O

nce a year, readers of Redmond magazinevote on their favorite IT products in over 40categories, from drive imaging to firewalls,

storage management, application sharing andeven Windows Certification-Based Boot Camp.

Diskeeper won the Disk Defragmentation and DriveMonitoring category. “Diskeeper Corp.’s Diskeeperwas the clear choice here, with 37.9 percent of voters giving it top marks.” Lafe Lowe wrote in his presentation article of the awards.

We would like to thank all the readers for theirenthusiastic votes!

Read the full article online: http://redmondmag.com/features/

article.asp?editorialsid=586