"The Impact of Disk Fragmentation on Servers," the whitepaper by David Chernicoff, tests the effects of fragmentation on common VHD tasks such as launching and saving the virtual server platform. "The single consistent result that appears in all of our tests is that defragmented server drives using Diskeeper deliver better performance," said Mr. Chernicoff.

 

Virtualization is the wave of the future, consolidating systems onto fewer, but more powerful hardware. However, file fragmentation has a particularly heavy impact on virtualization because it incurs greater stress on physical resources. Server virtualization can compound disk fragmentation, as host and guest systems create multiple I/O requests for each file. Even the most powerful disk becomes bottlenecked, creating a significant barrier to performance.

 

In tests conducted on Windows Server 2008, test virtual machines saw a 17% improvement in start times and as much as a 25% improvement in save times. "The effects of fragmentation on the VHD are clear," said Mr. Chernicoff. "Fragmentation will also impact the VM itself, because all of the additional I/O necessary to read from a severely fragmented VHD will reduce the performance of the virtual computing environment."

 

Diskeeper 2009 Server edition enables Windows(R) servers to perform at their peak. By speeding up common VHD tasks, such as launching and saving the virtual server platform, system administrators can save time, increase performance and truly experience the benefits of virtualization.

 

Diskeeper 2009 is truly in a class of its own, as it is the only defragmenter to operate in real-time, completely invisibly in the background with the advent of the proprietary InvisiTasking(R) processing technology. InvisiTasking monitors resource use and ensures only idle, untapped resources are used to solve fragmentation so servers can be defragmented quickly, even during the heaviest traffic times, without being slowed down by resource conflicts.

 

"Automated background defragmentation results in a major reduction in fragmentation even with an active VHD," said Mr. Chernicoff. "Diskeeper is the only true server defragmentation software that runs silently in the background, continually improving performance."

 

The server class Diskeeper 2009 editions include Diskeeper Server, Diskeeper EnterpriseServer and Diskeeper Administrator. Download free trialware at www.diskeeper.com. For volume licensing discounts, call 800-829-6468 or your favorite reseller.