Anybody using Diskeeper to Defrag Enterprise Vault Store Partitions?

[gibwanna]

I know this subject has been approached before (https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/defrag-enterprise-vault-server) but wanted to know if anybody had any experience with using Diskeeper Server to defrag the Enterprise Vault Store Partitions?

I think the general advice is that this should be done with the Vault Stores Offline but the previous thread indicates that no issues were experienced when running Automatic Defrag with Intelliwrite enabled.  I am not considering enabling on the Index Volume or the MSMQ volumes, just the Vault Store Partition Volumes.

Please can anybody share how they have implemented this (exceptions, auto Defrag whilst only in RO, Intellwrite Enabled/Disabled, etc) and anything I should watch out for?

I have seen big performance increases mostly around backup times with non-fragmented disks (whilst migrating a Vault Store Partition on to a new SAN) on more than one occasion but am a little nervous about running Defrags.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated 

[Wayne_Humphrey]

AFIAK you should be just fine. Make sure you habe realtime protection off however.

[gibwanna]

Hi Wayne,

Many thanks for taking the time to respond.

Just to clarify it looks like you are saying not turn on Intelliwrite (Realtime Protection) and Automatic Defragmentation (background Defrag when activity permits).  Does this then mean that I need to run a scheduled Defrag with the EV Services Offline or does a Defrag with everything in RO Mode Suffice?

I had thought that as we were only talking about DVS and CAB files on these volumes that not much harm could be done but am unsure.  The last thing I would want to do is corrupt a Vault Store Partition

Thanks for Your Help.

[AlexKlein · Accepted solution]

Hi gibwanna,

You should have no issues running Diskeeper Enterprise Vault Store partitions. Don't take my word for it, here's what a customer had to say:

"...We have Symantec Enterprise Store Vault for e-mail archiving, over 4TB. In the past, Diskeeper could not defrag the volume and our backup times were getting horrible. With the Diskeeper 2010 upgrade with IntelliWrite, we defragged and shaved over 4 hours off the backup time, and saw SCOM errors about disk read times go away.

A great win for us!"

Bryan Gifford, Standard Pacific Homes   
200 Diskeeper 2010 Servers, 1 Admin

The newly-released Diskeeper 12 also has many additional features and benefits.

Hope this helps!

Alex Klein
Social Media Manager
Condusiv Technologies

[gibwanna]

Thanks for the information.  It's all appreciated.

I still hoped to get some comments about how it was implemented ( if Intelliwrite enabled, Automatic defrag enabled, Vault Offline, etc as I am sure that that the defrag is fine to run but am interested in what safety mechanisms others have put in place and anyones experience of doing this.  The customer above indicates that intelliwrite was enabled but was hoping to understand if they had to take the stores offline for any intiital defrags or such like? 

Is there anyone out there who has done this....?