VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  Disk Defragmentation best practice

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 08:53 PM

    Good afternoon,

    Our environment is running 5 VMware ESXI hosts with Windows Server 2008R2 guests.

    I would like to find out the best practices for disk defragmentation.

    Looking at forums online, I have found conflicting answers.

    Please advise, and thank you for the assistance.



  • 2.  RE: Disk Defragmentation best practice

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 01:32 AM

    are you looking for information on defragmentation of your vmsf datastores or defragmentation within the guest os?

    the answer is NO defragmentation for both


    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006810
    http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/09/should-i-defrag-my-guest-os.html



  • 3.  RE: Disk Defragmentation best practice

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 11:52 AM

    Generally it is not recommended to perform defrag, also if you are using backup products like Veeam then defrag is one of the worst activity you can do for CBT, since moving around all the files creates lots of new CBT blocks. Also, think provisioned vmdk can inflate due to defrag.  Avoid defrag activities.

    Should I defrag my Guest OS? | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs



  • 4.  RE: Disk Defragmentation best practice

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 05:19 PM

    I appreciate everyone's responses and time and willingness to answer my question.  Moving forward, I will recommend to my department to not defrag physical or virtual disks.