June 18, 2012 at 10:26 am
Hi all,
One of our data drives is quite severely fragmented (41% non-contiguous blocks). If we use the Windows native tool, can we defragment without risking data loss? I would have hoped that as both the tool and SQL server are native MS products one should not cause corruption but well....
Also, I am informed this is an offline procedure, if so, any good tools we can use online?
Cheers,
Jaybee.
June 18, 2012 at 11:15 am
It's fine, but SQL Server must be stopped for the duration.
If you consider using one of the so-called online defrag tools, make sure it's supported with SQL Server or it could toast the DB file.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
June 19, 2012 at 11:03 am
Hi jblovesthegym,
Diskeeper 12 Server is the answer to your problem. Diskeeper will defrag your databases and actually prevent 85% of fragmentation from reoccurring as well - all while your SQL databases remain online. You never need to take your databases offline and the software only uses idle resources - at zero risk to the data.
Alex
Condusiv Technologies
June 19, 2012 at 11:06 am
Nice to hear that diskkeeper has come that far. I prefer perfectdisk or defraggler. And as Gail mentioned, I would shut down the SQL Service. I have never had much luck with the online defrag from diskkeeper or perfectdisk.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
June 19, 2012 at 11:12 am
Thank you. Yes, Diskeeper has come a long way. Diskeeper 12 optimizes SQL databases without the need for them to ever be taken offline. Our technologies allow no compete for system resources andzero risk of data loss.
I obviously can't address the particular issues you had without knowing your exact scenario - but the bottom line is this: You install the software and then just forget about it. Check the item off your list - Diskeeper's got your SQL database fragmentation issues handled - period. 🙂
Alex
Condusiv Technologies
June 19, 2012 at 11:13 am
I would be very, very, very, very careful about any online defrag or smart disk management tool. Diskeeper 10 for example had bugs that caused checkDB to fail (http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/post/diskeeper-10-intelliwrite-corruption-bug.aspx)
Better safe than sorry.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
June 19, 2012 at 11:14 am
Sounds good, but I prefer cautious still. 😉
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
June 19, 2012 at 11:44 am
I fully understand your hesitation and you should understandably be cautious when trying something new. However, as LeVar Burton would say, you don't have to take my word for it 🙂
"We offer a global Shared SQL Server hosting service within an oil major. The service hosts up to 150+ databases per host in some cases so very heavily shared. We experienced a production outage where SQL 2005 stalled as it could not write in a timely manner to the database file. It came as a great surprise that this was found to be due to the database files being so heavily fragmented.
"A manual Windows defrag of the 2TB volume achieved only 12% in 6 hours and was an unacceptably long outage of service. We chose Diskeeper to address this problem and have rolled it out on all production environments and it is fantastic, defragmenting pretty much 4TB of data within two weeks at most."
— British Petroleum
You can read more at http://downloads.condusiv.com/pdf/SQL_Server_Optimized.pdf
FYI - Fortune 500 companies, areas of the government, major companies from virtually every industry use Diskeeper on their SQL servers
June 19, 2012 at 11:52 am
AlexKlein (6/19/2012)
I fully understand your hesitation and you should understandably be cautious when trying something new. However, as LeVar Burton would say, you don't have to take my word for it 🙂"We offer a global Shared SQL Server hosting service within an oil major. The service hosts up to 150+ databases per host in some cases so very heavily shared. We experienced a production outage where SQL 2005 stalled as it could not write in a timely manner to the database file. It came as a great surprise that this was found to be due to the database files being so heavily fragmented.
"A manual Windows defrag of the 2TB volume achieved only 12% in 6 hours and was an unacceptably long outage of service. We chose Diskeeper to address this problem and have rolled it out on all production environments and it is fantastic, defragmenting pretty much 4TB of data within two weeks at most."
— British Petroleum
You can read more at http://downloads.condusiv.com/pdf/SQL_Server_Optimized.pdf
FYI - Fortune 500 companies, areas of the government, major companies from virtually every industry use Diskeeper on their SQL servers
I am going to make an assumption here, you work for Diskeeper, correct? You should probably state so in your posts when talking about the product so people know this explicitly. Same thing Steve Jones does when he talks about Redgate products.
June 19, 2012 at 11:58 am
I actually work for Condusiv Technologies and stated so in my first couple of posts in this thread 🙂
We used to be Diskeeper Corp, but changed our name to reflect the broad range of products and technologies we offer.
Alex
June 19, 2012 at 12:05 pm
AlexKlein (6/19/2012)
I fully understand your hesitation and you should understandably be cautious when trying something new. However, as LeVar Burton would say, you don't have to take my word for it 🙂
Is the product certified under the Microsoft's SQL Server I/O Reliability Program? If so do you have the data sheets available?
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
June 19, 2012 at 12:18 pm
AlexKlein (6/19/2012)
I actually work for Condusiv Technologies and stated so in my first couple of posts in this thread 🙂We used to be Diskeeper Corp, but changed our name to reflect the broad range of products and technologies we offer.
Alex
Personally, you should include that in each post when talking about any of your products. I haven't looked back at earlier posts, so I was unware that you had so indicated.
June 19, 2012 at 12:23 pm
GilaMonster,
I know we are a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner but I will look into your question as well.
Alex
Condusiv Technologies (Formerly Diskeeper Corp)
June 19, 2012 at 12:29 pm
AlexKlein (6/19/2012)
I know we are a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner
So's the company I work for.
The IO reliability program's got nothing to do with the company, it's a set of comprehensive tests that a product undergoes to show that it behaves correctly with regards to SQL Server's IO requirements.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
June 21, 2012 at 4:33 am
Hi Alex, appreciate the write up, but I do share the popular doubts about the track record of the software (and the LeVar quote, and I speak as a fellow Trekker!).
If there had been a few more posters reporting success I wouldn't jump on the 'anti' bandwagon, but you must understand pretty much everything here is based on trust. Posters like Gail/Lynne etc have resolved a lot of my issues, are serious about their profession and if they have their doubts, I am nobody to dissent. My company is huge and I need a authorisation just to drop a test db.
IF your software works I'd put in a purchase request, but for that I need either a good bank of public opinion in your favour, or a trial copy I can run alongside a resilience app on a test server. And no, before you ask, we don't have a virtualised one for my purposes!! I appreciate it's something of a deadlock, you can't get a good rep without people giving you a chance, and they won't give you a chance unless you've got a good rep.
I wish you and I a lot of luck!
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