Server Maintenance

Well first off, WinNT includes no defrag software as Microsoft feels that it isn't nessacery for the architecture of this OS. There are 3rd Party programs out there that do this, but we don't use any. Common routines we imploy here at the County is:

--Shutdown server once a month (let it flush it's memory.

--Even if you have RAID implemented, it's still a good idea to back up your non-system partition.

--Make sure your ERD disks are up to date and that you have bootable diskettes for each system.

--Make sure you have a backup account w/administrative rights should something happen

--Keep your hard drives uncluttered. Keep them structured

--WATCH THE EVENT LOGS!!!! You can learn more here then anywhere else. At first they can be confusing, but as you research the alerts they become clear.

Those are the main things.

I have tried Defrag programs for NT and they are worth it. Even though MS says NT doesn't need to be defraged, it does. If it didn't, I wonder why MS included the product with Windows 2000.

I wouldn't bother doing defrag on NT as often as I wouldon FAt or FAT32. But it still does help. Also being it a PDC or a BDC, I would not do it more than once a month or every other month.

HTH

Yes it is advisable to run 3rd Party Disk Defragmentation software on your NT servers. The product of choise is Diskeeper by Executive Software. I use it on all my workstations and servers and have for years. No matter what Microsoft tells you, disk defragementation software for NT is essential for keeping everything running at top speed.

Diskeeper can be set to run in the background ans does so very well. I actually set it to defrag everything between 7PM and 7 AM. You can set individual disk, versus the system as a whole.

I have a server proxy server that I forgot to install diskeeper on and it was really slowing down. Installed software and the machine took 1.5 hours to straighten everything up. Now I have it set to run continuously.

I also run it on my PDC and BDC/Exchange box also.

Dan,

Yes, it is advisable to on a regular basis clean up your partitions and defrag. Why defrag? So that access to the files on your partitions is as effecient as possible. As the I/O subsystem is usually the slowest component of a computer system, anything that you can do to maintain it for peak effeciency is very much worth it.

There are several commercial defrag products available.

PerfectDisk - www.raxco.com - Schedulable, defragments pagefile, directories and MFT and is the only commercial defragger capable of defragmenting ALL of the NTFS metadata ($LogFile, etc...). PD2k runs on 9x/Me/NT4/Win2k. From a central point you can schedule defrag activity throughout. No difference in functionality between the workstation andserver version. PD2k is a "one pass" defragger - designed to do the job in one pass.

Diskeeper - www.execsoft.com - Schedulable, defragments pagefile directories and MFT. DK runs on 9x/Me/NT4/Win2k. Requires their Server version if you want to schedule defrag activity through the network. DK may require multiple passes to completely defrag a partition.

O&O Defrag - www.oo-defrag.com. Schedulable, defragments pagefile,
directories and MFT. O&O runs on NT4/Win2k. O&O Defrag also is a "one pass" defragger.

Speedisk - www.symantec.com. Schedulable, defragments pagefile directories
and MFT. SD runs on NT4/Win2k. Requires purchase of their Norton System Center if you want to schedule defrag activity through the network. SD also is a "one pass" defragger.

OnTrack's Suite - www.ontrack.com. A suite of products. You can't just buy the defragger. Schedulable. Works on NT4/Win2k. Don't know too much more about this one.

Hope this helps!

- Greg/Raxco Software

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk 2000, as a systems engineer in the support department.