The Ts2ki Global Server Data
Defragmentation Utility
(Ts2ki
Unfrag)
What is Ts2ki Data
Fragmentation and why do I need to be concerned with
it?
If you know the answer to this question
just skip to the next section but if you don't know the answer please read
on. When a database becomes slow it is usually assumed to be due to having
more data than it previously had. This may be true but the real reason for
degraded performance may be data fragmentation. A database is similar to a
deck of cards except with a lot more cards. For instance, for every
gigabyte of Ts2ki data there are about a million "cards" or
blocks of data. Each of these data blocks contains certain
amounts of data about a certain symbol. When playing cards, you usually
organize your "hand" by card suit and card sequence. When you get a lot of
cards in your hand arranging the cards becomes more of a problem so
you can imagine what trying to keep track of millions of "cards" would be
like. For this reason databases use Index files which are basically
"cheat sheets" which tell where a record is located in the
database. This makes data management much easier because
the Index file only takes up about 5% of the total size of the data. So,
instead of physically moving data around, the data pointers are just
changed in the Index file. This is fine from a file management standpoint
but one data block my be near the start of the file and
the next logical data block may be near the end of the file so
the disk head has to go to the start of the file to obtain the first block
of data and then to the end of the file to obtain the second block of data
. Not only does this add an unnecessary amount of work
to the disk but it increases the amount of time it takes to obtain the
data. The Ts2ki Data Defragmentaion Utility (Unfrag) re-writes the Ts2ki
data files so that the data is stored in a logical order which minimizes disk
workload and speeds up data access.
If I perform Ts2ki Data
Defragmentation do I need to be concerned with disk
fragmentation?
In short, the answer is yes. The
Ts2ki Unfrag utility sequences the blocks of data optimally within the
data file but that file consists of multiple disk
data clusters each containing multiple file
data blocks and as in the prior case, the first disk cluster for the
file may be near the start of the disk and the
next cluster located near the end of the disk. The keywords here are
File for Ts2ki Unfrag
and Disk for the Disk Defragmenter -
two different programs for two different requirements. The bottom line is
that both the Ts2ki Unfrag utility and a Disk Defragmenter should be used with
the Ts2ki Unfrag utility run first and the the Disk Defragmenter
afterwords.
The Ts2ki Unfrag
Utility
The Ts2ki Unfrag utility must be installed in a
folder which can both be read from and written to and can only be run with the
Global Server shut down. The Ts2ki Data Defragmentation Utility (Unfrag)
provides the user with a full evaluation of the amount of data file
fragmentation in his system (for free) and when registered, provides the user
the capability to unfragment all data files.
The Ts2ki Unfrag program is a "try-before-you-buy"
utility but more than an adequate amount of functionality is retained in the
unregistered version for the user to evaluate his system and the value the
utility could provide. The only difference between the unregistered and
registered versions is that the user is prevented from selecting to write all
new unfragmented files.
The Ts2ki Unfrag start up screen is shown below
prior to registration (license purchase) on the left and after registration
on the right.
Always
Backup your Global Server data before running Ts2ki Unfrag because you
could lose power or many unimaginable things could happen during the Unfrag
process and your Global Server data might not be recoverable. The best way
to backup is to copy the entire Server folder and paste it to another disk
drive. You could rename the pasted Server folder to better identify it as
shown. 
Using this backup
method or any other method which uses another drive for backup minimizes the
need for disk free space requirements on the Global Server drive during the
Unfrag operation. There still will be a disk free space requirement of the
size of the largest single Global Server data file. If you have more disk
free space on your Global Server drive than the total size of all the Global
Server data files then you can use the Local Data Backup option. 
Placing a check
mark in the selection box will save all the current Global Server files as
backup files on the Global Server drive. It must be noted that only the
latest set of Global Server files will be saved so if you run Unfrag multiple
times only the latest set of files will be saved.
Using this backup
method or any other method which uses another drive for backup minimizes the
need for disk free space requirements on the Global Server drive during the
Unfrag operation. There still will be a disk free space requirement of the
size of the largest single Global Server data file. If you have more disk
free space on your Global Server drive than the total size of all the Global
Server data files then you can use the Local Data Backup option. Placing a check
mark in the selection box will save all the current Global Server files as
backup files on the Global Server drive. It must be noted that only the
latest set of Global Server files will be saved so if you run Unfrag multiple
times only the latest set of files will be saved.The program was used to unfragment a 20 GB data
base and I was extremely surprised to see the huge amount of fragmentation
involved. The Ts2ki Unfrag program uses a calculated value called
"Fragment Factor" to indicate amount of data fragmentation. The value is
calculated by adding the distances the disk head must travel to obtain each
data block. For instance, if the first data block were near the
start of the file, the second were near the end of the file and the third again
near the start of the file, the disk head would have to move from the start of
the file to the end of the file and back to the start again. This would be
approximately three times the total disk head travel required for an
unfragmented file. With data files running in the millions of data blocks,
it is easy to see why data fragmentation gets so large. The following
shows actual data which to me is shocking with respect to "Fragment
Factors".
It should be noted here that the initial fragmented
file was 2,557.5 MB in size and the re-written unfragmented file was only
1,469.1 MB in size indicating that there was slightly over 1
GB of unused space in the file. A fact to be noted here is that Ts2ki
files only grow larger, they never get smaller unless a program like Ts2ki
Unfrag is used.
The extremely interesting fact is that the
disk head for the fragmented file had to travel 25,745 times as far as the disk head on the
equivalent unfragmented file. This means that if all the data in the file
were requested in a logical order, the disk head for the fragmented file
would have to move over 25,000 times as far as the disk head for the
unfragmented file. It is no wonder the disk appeared "slow".
I would not be too concerned about "Fragment
Factors" of 100 or even several hundred because the disk buffer tends to
mitigate these factors to some extent. However, any "Fragment Factors"
over 1,000 should be considered excessive and should be
corrected.
It should also be noted that it took 1 minute
and 15 seconds to read the file, 7 seconds to sort the file data into the proper
unfragmented sequence and determine the Fragment Factor. However, the big
time consumer was re-writing the unfragmented file which took a little over 42
minutes. Future Ts2ki Unfrag times should be considerably less due to less
initial fragmentation which the following full Ts2ki Unfrag report summary
dramatically points out.
A summary of the first Ts2ki Unfrag Run on the
complete 20 GB Data-set is as follows:
Initial Size: 20,853
MB
Unused Space: 6,308.8 MB
Unused Space: 6,308.8 MB
Total Ts2ki Unfrag Process Time
= 230.2 minutes (3 hours and 50 minutes)
An additional 90 minutes was required for the Global Server
to re-build the Index files
After Re-booting the PC, another Ts2ki Unfrag Run
was made on the Unfragmented Data-set to show the effects of data
fragmentation
Initial Size: 14,545
MB
Unused Space: 0.0 MB
Total Ts2ki Unfrag Process Time
= 23.5 minutes (almost a 10:1 decrease)
Again, an additional 90 minutes was required for the Global Server
to re-build the Index files
Note that the Global Server
re-index time is the same for both cases above. The way the Global Server
works is if any files are changed, all files are re-indexed. Depending on
the size of your data-set, the 90 minutes will be different but if even one file
is unfragmented all index files will be re-built by the Global Server and you
need to know approximately how long that re-index is and take that time into
account.
The initial Ts2ki Unfrag runs will take as little
as 10 minutes to possibly 5 or 6 hours or more depending on the size of the GS
data and the amount of Fragmentation. The Ts2ki Unfrag program has
been designed to perform partial defragmentations as time permits. As
shown below, if the approximate amount of time the Global Server will require
to re-build Index files is known, an "Exit Time" may be selected
which could stop the Unfrag process and if so enabled, auto start the
Global Server for re-building the Index files. This could be set
up prior to going home and the Global Server would be collecting data
when you arrive the next morning. Using this method, as many files as
time permits could be unfragmented during one session, a few more the next until
all have been unfragmented. Since Ts2ki Unfrag works on a file by file
basis, aborting the program will only result in losing unfragmented data for the
file currently being processed. Aborting the Ts2ki Unfrag program will not
lose any of the original data. In fact, if the "Local Data Backup" is
checked all of the the original data is saved as a backup until the user elects
to delete it or starts another "Unfrag" session - note the "Restore Backups" and
"Delete Backups" buttons on the Ts2ki Unfrag screen.
It is recommended that the Ts2ki Unfrag utility be
run periodically with the "Write Unfragmented Files" unchecked which will show
the amount of data file fragmentation with a minimum amount of Global Server
"down time". Once the amount of fragmentation is deemed excessive, the
systems can be scheduled for a complete unfragmented file re-write.
Each time an unfragment process is performed either
to determine the amount of file fragmentation or to actually re-write the files
a log of all activities plus the system configuration is saved in a log file
("Unfrag-Log.txt" and also as "Unfrag-Log mm-dd-yyyy hh.mm.ss.txt"). This
Unfrag-Log will always be the first entry when the "View Unfrag
Report" menu item is selected. The Unfrag Logs will be listed
chronologically with the most recent shown first as is shown in the
following:
The most recent 15 Logs are retained and older
Logs are deleted unless the file attribute has been changed to "Read
Only".
The Unfrag utility must be run when it
can be the only application which is using the Global Server
files. The utility keeps all Global Server files open during most of the
process time so that the files are for the exclusive use of the utility and
other applications are unable to interfere. If any applications do
interfere with the Unfrag process one of the following images should
be displayed. If any of these images are displayed or any
interference noted, the Unfragment process should be considered compromised
and backup data should be restored.
Registering the
Utility
If you decide that the Ts2ki Unfrag utility would
be a valuable addition to your system, just send an e-mail to Support@BobScottSystems.com or Bob_Scott_Systems@Yahoo.com and either attach a copy of
the Unfrag-Log to the e-mail or select all and copy and paste the contents of
the log into the e-mail. Each copy of Ts2ki Unfrag is registered to a
specific computer (actually motherboard) so if you decide to register we will
need the computer information which is contained in the log.
License Pricing has been apportioned to the size of
the Global Server data so that users with lesser amounts of data can benefit
from the using the utility at a reasonable price.
When registered, you will receive an activation Key
Code and this can be copied and pasted into the Registration screen.
The "PC Description" may contain any desired information as the only intended
use is to allow the user to more easily differentiate between registration
files.
The Ts2ki Unfrag Utility is well matched to the
needs of the user and should make a very valuable addition to the Ts2ki
tools.
If you find any problems or have any
questions please contact: Support@BobScottSystems.com or Bob_Scott_Systems@Yahoo.com
Last Updated:
6/30/2010