Unix Tip: Fragmentation and Unix file systems
People who have had bad experiences on Windows disks that performed poorly after they had become very fragmented often wonder if they need to apply some kind of periodic analysis and defragmentation on their Unix systems as they transition into a Unix admin or user role. For the most part, the answer is no. Most Unix file systems don't become fragmented the way FAT and NTFS file systems do. But, rather than give a quick yes/no answer, let's take a look at what fragmentation, and why Unix file systems are not as prone to fragmentation as their Windows cousins and what you need to do when a Unix file system is fragmented.
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Article provides a great overview
You article is a very good starting point for someone who wants to learn about this topic.The availability of ext4 and online disk fragmentaiton tools should alleviate this problem on open source UNIX implementations. Read my survey at
http://sharevm.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/435/
The Veritas file system support online defragmentation on all platforms on whic it runs. ufs on Solaris also support online defragmentation.