Leasing company increases system performance with defragmenter.

GLENDALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1995--Enterprise computing sites have for years relied on Digital's OpenVMS operating system for its rich functionality and reliability. Canada's largest leasing company, Newcourt Credit Group, a typical VMS shop, uses seven VAX 4000s and two Alpha 3600s to run its North American lending operations. The Alphas operate as wide-area-network servers for 300 PC users.

Recently, Newcourt Credit Group found out what is also inherent in the OpenVMS operating system, the propensity for severely fragmenting data files.

When disks were introduced as a data-storage device, there arose a need to organize files in a formal file structure. The file structure of Digital's early PDP-11 required that all files be contiguous. No file could be split into two or more pieces.

The requirement for contiguous files meant that a newly created file had to fit within a single gap on the disk, or not at all. Fragmenting a file was offered up as a solution to the need for large contiguous free spaces.

As disk size and CPU speed began to increase, files were scattered across disks into hundreds and sometimes thousands of pieces. The I/Os to write and retrieve these scattered file pieces started slowing system performance to a near standstill. Nowhere was this more evident than with Digital's OpenVMS operating system.

In the beginning, the only solution to file fragmentation was Backup and Restore, a tedious process involving the backup and reinitialization of the disk. Then came DISKEEPER, an on-line disk defragmenter from Executive Software.

DISKEEPER was first launched into the OpenVMS market in 1986. The product was designed based on the realization that files on an OpenVMS system are constantly changing -- new files are being created, and existing files are being accessed, updated and extended by a large number of diversified users.

The product runs as a low-priority background job. It carefully rearranges files on a disk so that they consist of as few fragments as possible, and attempts to combine free spaces on a disk into a single large contiguous space.

Newcourt Credit Group was able to eliminate file fragmentation by installing DISKEEPER on both its Alpha and VAX systems. ``DISKEEPER runs from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. daily,'' said Sharon Regan, NCG's system manager. ``We have a lot of PC files on four large disks within a Pathworks network. And we have a lot of file fragmentation. DISKEEPER keeps the disks in good shape.''

DISKEEPER adjusts the level of its own direct I/O to ensure that it does not interfere with the I/O requirements of application processes on the system. It typically runs as a detached process at priority 2, so it uses what would otherwise be CPU ``idle'' time.

``DISKEEPER keeps everything as contiguous as you would expect for a large disk serving PCs,'' said Regan. ``It really keeps everything under control for us.''

Executive Software is located at 701 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, Calif. 91203, and its products are available in 60 countries worldwide. For further information, call 800/829-4357. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Diskeeper is a registered trademark owned by Executive Software International. OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS Clusters are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corp. Copyright 1995, Executive Software International. All rights reserved.

CONTACT: Executive Software, Glendale

Dawn Chaban, 800/829-4357