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How do I manually defragment Active Directory?
John Savill
January 8, 2000
2 Min Read
A. Windows 2000 servers running Directory Services (DSs) perform a directory online defragmentation every 12 hours by default as part of the garbage-collection process. This defragmentation only moves data around the database file (ntds.dit) and doesn’t reduce the file’s size.
To create a new, smaller ntds.dit file and to enable offline defragmentation, perform the following steps.
Back up Active Directory (AD) (see the FAQ How do I back up Active Directory and the System State?).
Reboot the server, select the OS option, and press F8 for advanced options.
Select the Directory Services Restore Mode option, and press Enter. Press Enter again to start the OS.
Win2K will start in safe mode, with no DS running.
Use the local SAM’s administrator account and password to log on.
You’ll see a dialog box that says you’re in safe mode. Click OK.
From the Start menu, select Run and type
cmd.exeIn the command window, you’ll see the following text. (Enter the commands in bold.)
C:> ntdsutil ntdsutil: files file maintenance:info .... file maintenance:compact to c:temp
You’ll see the defragmentation process. If the process was successful, enter
quit quitto return to the command prompt.
Then, replace the old ntds.dit file with the new, compressed version. (Enter the commands in bold.)
C:> copy c:temptds.dit %systemroot%tdstds.dit
Restart the computer, and boot as normal.
Below is an example of the entire procedure.
D:> ntdsutil ntdsutil: files file maintenance: info Drive Information: C: FAT (Fixed Drive) free(1.2 Gb) total(1.9 Gb) D: NTFS (Fixed Drive) free(152.4 Mb) total(1.9 Gb) DS Path Information: Database : D:WINNTNTDStds.dit - 8.1 Mb Backup dir : D:WINNTNTDSdsadata.bak Working dir: D:WINNTNTDS Log dir : D:WINNTNTDS - 30.0 Mb total res2.log - 10.0 Mb res1.log - 10.0 Mb edb.log - 10.0 Mb file maintenance: compact to c:temp Opening database [Current]. Using Temporary Path: C: Executing Command: D:WINNTsystem32esentutl.exe /d "D:WINNTNTDStds.dit" / /o /l"D:WINNTNTDS" /s"D:WINNTNTDS" /t"c:temptds.dit" /!10240 /p Initiating DEFRAGMENTATION mode... Database: D:WINNTNTDStds.dit Log files: D:WINNTNTDS System files: D:WINNTNTDS Temp. Database: c:temptds.dit Defragmentation Status (% complete ) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----| ................................................... Note: It is recommended that you immediately perform a full backup of this database. If you restore a backup made before the defragmentation, the database will be rolled back to the state it was in at the time of that backup. Operation completed successfully in 17.896 seconds. Spawned Process Exit code 0x0(0) If compaction was successful you either need to copy "c:temptds.dit" to "D:WINNTNTDStds.dit" or run: D:WINNTsystem32tdsutil.exe files "set path DB "c:temp"" quit quit file maintenance: quit ntdsutil: quit D:> copy c:temptds.dit %systemroot%tdstds.dit Overwrite D:WINNTtdstds.dit? (Yes/No/All): y 1 file(s) copied.
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