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In the past, I have used contig.exe to remove physical fragmentation from SQL Server data files. They have always been on locally attached storage. Is there any benefit to running this on a data file that is stored on a SAN?

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Not recommended to defragment files on a SAN, SQL or otherwise.

See this related ServerFault question and this excellent whitepaper. The major points include:

  • Defragmenting is very I/O intensive
  • Defragmenting doesn't always improve performance on logical volumes
  • Defragmenting is definitely not recommended for certain specific configurations, like Virtual Storage Pools and Replicated Volumes
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Good pointers. I should have looked a little harder before posting thanks – Jason Horner Sep 17 '09 at 22:25
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