SQLBits 2023

Should We Defragment Indexes?

You may want to stop or limit defragmenting your indexes when you encounter external fragmentation because it may be causing performance degradation. Join us as we take a deeper look at modern disk architecture and what's actually happening with I/O.
Traditionally, Index fragmentation has lead to database performance problems. To complicate matter even more, there are 2 types of fragmentation (internal and external). Learn why it's not as important now to defragment externally fragmented indexes because of modern disk architecture. In fact, it may even be hurting performance.

Join me as I run through modern disk architecture especially when it comes to VMs/hypervisors. Learn what's actually happening under the hood and why performance can decrease by defragmenting your indexes.