I’ve
put together a quick list of the Top 5 Do’s and Don’ts for VMware which I hope
you’ll find useful.
Today
I’m starting with the Top 5 Do’s
DO
1)
Select
the correct operating system when creating your Virtual Machine.
Why? The operating system type determines the optimal monitor mode to
use, the optimal devices, such as the SCSI controller and the network adapter
to use. It also specifies the correct version of VMware Tools to install.
2)
Install
VMware Tools on your Virtual Machine.
Why? VMware Tools installs
the Balloon Driver (vmmemctl.sys) which is used for virtual memory reclamation
when an ESX host becomes imbalanced on memory usage, alongside optimized
drivers and can enable Guest to Host Clock Synchronization to prevent Guest
clock drift (Windows Only).
3)
Keep
vSwp files in their default location (with VM Disk files).
Why?
vSwp files are used to support overcommitted guest virtual memory on an ESX
host. When a virtual machine is created, the vSwp file is created and its
size is set to the amount of Granted Memory given to the virtual machine.
Within a clustered environment, the files should be located within the shared
VMFS datastore located on a FC SAN/iSCSI NAS. This is because of vMotion
and the ability to migrate VM Worlds between hosts. If the vSwp files
were stored on a local (ESX) datastore, when the associated guest is vMotioned
to another host the corresponding vSwp file has to be copied to that host and
can impact performance.
4)
Disable
any unused Guest CD or USB devices.
Why? Because CPU cycles are
being used to maintain these connections and you are effectively wasting these
resources.
5)
Select
a guest operating system that uses fewer “ticks”.
Why? To keep
time, most operating system count periodic timer interrupts or “ticks”.
Counting these ticks can be a real-time issue as ticks may not always be
delivered on time or if a tick is lost, time falls behind. If this
happens, ticks are backlogged and then the system delivers ticks faster to catch
up. However, you can mitigate these issues by using guest operating
systems which use fewer ticks. Windows (66Hz to 100Hz) or Linux
(250Hz). It is also recommended to use NTP for Guest to Host Clock
Synchronization, KB1006427.
On
Thursday I’ll go through the Top 5 Don’ts.
If
you want more detailed information on performance and capacity management of
VMware why not visit our website and sign up to be part of our community? Being
a community member provides you with free access to to my on-demand webinars on Vmware http://www.metron-athene.com/_downloads/index.html
Jamie
Baker
Principal
Consultant
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