Need some help- 4 VMs

tokhss

Ok, well I dont know where else to ask this question..

I want to run 4 VM's but i am not sure which VMWare to use.. so many different types you can download ..like Vsphere? the VM's will be cisco, like call manager for example.


Additonally, if anyone has some input on the hardware specs i need to build a server, it would be appreciated. AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours looks nice but if someone has some personal experience, that would be great... edit.. just read thats it difficult to get cisco vmware to work with AMD proc.. do'h~!

budget., 1500.

use : LAB- 4 vm's and when im not using it for the lab.. file storage, ripping/encoding iso's/movies/game backups/etc.

Thank you!

MentholMoose

If this was an enterprise implementation, you would use vSphere on server hardware. You can't dual boot or otherwise use a server running vSphere as a desktop. Since this is for labbing and you also need to use the machine as a desktop, then you need VMware Workstation. Server-grade hardware is overkill, just build a nice, fast desktop, enough to handle the four VMs. Workstation works on both AMD and Intel hardware, as does Windows and other OSs, so unless there is a compatibility problem with the Cisco software, either CPU brand should be fine.

tokhss

I currently run an Abit IP35 Pro / E6600 @ 3.2 ghz air / 8 gigs ram/ a lot of storage.

Now im thinking I should just upgrade my proc to C2Q 9550, OC it and install some SSD's and be on with it..

how does that sound?

Thanks for the input!

Hypntick

tokhss wrote: »

I currently run an Abit IP35 Pro / E6600 @ 3.2 ghz air / 8 gigs ram/ a lot of storage.

Now im thinking I should just upgrade my proc to C2Q 9550, OC it and install some SSD's and be on with it..

how does that sound?

Thanks for the input!

I'm running 4 VMs on a OC'd E7400 and 6 GB of RAM. Doing alright on the RAM with 4 although my CPU is running at near 100% most of the time. Been looking at a 6 core AMD setup for a little bit for my own personal VM setup. Workstation is awesome though, ton of stuff you can do with it and it's pretty simple to use.

tokhss

Hypntick wrote: »

I'm running 4 VMs on a OC'd E7400 and 6 GB of RAM. Doing alright on the RAM with 4 although my CPU is running at near 100% most of the time. Been looking at a 6 core AMD setup for a little bit for my own personal VM setup. Workstation is awesome though, ton of stuff you can do with it and it's pretty simple to use.

I was looking at the AMD magna.. 8 and 12 core version.. apparently its great for vm but its gonna require a whole new build and $$.. 8 core is cheap.. like 280? but 12 core is like 800 lol.. 8 core = 16 threads?

I honestly think, unless someone else can shine some light, that my Q9550 + ssd should be enough boost in performance for 4 cisco vm's .. I initially tried it with my e6600 with 2 vms and i wasnt happy at all with the performance. gotta do more research tho..

worst case. just build another rig

Hypntick

tokhss wrote: »

I was looking at the AMD magna.. 8 and 12 core version.. apparently its great for vm but its gonna require a whole new build and $$.. 8 core is cheap.. like 280? but 12 core is like 800 lol.. 8 core = 16 threads?

I honestly think, unless someone else can shine some light, that my Q9550 + ssd should be enough boost in performance for 4 cisco vm's .. I initially tried it with my e6600 with 2 vms and i wasnt happy at all with the performance. gotta do more research tho..

worst case. just build another rig

Now you've got me looking at the 8 cores, thanks. So for 1700 bucks I could have 2 of those, the mobo and 64 GB of RAM. Wonder what I could get for a kidney.

Seriously though the Q9550 should hold you just fine. I'm running 2 DCs and 2 clients win7 ult 32bit and my CPU is the only thing giving me any flack. Heck i'm even using a single standard HDD to run the VMs on. With your 1500 budget you can get some serious stuff. Check my other thread - http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts-mcitp-windows-2008-general/61266-general-mcitp-sa-ea-build.html I priced out a pretty nice 6 core, 16 GB system for around 800-900 so you would have some room to grow.

tokhss

Just checked out your thread.. good info in there. decisions decisions LOL.. build new or upgrade existing. ahhh!

prob gonna do my q9550 + ssd for now. thanks for the input!

tokhss

OK.. so i just read some reviews on the phenom II x6 1100T black edition..

its a monster! and its cheap. 4 ghz easy on air //6 cores. hmmm ...decisions!

exampasser

For the desktop that I run VMs on I have:
VMware Workstation
Phenom II 955 quad
8 GB of RAM
1 TB WD EADS (system drive)
1.5 TB WD EARS (for VMs)(UPDATE: go for an EADS drive instead, they are less troublesome for VM's)

Works great for backtrack, RHEL5, and XP VMs.

I've also tried out the latest version of VirtualBox on my laptop, but it's less stable (crashed on me a few times) and I've had issues mounting ISO disk images.

tokhss

Thanks for the first hand info!

Povilas

For my lab at home I use my own built box on:
Asus AMD785 based M/B
Athlon II X4 640 CPU
8GB of RAM
80GB HDD for system
500GB HDD for VM's

I'm running up to 8 VM's (3 of them are jus virtual Linux based routers).
Only bottleneck I experiecing is disk speed, if simultaneously trying to update four 2008 servers. RAID would be solution, but expensive.
As for AMD and Cisco - it was compatibility issue on one version, but fixed.

I am using it as dedicated VM server - no desktop OS on it. Actually I use it for video encoding: have VM with desktop OS and connect to it via RDP from my laptop. This apears to be good solution as noisy server lays in storage room working for hours encoding data, while I can be anywhere in the house (or anywhere in the World).
As hypervisor I tried ESXi, XenServer and Hyper-V. I found ESXi to be most fuctional and quite easy to use, but picky about hardware (supports not all HDD, NIC Controllers. XenServer - easy to use UI, also can use windows shared folders for storing ISO images (ESXi, can't and this bit inconvenient), but as windows user to the bone I stayed with Hyper-V and grew to like it, but haven't tried to use Cisco VM's on it - i don't know if it is possible.

azjag

For my dedicated lab I use

2 precision T7400 with dual proc xeon dual core 2.26ghz with 16gb ram
Dell 5424 Gigabit switch
Drobopro 4tb iscsi storage
Working on putting together a fiber san, haven't found any great deals yet. Oh well tax refund is earmarked for that addition.

I was working on the VCAP certification but had to put it on hold. All of this stuff was bought on ebay, except for the memory upgrades. Total cost of lab so far is ~$3500.

tokhss

Interesting info..

appears for now my current setup will allow me to run 1 cisco VM via workstation as it eats up 4-5 gigs of my 8 total gigs of ram! damn Call Manager.. its a beast.

this will get me by for now but no doubt i will need roughly 24 gigs of ram LOL and a dedicated rig for it.. prob ESXi.. and its going to be a intel rig.. so its time to save up! interesting enough. CPU is not a problem at all.. its all about memory!

currently, my cpu utlz is @ 2 % idle on host.. while my memory is @ 5.88GB / 8 GB .. wack!

Heero

that seems off, are the 4-5 gigs you allocated to the VM actually being fully utilized by the VM?

tokhss

As soon as i load up ccm8 my ram utlz jumps from 1.8 to 5.8 lol.. i assinged the vm 2 gigs only .. makes no sense.. however, im ccm7 .. its working as expected.. i see roughly 2 gig jump in memory.

hypnotoad

tokhss wrote: »

As soon as i load up ccm8 my ram utlz jumps from 1.8 to 5.8 lol.. i assinged the vm 2 gigs only .. makes no sense.. however, im ccm7 .. its working as expected.. i see roughly 2 gig jump in memory.

Funky behavior on that CCM8. I wonder if deleting the VM and re-creating its settings from the VMDK files would help. Probably want to back it up somewhere first.

tokhss

Might give it another go and report back..