Should I get a 2nd SSD for my vmware drives?

gbdavidx

A while back ago I had a few vmwares running windows 8, 7 and a couple windows server 2008 and 2012

I stopped using them because it seemed pretty slow, granted the install files were on a 2ndary hard drive that wasn't my primary, if I get another secondary drive like a 250gb ssd, could I experience less lag time while working in the vm?

Essendon

The lag time can be due to a variety of factors, storage, networking, CPU, memory. Usually though, storage is the bottleneck in a home lab. You appear to have had your VM's stored on SSD (by install files, do you mean iso's?), but how many were they? An SSD is quicker than other disks, sure, but you cant expect to put a dozen VM's on it and expect great performance. How was RAM looking on the host?

gbdavidx

I had a windows 8, windows 7, 2 windows servers and 1 windows server that didn't have Ad that was for exchange there were a total of 5 on a 1tb drive that was just a regular drive.

It came to the point where I couldn't use them because it was too slow, I do have 16gb of RAM, how would it be a network issue if it was installed locally?

the .vmdk files were the installed files on the d:\

kriscamaro68

I would be willing to bet that your slowdown is related to the HDD. I think an SSD would make all the difference. When I would run 3-5 vm's on a regular HDD it would become almost unusable. I upgraded to an SSD on the same setup and it was a night and day difference.

EV42TMAN

Are you using VMware Workstation or a dedicated ESXi Host?

Essendon

Didnt you say you already had the VM's on the frst SSD?

QHalo

Another SSD isn't gonna be any faster if you're already using one. DEAR GOD MAN WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?!?

DoubleNNs

I think he's saying his primary drive is a SSD, and his secondary drive is a standard HDD. He's installed his VMs on his HDD and is thinking about replacing his 2nd drive w/ a solid state drive.

I've only used VMs on an SSD, never tried it on a regular drive. But RAM has always been the limiting factor for me - I only have 4 gbs. However, I hear the difference is night and day.

Have you tried installing the VMs on your priary drive to see if it runs any better? If it runs bette ron your primary drive, then I'd bet itd be similar if you replaced that 2nd drive w/ an SSD.

netsysllc

A SSD is much faster than a single drive for VMs. I had 3 Server 2012 VMs running on my Surface Pro from a USB3 SSD and they ran very fast even with limited memory. I have 4 machines in my lab running VMs and any that are on a SSD run much faster with no lag.