Vmware Server and performance Issue

Hardware HP laptop 3GB memory, Intel core 2 Duo CPU p8700 @ 2.53GhZ, shows as two processors.

Currently using Vmware server latest version (downloaded a month ago), running 1 VM server 2003, 320Mb memory, currently using 140 of that. Running Vcenter server inside it now to test out P2V features.

*ISSUE*

This config seems to lock my laptop up and lag it severly, (will unlock after 1-10 minutes) the host OS is pretty clean and I dont have a bunch of crap installed on it, since its my work pc, and I have been using VM boxes to test, and download etc.

I have never had this issue with Vmware Workstation, is there some kind of performance enhancements that are different in workstation?

Can anyone give me an idea why, this laptop can't seem to handle one Vm?

Thanks in advance guys.

P.s. Its a new laptop 2 months old.

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Comments

OoteR

VMWare server has been mediocre for me..

Virtualbox has been a better experience, but I don't need USB support.

earweed

How much resources does VCenter Server use? I don't have any experience with it but I thought it was a big enterprise tool, which may mean it's using alot of your system resources.

Hyper-Me

earweed wrote: »

How much resources does VCenter Server use? I don't have any experience with it but I thought it was a big enterprise tool, which may mean it's using alot of your system resources.

Vmware server is a free program thats mostly for testing purposes. It used to only play VMs (though the latest version will create them). Its weaker than Workstation.

vCenter is a management piece for ESX/ESXi servers.

slinuxuzer

earweed wrote: »

How much resources does VCenter Server use? I don't have any experience with it but I thought it was a big enterprise tool, which may mean it's using alot of your system resources.

I should have clarified, I was having the issue before the Vcenter installation, Vcenter is not that heavy of an app.

MentholMoose

Laptop hard drives are horrible for virtualization. Even a 7200RPM drive is not going to give you very good performance.

You will need to tune both the host and the guest to reduce hard drive usage. Anything non-essential that uses the hard drive should be disabled, such as indexing services, desktop search programs, and automatic update programs.

Also since the host has 3GB of RAM, give the VM at least 1GB. Even if the VM is only using 140MB, it has so little RAM and will try to conserve it by swapping to disk, which is very bad for performance.

vCenter may not be that "heavy", but it requires a database, which creates high hard drive utilization. Even if you optimize the host and guest, it is likely going to run poorly.

slinuxuzer

MentholMoose wrote: »

Laptop hard drives are horrible for virtualization. Even a 7200RPM drive is not going to give you very good performance.

You will need to tune both the host and the guest to reduce hard drive usage. Anything non-essential that uses the hard drive should be disabled, such as indexing services, desktop search programs, and automatic update programs.

Also since the host has 3GB of RAM, give the VM at least 1GB. Even if the VM is only using 140MB, it has so little RAM and will try to conserve it by swapping to disk, which is very bad for performance.

vCenter may not be that "heavy", but it requires a database, which creates high hard drive utilization. Even if you optimize the host and guest, it is likely going to run poorly.

I thought this might be the case, what do you think about putting my Vm's on a sata or Ide desktop drive and running them from a USB 2.0 enclosure? I am currently running training videos off of a flash drive and they play perfectly.

Also, in the past, I dedicated disk space up front, but right now I am not, I am betting this isn't helping.

I am currently running training videos off of a flash drive and they play perfectly.

dales

Vcenter 2.5 recommended min memory is 2GB, and as stated the sqlexpress (presumed), will be hammering away in the background. You might also want to have a look at your HP's bios to make sure that any virtualization options are enabled.

You might want to have a quick look at the hosts perfmon to see if that will give you any clues?

slinuxuzer

dales wrote: »

Vcenter 2.5 recommended min memory is 2GB, and as stated the sqlexpress (presumed), will be hammering away in the background. You might also want to have a look at your HP's bios to make sure that any virtualization options are enabled.

You might want to have a quick look at the hosts perfmon to see if that will give you any clues?

Thanks, the Virtualization option was not enabled, can you tell me how much of a difference this should make?