Need to increase performance in VMware

[Punjistick]

So, for a class I am taking I had to install Windows Server 2008 as a guest OS. I also had to install SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11gR2, and MySQL within the guest OS. All of this is installed on my Windows 7, Core 2 Duo, 4GB laptop. Everything works fine, but it runs pretty slow. I've searched the web for performance tweaks and I've done most of them. So I think I'm held back by hardware at this point. I can either add more RAM at a cost of about $250 (to increase to 8GB) or try tossing the VM onto a separate portable hard for much, much less. My question is, how much of an improvement can I see by using the portable HDD?

[leftlane]

I'd go with more ram and a 7200rpm hard drive in the lapdog (in that order). All that stuff running in emulation is a big hit.

[gadget]

The quick answer is, add more RAM.

Here are some things to consider.

Here are the ideal transfer speeds of interfaces.

SATA
Rev. 1.0=1.5 Gbit/s
Rev. 2.0=3 Gbit/s
Rev. 3.0=6 Gbit/s

USB
Rev. 1.1=1.5 MBit/s
Rev. 2.0=12 MBit/s
Rev. 3.0=200+ MBit/s

Firewire
400= 400 MBit/s
800=800 MBit/s

It is likely that your Laptop's internal drive is SATA and has a much faster interface than any external drive that you may buy. The speed of the drive is not much of a factor since the interface on external drives is the bottleneck. So adding an external drive might actually slow things down.

[Stegosaurous]

Oracle is a pig no two ways around it. In my industry they recommend installing oracle on it's own standalone box....

[bfriend]

Is your laptop 64bit? If not installing more Ram isn't going to help.

[Kurlon]

If you're running ESX or ESXi you can switch to paravirtualized NIC and SCSI drivers for a BIIIIG improvement in perf. I dunno if VMWare workstation/server support them.

[gadget]

Is your laptop 64bit? If not installing more Ram isn't going to help.

Actually, if his laptop video chipset uses "shared ram", he should see an increase in speed.

The video chipset should use the extra RAM leaving 4 full GB of RAM available for the OS.

I would certainly suggest using the 64 bit OS for best performance.
Especially if your going to spend $250 for more ram.

[Punjistick]

Ok I have a Toshiba A505-S6970. It is 64-bit. Per my professor's advice I followed this guide to setup VMware. http://keithelder.net/blog/archive/2...-For-.Net.aspx

The only things I didn't do was install the VM to an external HDD, "Allocate all disk space now", or turn on the fancy Vista visuals. I'm also using VMware Workstation 7 instead of 6. Since I don't plan on making a ton of clones, perhaps I ought to allocate the disc space. I think I'd have to start over from scratch though, right?

I could probably upgrade my laptop's HDD to 7200 RPM for about $75. I'm pretty sure I have 5400RPM now.

[Punjistick]

Another thing to perhaps think about...Is there any way I can install SQL Sever 2008 Enterprise or Developer editions on Win 7 x64 Home Premium? I looked and I think Developer version will work but I didn't see any evaluation download. Only an evaluation for enterprise.

Basically I only need the VM and Win Sever 2008 in order to get them to install. Another idea would be to repartition my HDD and install XP as a dual-boot. I'm pretty sure most of that software will play nicer with XP anyways.

[leftlane]

Ram is $119 for 4GB at Data Memory Systems in NH, but you prolly have two 2GB modules in there, meaning you have to replace both of them if the computer does interleaving.

[bfriend]

Actually, if his laptop video chipset uses "shared ram", he should see an increase in speed.

The video chipset should use the extra RAM leaving 4 full GB of RAM available for the OS.

I would certainly suggest using the 64 bit OS for best performance.
Especially if your going to spend $250 for more ram.

But 32 bit Windows cannot address more than 4GB...

[Kurlon]

But 32 bit Windows cannot address more than 4GB...

Yes, yes it can. It's called PAE for the win! : )

[bfriend]

You're right. My bad. Forgot about that. I deal with very few 32bit servers these days.

[Punjistick]

I do have a 64-bit chipset and Win7 64-bit Home Premium OS. I don't get why RAM is so much though. I guess since everyone is probably using DDR3 and there's not as much demand for DDR2.

[leftlane]

It's all relative. RAM is cheap. The 16K (yes, K) module for the Sinclair ZX-81 cost more than the computer did in 1981.

[Punjistick]

It's all relative. RAM is cheap. The 16K (yes, K) module for the Sinclair ZX-81 cost more than the computer did in 1981.

I hear you, but what I mean is, 8GB of PC-6400 mem for my computer is gonna cost right around $250. The same brand and size memory but PC-8500 is $170.
It's too bad I can't run DDR3 RAM in my DDR2 slot at a slower speed but tighter timings.

[gadget]

I hear you, but what I mean is, 8GB of PC-6400 mem for my computer is gonna cost right around $250. The same brand and size memory but PC-8500 is $170.
It's too bad I can't run DDR3 RAM in my DDR2 slot at a slower speed but tighter timings.

yeah, RAM is not priced by manufacturing costs any more but by supply, demand and how much the market will bear.

[korndogg]

You have 4GB of memory. Maybe you can squeak by with that.. but probably not. With the VM off, check task manager and see how much physical memory is available. Take that number, and subtract whatever amount of memory you've assigned to the VM. You're going to still want a positive number that's at least a few hundred MB.

How is the VM slow? Just sluggish in general? If so, is your hard drive light going crazy? The VM is probably being paged out, which will make it extremely slow.

I've run virtual machines with their hard drives located on slow sources, and they perform well. Not sluggish at all. Boot quick and operate fine. You wouldn't want to run some production SQL environment that way, but still.

You're going to want to give that VM 3-4GB of memory with all of those SQL servers.

You have the 64-bit OS.. Get the memory. You won't regret it.
Core2duo is a great processor. Your memory is lacking. A 7200 RPM hard drive would be nice, but I don't think it's going to do much for your VM situation.

[Kurlon]

If you're running Vista / 2k3 / 2k8 / Win7, phys mem available should always be a low number, even when you're not doing a damn thing. 2k8 and Win7 in particular are much better about aggressively using all available memory whenever possible, be it for file caching, etc, just like most *nix based OSs. If you have a lot of phys mem free, your box is either dead idle or something is eating and freeing large swaths of ram repeatedly preventing it from being used for caching.

[Billy]

Alex,

I work with SQL. Keep in mind when you install SQL by default the SQL engine is set to use all your physical RAM. So you can keep adding and adding RAM and SQL is going to keep stealing it. I HIGHLY recommend going into SQL and tweaking the memory setting so that it doesn't use all your available RAM before you consider buying more.

Here's what you need to do:
1) Open up Management Studio and connect to the Database Engine.
2) Once management studio is open, right click at your SQL server at the top and select properties.
3) Click the memory option. In the field that says "Maximum Server Memory" you're probably going to see a piss ass long number. Basically that setting uses all your physical RAM. If you got 4gb of RAM in the machine set the Max to 3GB so the OS will have at least 1GB to operate. Or you can try 2GB max for SQL, and 2GB will be available for OS.

[Billy]

I've seen this COUNTLESS times in the field. People always complaing their SQL server is slow and shit. I go and look at the Max memory setting and it's ALWAYS set to use Max. Every time I have to explain to them you need to leave some RAM available for the OS to function.

[Punjistick]

Thanks for all the advice. I really appreciate it. I followed your advice Billy and reduced the amount of ram that SQL Server was eating up. I also picked up a GoFlex Pro made by Seagate. It's an external 7200rpm hdd that can use different add-on cables. I got the eSATA adapter and they even sell a USB 3.0 adapter.

The VM is running much better and I can actually use it now. In comparison to how it was, it actually seems sort of fast. Business Intelligence Development Studio no longer takes forever to open.