You've got an inadequate disk subsystem for what you're trying to do. Choices... 1. Launch fewer VMs at one time. 2. Add JBOD storage and run one VM per spindle. 3. Add USB drives and run the VMs off of that. Not ideal, but workable.
A Raid5 array, as Joseph pointed out, with its parity overhead, is going to be unworkable long term. BTDT. My best solution in the past has been a bunch of disks, ideally mirror sets for reliability if you can swing it, with one VM per array. *********************** Charlie Kaiser charl...@golden-eagle.org Kingman, AZ *********************** > -----Original Message----- > From: jesse-r...@wi.rr.com [mailto:jesse-r...@wi.rr.com] > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:24 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > Single Array, RAID5, made up of 3 physical disks (thats all we have). > > Original Message: > ----------------- > From: Charlie Kaiser charl...@golden-eagle.org > Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 11:08:22 -0700 > To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com > Subject: RE: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > > How are the physical drives configured? We usually put no > more than one VM on a spindle. The conflicts between two VMs > on one spindle produce unacceptable bottlenecks in my experience. > > *********************** > Charlie Kaiser > charl...@golden-eagle.org > Kingman, AZ > *********************** > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: jesse-r...@wi.rr.com [mailto:jesse-r...@wi.rr.com] > > Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 10:49 AM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: Performance problem on VMwareServer2 - gah > > > > Thought I'd ask our resident gurus... > > > > I have a brand new HP DL360 server. 8GB memory, 2 quads, 3 > SAS drives > > with a P400i/512 controller w/BBWC. > > > > I am running Windows 2003 R2 Enterpise on the host machine. I also > > created > > (4) VMs (each 75GB in size, preallocated) each with a > Single vCPU, and > > 2GB of memory, running Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise. > > NOTE -- These VMs have NOTHING on them except the O/S. No > > applications, no nothing. > > > > I have serious performance problems as it relates to the > VMs becoming > > unusable for a periond of 15 minutes or so every now and > then.... I am > > noticing, on the HOST, that the logical disk - % write time > > performance counter just shoots up 100% for as much as > 10-15 minutes > > (see attachment > > diskusage1.jpg) and then slowly comes down back to near zero (see > > attachment diskusage2.jpg). The graphs show a total time > duration of > > 16 minutes - FYI... > > > > During this high spike of Disk Write % on the host, the VMs > themselves > > are doing NOTHING. Again, they are PLAIN OS installed with nothing > > installed. > > Performance monitoring on those VMs shows barely ANY > activiate at all, > > while the host shows 100% disk write %. So it's definitely > the host, > > it seems, causing the poor performance. Also, notice in Attachment > > diskusage2.jpg the slow decline of Disk Write %... This > ALWAYS happens > > after a period of 100% disk write % usage.... it trails off slowly > > like that over a 10-15 minute period before it come down to zero > > again. > > > > Any idea what is causing this? I'm thinking about giving up > and going > > to ESXi. ?? > > > > picture1 - > > http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/126 > > 0005-23055/dis > > kusage1.jpg?tstart=0 > > > > picture2- > > http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/126 > > 0005-23054/dis > > kusage2.jpg?tstart=0 > > > > Thanks all! > > > > Remember the true meaning of Memorial Day! > > JR > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > mail2web.com - Enhanced email for the mobile individual based on > > MicrosoftR Exchange - > http://link.mail2web.com/Personal/EnhancedEmail > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource > > hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web.com - MicrosoftR Exchange solutions from a leading provider - > http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
