Optimizing VMWare Workstation Machines

myownhero · Nov 15, 2012

I'm looking for advice on optimizing my VM VPS's so I can fit more on the server. Any opinions on the lightest operating system that will run standard multi-threaded SEO programs (and can use .NET)? I've also used some programs like VM Optimizer 2.5 (only the free version) which drastically cut down on the size which was great. Any other programs or tricks you guys know of to optimize VMware machines?

tpickett · Nov 15, 2012

Forget about running VMware workstation! That software runs on top of your OS and in effect utilizes resources for 2 or more windows machines(if running windows, which more than likely you are...).

The ideal way to go is a baremetal Hypervisor. And yes you can get one with enterprise class features for no money. ever! Operating system is called "Proxmox" and is completely opensource. I believe it is based on Linux. could be another flavor though...

My advice is to ditch anything related to VMware. They were the first and biggest, but for the features you get, it is greatly overpriced. Nothing that they are doing that Proxmox can't handle.

datomcat · Nov 15, 2012

+1 for using Linux as your hosting-machine .. for starters you can run it for years without reboots provided its well looked-after and locked down securely. Secondly, all the Virtualization software is provided free from the major distros (CentOS, Ubuntu etc.).

I have a dedicated server running ~20-30 virtual machines at any one time, some Linux, some Windows.

ThePacketeer · Nov 15, 2012

Use VMWare ESXi (free version) or XenServer (free version)

tpickett · Nov 15, 2012

saxgod said:
Use VMWare ESXi (free version) or XenServer (free version)

Again, Both of these options have limitations on the software because they are the free versions. Proxmox has all the features of the paid versions of ESX and XenServer, but without the high price of installation and support. I don't want to even get into best practices for hardware on these two hogs. Proxmox can be installed on a p4 and run alright...

Opensource is the way to go.

myownhero · Nov 15, 2012

I'm new to any operating system that isn't Windows but I am interested in building a more efficient box. The one that's currently running is using a Windows host OS (but it's kind of multipurpose at this point) but I watched some Youtube videos on Proxmox and it looked pretty great.

What about the environment's OS (in my case, Windows Server 2003 unless there's a better alternative)? Any tricks to make them run more efficiently?

blackberry · Nov 15, 2012

Thanks, I will also check out ProxMox as i was looking for an alternative to Parallels.

tpickett said:
Forget about running VMware workstation! That software runs on top of your OS and in effect utilizes resources for 2 or more windows machines(if running windows, which more than likely you are...).

The ideal way to go is a baremetal Hypervisor. And yes you can get one with enterprise class features for no money. ever! Operating system is called "Proxmox" and is completely opensource. I believe it is based on Linux. could be another flavor though...

My advice is to ditch anything related to VMware. They were the first and biggest, but for the features you get, it is greatly overpriced. Nothing that they are doing that Proxmox can't handle.

blackberry · Nov 15, 2012

To answer your question, yes there are tricks to make them run more efficiently.

However to list them here and write them all down would take days.

Look into :
Using an SSD as a cache (or even better an SSD instead of a hard disc also).
Registry cleaner (i suggest REGVAC as its trusted). An alternative would be JETCLEAN, again trusted and works well.

REGVAC can be gotten from here (its a trial but no features are disabled):

Code:

http://regvac.com/regvac.htm

JETCLEANER can be gotten from

Code:

http://www.bluesprig.com/jetclean.html

Modify the registry for NTFS Last timestamp removal and other things that speed up the server:

Code:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/sp/archive/2009/04/24/windows-file-server-performance-optimization.aspx

Lastly for an average of 30% performance increase, use JETBOOST (same people - BlueSprig - who own JETCLEAN). I also use it myself. You can get JETBOOST from here (its freeware):

Code:

http://download.cnet.com/JetBoost/3000-18512_4-75627787.html[code]


That should be a enough to get you started optimizing servers, and either ask more questions or google for ideas etc


BB

[quote="myownhero, post: 4895410"]I'm new to any operating system that isn't Windows but I am interested in building a more efficient box. The one that's currently running is using a Windows host OS (but it's kind of multipurpose at this point) but I watched some Youtube videos on Proxmox and it looked pretty great.

What about the environment's OS (in my case, Windows Server 2003 unless there's a better alternative)? Any tricks to make them run more efficiently?[/QUOTE]

Optimizing VMWare Workstation Machines

myownhero

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tpickett

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ThePacketeer

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