Quick Background:
We are currently using VMWare Server (free version) on a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 host server. The physical host server has 4.0 GB physicalRAM. For performance reasons, the C:\ drive is a RAID1 SAS 15K RPM array, and D:\ is a RAID5 SAS 15K RPM seperate array (RAID1/5 configuration). All VM's are on the D:\ drive. The server itself is a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server.
Operation:
As needed, we are adding VM's to the host, most of which are 512 768 MB RAM VM's. So far, performance seems great. I have configured VMWare to "Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM". Currently, we have 4 VM's:
3x 512 MB VM
1x 768 MB VM
In performance monitor on the host OS, I notice that each VM is actually taking up a little more RAM than I specify (must be overhead).
The Questions:
1. Of my 4.0 GB physical RAM, how much should I leave open for the host OS? 1 GB? 512 MB? And whatever this number is, does this include the overhead used by each VM?
2. Any suggestions for optimal page file configuration on the host OS? I currently have 4.0 GB page file on C:\, and nothing on D:\ (figuring I dont want any swapping on D:\)
3. I've enabled the host setting "Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM". Is this the optimal configuration for performance on the VM's?
3A. Does this essentially say 'dont let the VM's take any host os swap memory'?
Thanks!
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