Best configuration to virtualize on laptop
Good day experts,
We have a department of about 20 technical team members. They are mostly developers and SharePoint specialists. Our technical teams all need the capability to build solutions and develop components and solutions.
Our arrangement currently is for each technical resource to get a laptop issued by the company that will allow the resource to run a virtual server for building/developing the required solution. These virtual servers (especially sharepoint), do get quite resource intensive. The laptop specifications we use are: HP ProBook 4530 with Intel i5 and 8GB RAM.
We find that often there are complaints about the virtual machines being slow and thus development is not that easy or quick.
My question is: if we do want to continue the arrangement of all developers doing their work locally on their laptops, what can you recommend as a configuration/specificatio
I'm sure i5/i7 CPU's are suitable. I also think 8GB RAM should be sufficient for one virtual server and the host. Maybe the storage is our problem. What's the best storage solution for running VM's? Should we run the VM's off external drives via USB3? Or would internal drives be better? If so, would 7200RPM be much faster than 5400RPM for VM's? Should I look for fitting high performance drives internally? Drives with large cache? Drives that have spindle and SSD combo? How about full SSD drives? Are they better for running large resource intensive VM's? Or should I just look for laptops that can run two internal drives? Then software? Is windows 7 ideal for running a VM on a laptop? Is VMWare ideal?
As you can see there are so many options and questions in my mind.
Please advise
We have a department of about 20 technical team members. They are mostly developers and SharePoint specialists. Our technical teams all need the capability to build solutions and develop components and solutions.
Our arrangement currently is for each technical resource to get a laptop issued by the company that will allow the resource to run a virtual server for building/developing the required solution. These virtual servers (especially sharepoint), do get quite resource intensive. The laptop specifications we use are: HP ProBook 4530 with Intel i5 and 8GB RAM.
We find that often there are complaints about the virtual machines being slow and thus development is not that easy or quick.
My question is: if we do want to continue the arrangement of all developers doing their work locally on their laptops, what can you recommend as a configuration/specificatio
I'm sure i5/i7 CPU's are suitable. I also think 8GB RAM should be sufficient for one virtual server and the host. Maybe the storage is our problem. What's the best storage solution for running VM's? Should we run the VM's off external drives via USB3? Or would internal drives be better? If so, would 7200RPM be much faster than 5400RPM for VM's? Should I look for fitting high performance drives internally? Drives with large cache? Drives that have spindle and SSD combo? How about full SSD drives? Are they better for running large resource intensive VM's? Or should I just look for laptops that can run two internal drives? Then software? Is windows 7 ideal for running a VM on a laptop? Is VMWare ideal?
As you can see there are so many options and questions in my mind.
Please advise
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Yes, that is an option.you could use Windows 2008 R2, and add the Hyper-V role, if the laptops support Windows 008 R2, there are some issues with wireless cards and Windows 2008 R2/Hyper-V.
VMware Workstation is a Type 2 Hypervisor, it requries an OS to be installed on, as it's an application.
SSDs have superior read and write performance compared to hard disks (even 7,200rpm).
SSDs or Hybrid SSDs are very good, e.g. Seagate 500GB Momentus XT
VMware Workstation is a Type 2 Hypervisor, it requries an OS to be installed on, as it's an application.
SSDs have superior read and write performance compared to hard disks (even 7,200rpm).
SSDs or Hybrid SSDs are very good, e.g. Seagate 500GB Momentus XT
ASKER
Thanks again,
I just learnt that Hyper-V is also available as a standalone installation called "Hyper-V Server 2008 R2". I'm looking into that now.
It seems to me also as if type 1 hypervisors require hardware features such as "hardware assisted virtualization". For example Intel-VT on intel machines. I'm hoping that the majority of the machines in my workforce support these features.
Cheers
I just learnt that Hyper-V is also available as a standalone installation called "Hyper-V Server 2008 R2". I'm looking into that now.
It seems to me also as if type 1 hypervisors require hardware features such as "hardware assisted virtualization". For example Intel-VT on intel machines. I'm hoping that the majority of the machines in my workforce support these features.
Cheers
ASKER
Before I close the questions - are there any other experts who wish to add comments?
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ASKER
I see.
Thanks for the help!
Thanks for the help!
I agree that Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V for the host, and a SSD or hybrid drive for storage. The SSD would be best, and would be much faster than the hybrid drive. As long as the developers can live with around 80 GB of storage you shouldn't have any problems. You can of course get larger SSD drives, but the price really goes up. I am not sure what your current virtualization platform is, but put the SSD in first, and then look at Hyper-V.
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ASKER
Thanks experts
ASKER
Just to clarify: VMWare workstation 8 is also a type 2 Hypervisor correct?
Your recommendation to me is:
- Convert to using type 1 hypervisors
- Convert to running VM's of SSD
I'll do some research on the hypervisors. I'm curious: why would SSD be better for running VM's?
In terms of waiting on Windows 8: can't we just install Windows server 2008 on the laptops for now to support Hyper-V?
Thank you