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We have (35) Windows 7 virtual desktops running across (4) Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts (running on a SAN). These are a mix of 32 and 64 bit workstations. The 32 bit workstations are maxed out at 4 GB RAM The 64 bit workstations are set at 8 GB. My question is, can I do away with the pagefile on these VMs and gain performance (or lessen the I/O on the SAN)? If I can't, is it better, as I've read in other places, to create a small (4-8 GB) new VHD and put the pagefile on that drive? Or, leave it as is and not mess with this?
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We have (35) Windows 7 virtual desktops running across (4) Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts (running on a SAN). These are a mix of 32 and 64 bit workstations. The 32 bit workstations are maxed out at 4 GB RAM The 64 bit workstations are set at 8 GB. My question is, can I do away with the pagefile on these VMs and gain performance (or lessen the I/O on the SAN)? If I can't, is it better, as I've read in other places, to create a small (4-8 GB) new VHD and put the pagefile on that drive? Or, leave it as is and not mess with this?

Do Hyper-V virtual Windows 7 desktops need a pagefile?

Hyper-V is a native hypervisor; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems and supersedes Windows Virtual PC as the hardware virtualization component of the client editions of Windows NT. A server computer running Hyper-V can be configured to expose individual virtual machines to one or more networks. Hyper-V Server supports remote access via Remote Desktop Connection. Administration and configuration of the host OS and the guest virtual machines is generally done over the network.

Hyper-V

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.