Properly size a Virtual Machine based on application workload

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Considerations

  • Make sure you know whether the Application is multithreaded or single threaded in order to select the correct amount of CPUs
  • Make sure you know whether you should be adding RDMs or VMFS VMDKs. E.g Microsoft Clustering
  • Java, Oracle and SQL Applications are very good at taking all the memory they are assigned and trying to manage it themselves. Be especially careful with Java which does not mix well with Ballooning and Paging
  • Start off small and work upwards in terms of resources. Assigning huge resources can interfere with Cluster and DRS calculations
  • Use the fastest network adapter you can for the O/S. VMXNET3 preferably to take advantage of all the new features
  • If using FT, use Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed disks.
  • Decide where to place the VM swap file
  • Decide on Reservations, Limits and Shares if required
  • Check the Manufacturers recommendations for setting any advanced attributes
  • Use correctly raided storage. E.g RAID5, RAID10 etc
  • Choose the Disk Mode – Independent and Dependent

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