Specifications

Administration Guide
328 VMware, Inc.
! “Using!Your!NUMA!System”!on!page 358
! “Sizing!Memory!on!the!Server”!on!page 363
! “Managing!Network!Bandwidth”!on!page 367
! “Managing!Disk!Bandwidth”!on!page 371
Virtual Machine Resource Management
ESX!Server!uses!a!proportional!share!mechanism!to!allocate!CPU,!memory,!and!disk!
resources!when!multiple!virtual!machines!are!contending!for!the!same!resource.!
Network!bandwidth!is!controlled!with!network!traffic!shaping.
CPU!and!memory!resource!each!offer!an!additional!dimension!of!control.!For!CPU!
management,!you!can!specify!a!minimum!
and!maximum!percentage!of!a!single!
physical!CPU’s!processing!power!for!each!virtual!machine.!You!may!also!specify!CPU!
shares!and!restrict!a!virtual!machine!to!run!on!a!certain!set!of!physical!CPUs!(CPU!
scheduling!affinity).!See!“A d m i s s i o n !Control!Policy”!on!page 11.
You!can!also!specify!minimum!and!maximum!memory!
sizes,!as!well!as!memory!shares,!
for!each!virtual!machine.!Your!level!of!control!is!greatly!impaired!if!you!fail!to!install!
VMware!Tools!in!each!virtual!machine!or!if!you!fail!to!set!up!the!VMkernel!swap!space.!
See!“Allocating!Memory!Resources”!on!page 25.
Service Console Resource Management
The!service!console!receives!2000!CPU!shares!and!has!a!minimum!CPU!percentage!of!8!
percent,!by!default.!In!most!cases,!this!is!an!appropriate!allocation,!because!the!service!
console!should!not!be!used!for!CPU‐intensive!tasks.!
If!you!need!to!adjust!the!service!console’s!allocation!of!CPU!shares,!use
!the!VMware!
Management!Interface.!See!“Managing!the!Service!Console”!on!page 168.
Depending!on!the!number!of!virtual!machines!you!plan!to!run!concurrently,!we!have!
approximate!guidelines!for!the!memory!you!should!allocate!to!the!service!console.!See!
“Service!Console!Memory”!on!page 46.
Using ESX Server Resource Variables
This!chapter!describes!the!parameters!you!can!use!to!optimize!resources!on!ESX!Server.!
Also!included!is!information!the!algorithms!and!policies!ESX!Serv er!use!to!determine!
resource!allocation.
N
OTE You!do!not!have!to!adjust!resources!for!every!virtual!machine!you!create.!Determine!
which!virtual!machines!are!performance‐sensitive!and!adjust!only!these.!