Specifications

Administration Guide
330 VMware, Inc.
If!the!problem!is!VMkernel!swapping,!make!sure!VMware!Tools!is!installed.!Place!the!
swap!file!in!a!different!physical!drive!than!the!virtual!disks.!Also!consider!adding!more!
physical!memory!to!the!server!or!migrating!some!virtual!machines!onto!another!ESX!
Server.
Improving Slow Performance on Virtual Machines
If!slow!performance!is!isolated!on!a!few!virtual!machines,!check!their!resource!
utilization!before!examining!the!service!console.
! In!a!Linux!guest!operating!system,!run!the!vmstat!command.!See!the!vmstat(8)!
man!page.
! In!a!Windows!guest!operating!system,!open!the!Control!Panel.!Double‐click!
Administrative!Tools,!and!double‐click!Performance.!Check!the!value!for!
pages/second.
If!a!virtual!machine!is!paging!a!lot,!increase!the!minimum!memory!so!that!excessive!
paging!is!eliminated.!If!you!are!close!to!the!maximum!memory!size,
!increase!that!
resource!setting.
Optimizing Performance on the Service Console
If!the!problem!is!with!CPU!resources,!increase!the!CPU!minimum!of!the!service!console!
and!determine!whether!that!solves!the!problem.!
You!can!also!improve!performance!by!not!connecting!unnecessarily!through!the!remote!
console.!For!example,!unless!you!are!performing!an!action!in!a!virtual!machine,!close!
the!remote!console.
!Having!a!remote!console!window!open,!without!any!activity,!still!
uses!CPU!resources!in!the!service!console.
To!optimize!performance,!you!can!use!other!third‐party!software,!such!as!Virtual!
Network!Computing!(VNC)!viewer!or!Microsoft!Terminal!Services!to!connect!to!your!
virtual!machine,!without!consuming!CPU!resources!in!the!service
!console.
N
OTE If!you!see!a!high!CPU!utilization!in!a!Windows!2000!SMP!virtual!machine,!run!the!
VMware!Idler!Service,!available!at!
www.vmware.com/download/esx/esx2‐smpidler.html.
NOTE Determine!whether!the!guest!operating!system!is!doing!a!lot!of!paging!(swapping).!