Installation guide

www.vmware.com
244
VMware ESX Server Administration Guide
Configuring the Service Console’s Processor Usage
To review and configure the service console’s processor usage, click the CPU tab. The
CPU page appears.
The CPU page shows how much of the server processor or processors the service
console is utilizing and how CPU resources are allocated to the service console.
The values under Resources indicate a range of percentages of a processor to which
the service console is entitled, where the Minimum value represents the minimum
amount of processor capacity that is always available to the service console, while the
Maximum value represents the highest amount of processor capacity the service
console can ever consume, even if the processor is idle.
The Shares value represents a relative metric for allocating processor capacity, where
this value is compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server and
the service console.
For example, a virtual machine is stored on the same drive as the service console and
has a minimum CPU percentage of 20%, and a maximum CPU percentage of 50%.
Meanwhile, the service console has a minimum percentage of 30% and no specified
maximum percentage. You then decide to give the virtual machine 3000 CPU shares
and the service console 1000 CPU shares.
ESX Server interprets this allocation so that the virtual machine never has less than
20% of the total physical CPU resources, while the service console never has less than
30% of the total physical CPU resources, in any situation.
However, if other virtual machines on the same disk are idling, then ESX Server
redistributes this extra CPU time proportionally, based on the virtual machine’s and
service console’s CPU shares. Active virtual machines benefit when extra resources are
available. In this example, the virtual machine gets three times as much CPU time as
the service console, subject to the specified CPU percentages.