Installation guide

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VMware ESX Server Administration Guide
The following table includes ESX Server performance-related tasks for an
Administrator (root user).
Task Description
Enhance performance on
virtual machines, based on
its application(s).
ESX Server applies a proportional share mechanism to CPU, memory
allocation, and disk bandwidth. Typically, the more shares a virtual
machine has, the more CPU, memory or disk bandwidth it has.
For example, virtual machines running a CPU-intensive application
should have a greater minimum CPU and memory share than a
virtual machine running a non-CPU intensive application.
For additional information on resource management, see VMware ESX
Server Resource Management on page 381
.
Enhance CPU performance
on virtual machines.
You can set minimum and maximum percentages as well as memory
shares for each virtual machine. You can also select the processors on
which the virtual machine runs.
See Configuring a Virtual Machine’s CPU Usage on page 108 and CPU
Resource Management on page 388
.
Enhance memory utilization
on virtual machines.
You can set memory shares for a virtual machine. If you have a NUMA
machine, you can also select the NUMA affinity nodes for the virtual
machine.
See Configuring a Virtual Machine’s Memory Usage on page 110, Memory
Resource Management on page 403
, and Using Your NUMA System on
page 418
.
Enhance disk bandwidth
utilization on virtual
machines.
You can set disk bandwidth for a virtual machine. A virtual machine
with more shares has more bandwidth.
See Configuring a Virtual Machine’s Disk Usage on page 113 and
Managing Disk Bandwidth on page 432.
Enhance networking
performance on virtual
machines.
You can manage networking performance by enabling traffic
shaping and specifying network parameters.
See
Configuring a Virtual Machine’s Networking Settings on page 114 and
Managing Network Bandwidth on page 428.
Remove any unnecessary
programs or services from
your virtual machines.
Remove any unnecessary programs or services, such as CPU-intensive
screensavers, from your virtual machines.
Run Linux virtual machines without the X Window system, if possible.
Be sure that the service
console has enough CPU
and RAM.
If you are running a lot of virtual machines on ESX server, and you
notice a degradation in system performance, then you should
increase the CPU minimum for the service console.
Configuring the Service Console on page 243.