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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
274 VMware, Inc.
Defragmenting Hard Disks
Diskaccessperformanceisdegradedwhenthephysicaldiskthatstoresthevirtual
machinediskfilesandworkingdirectoryisfragmented.Fragmentationofthehosthard
diskcandegradetheaccessperformanceofanyorallofthefollowing:
Filesthatmakeupavirtualdisk
Filesthatstorenewlysaveddatawhenyoutakeasnapshot
Filesthatholdinformationusedwhensuspendingandresumingavirtualmachine
Ifyouareexperiencingslowdiskperformanceinthevirtualmachine,orifyouwantto
improvethespeedofsuspendandresumeoperations,makesurethatthehostphysical
diskthatstoresthevirtualmachinediskfilesand
workingdirectoryisnotfragmented.
Ifthehostdiskisfragmented,youcanimproveperformancebyrunninga
defragmentationutilityonthathostdisk.
Maintaining Adequate Free Disk Space
Foroptimalperformance,keepadequatefreediskspaceonthehostphysicaldisk.
PerformancecandegradeconsiderablywhenVMwareServerisusingahostdiskwith
littlefreespacetowritegrowablevirtualdisk,snapshot,andredofiles.
Enabling Disk Write Caching on Windows Hosts
OnWindowshosts,youcanenableanddisablewritecachingforeachharddiskfrom
thePoliciestabofthedisk’sHardwarePropertiesdialogbox.Insomecases,youcan
alsoenableadvancedperformanceforthedisk.Enablingoneorbothofthesesettings
canimprovehostdiskperformanceingeneral.
Enablingthesesettingsonthehostdisk
thatcontainsthevirtualmachinediskfilescanimprovevirtualdiskperformance,
especiallywhenVMwareServerismakingheavyuseofthedisk.
Configuring Swap Space on Linux Hosts
OnLinuxhosts,theamountofswapspaceandthesizeofthe/tmpdirectoryaffect
performance.Makesurethatsizeofthe/tmpdirectoryisatleast1.5timestheamount
ofmemoryonthehost.Forexample,ifthehostsystemhas1GBofmemory,makesure
thatthe
host’s/tmpdirectoryisatleast1.5GB.
Formoreinformationaboutconfiguringswapspaceandthe/tmpdirectory,see
VMwareknowledgebasearticle844:
http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=844.