High Performing VM

A lot of my colleagues (including myself) make heavy use of VMs for software development, testing, configuration and presentation. As the complexity of a solution grows, the need of the number of simulataneous machines grows and performance suffers.

There are 3 major bottlenecks to performance:

• Memory
• Drive Speed
• Transport Channel (transfer speeds, bus size etc.)
• Tweaks (tips on squeezing the last drop of performance juice out of your VM host)

Tweaks
VMWare
Credit: http://www.bryonbrewer.com/?p=223
In VMWare, an instance shutdown may be slow. To improve shutdown speed:

In C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini AND C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Player


prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"
mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE


Memory Leak Fix in VMWare
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003470


Credit: Tim Newis (Colleague at EMC)

Transport
If you own an N router yet still have a laptop with a G adapter, your speed will be capped at 54 Mbps yet N will support upto 300 Mbps.

An easy way to take advantage of the higher speed is to get a mini USB wireless adapter.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JAHWBA/ref=oss_product



Memory
On a typical consultants laptop, memory is capped at 8G for now. There seems to be some support in Windows 7 for using flash drives to extend memory which I am still researching.

** Update **

Based on my research, ReadyBoost has little to no effect on systems with ample memory. It only makes a difference on constrained systems.

ReadyBoost is most effective in system with minimal system memory and/or in situations where a finite number of file segments are needed repeatedly by the operating system and/or applications.

This post holds potential: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Using-memory-in-your-storage-device-to-speed-up-your-computer
The Transport Channel

eSata/eSatap

This has the most appeal to me right now, as my Dell E6400 laptop already comes with an eSataP port (the P stands for power ie the hard disk can also draw power from this port).

A little investment in an eSata cable and enclosure enables me to achieve close to 3Gbps with very little cost.

• Maximum theoretical limit of 3Gbps.

eSATA Cable - $1.85
2.5 " eSata/USB Enclosure $19.99

USB 3.0
With the advent of USB 3.0, we are promised a theoretical top speed of 5Gbit/sec. versus USB 2.0's 480Mbit/sec. The cable length is recommended to be less than about 9 feet long, down from the USB 2.0 16-foot limit.)



There are some good USB 3.0 Express cards available for laptops.

Brand	Cost
2-Port ExpressCard 34mm Laptop SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Adapter Card	$31.95
LaCie USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 130998	$59.13

Drive Speed
With the availability of solid state drives and USB 3.0, speed has definitely had a boost. Although pricey now, the hope is that these drives will drop to an affordable price in the near future.

Solid State Drives
Some SSD drives available at the time of writing are given below:

Drive	Speed	Cost	Description
ADATA Nobility	R/W up to 200/170 MB/s	$414.99	Equipped with blazing fast USB 3.0 8 Channel architecture offering extraordinary performance USB3.0 performance R/W up to 200/170 MB/s Free Download applications: UFD to GO,OS to GO, and Norton Internet Security 2010 (60 days trial version) Hot Plug & Play.