What configuration changes can I make to speed up extremely slow Windows VM's in ESXi 4.0.

Posted by Shawn Anderson on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Shawn Anderson
Published on 2010-06-01T19:37:58Z Indexed on 2010/06/01 19:44 UTC
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esxi

I've recently moved from VMWare Server to ESXi 4.0. Running on Dell T310. My VM's have been restored but they are running dog slow compared to VMWare Server. I loaded ESXi 4.0 using only default values.

Where are some areas where I can tweak the performance? Even logging onto the VM's can be extremely sluggish. Trying to install software on any of them is a new experience in pain.

Dell PowerEdge T310
Xeon X3460 2.80 GHz
32 GB RAM
1 HD (2 TB)

I have 16 VM's on this server, but only six or so will be running during my testing. I keep an eye on the Resource Allocation and Performance tabs for the host and I never see CPU or RAM getting anywhere close to pegged. Events tab does show some notices for video RAM issues and some hints on Windows activation issues, but nothing that would point to the sort of sluggishness that I'm experiencing.

1 Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) - 4 GB RAM
1 Windows 7 (32-bit) - 2 GB RAM
1 Vista (32-bit) - 1 GB RAM
3 XP (32-bit) - 1 GB RAM

Over to you!

Thanks - Shawn

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