Slow performance in TS server hosted on ESXi 4.0

[Safe001]

Hi, I'm very new to VM so I may be missing somethinly simple. My problem is that I have moved a TS server running 2003 32bit R2 from an HP ML370 dual quad core 2.3mhz server to a VM ESXi 4.0 server spec = HP DL 385 g6 2 x 6core AMD 2.66mhz processors and 32GB ram.

The VM has 4GB assigned to it, but this is where I may be getting it wrong. I'm only given the option of 1 - 8 processors. If I select 8, when in windows it still only shows 4 processors? The storage is local 6 x 10k SAS drives in raid5 on a 410 controller with 512 BBWC. The spec is higher than the server that the TS came from, but when logged in, it's just slower. Don't get me wrong, it's quick, but compared to the old server it's slow.

Looking at the resourse allication and performance it all looks low.

Is there any fine tunning tips. And how do I get to use all 12 cores (or at least 8 cores) in windows.

Many thanks in advance to any help.

Cheers

[java_cat33]

How many other VM's are running on the ESXi 4.0 box? How many other VM's are running/located on the same datastore? How many processors did the TS have on the old ESX box?

What were the disk specs on the previous ESX host?

Only give the TS 2 x vcpu's - it shouldn't need anymore than 2.

If you've migrated the TS host over - does it have the latest VMware tools and has the virtual machine hardware been upgraded?

[Safe001]

Hi Java_cat33

While testing I only had 1 vm running. The TS was on it's own server so no VM. We have brought it into a VM fo future power saving, but I can see the users saying it's slower, although more than workable.

The old server was a HP ML 350 2 x 2.3 qd core server with 4GB Ram. A HP 410 Raid controller with 256 BBWC and the drives were 10k SAS in raid 5

the new server that is running ESXi is an HP DL385 g6 server with 2 x 2.6 AMD 6 core processors with 32GB RAM and the same Raid controller as above but 512 BBWC.

I was expecting the performance to bearound the same, but not less??

I have played around with the cache settings on the raid controller - default is 25% read 75% write, so changed to 50 - 50 and 75 - 25 but no difference at all.

I will change the TS to 2 processors to see if that makes any difference. Do you know why if I set to 8, the OS ony shows 4 when before on the old server it shed 8 when using the dual quad core processors??

Thanks

[J1mbo]

It sounds like you are way over-the-top with vSMP - use with caution. Start with 2 vCPU for this guest and monitor it's performance, increasing only if sustained periods show this is waranted.

Re guest CPU view, it is likely a guest OS limitation (2k3 will run on up to four physical CPUs with no core-per-CPU restriction). You can manually add the setting "cpuid.coresPerSocket" with value: 2, it will then see 4x dual-core.

Please award points to any useful answer

[DominoGuru1]

It seams that there is something wrong with latest hp 410i raid controllers, cause we have two of them (with BBWC) in brand new hp 350g6 and they are slow. Slower than a 5 year old desktop PC.