Windows 2008 Server boots very slow

[VCPGuru]

My fresh Windows 2008 Server Template boots in 30 seconds (4vCPUs [I know this are lot of vCPUs and Best Practice is to use as few as you can, but our Application needs this ammount of vCPUs) and 768MB Memory)

If i give the Template 3072 MB it has 1 minute and 40 seconds to boot, is that a normal value? what are your values? why it takes so long if I add a bunch of memory?

[msemon1]

There have been multiple reports of slow boot on VM's with multiple vCPU's and when you have more than 4GB of memory. Does your Windows 2008 box have SP2 or R2? Try also disabling the IPv6. That has caused problems for us.

Mike

[VCPGuru]

We have a x64 Windows 2008 Server with SP2, IPv6 is disabled, any other ideas?

ESX Host with 8 Cores / 2 CPUs / 48 GB Memory

[RParker]

> but our Application needs this ammount of vCPUs) and 768MB Memory)

Are you sure? Which application would that be, that NEEDS 4 CPU? For one, as you stated, having less is probably better for CPU, apps that NEED that much horsepower probably aren't candiates for Virtualization in the first place, so you probably have a few things that need to be cleared up, and that's what is causing the "slow" boot.

For a VM to start ALL 4 CPU must simultaneously be ready. 4GB of RAM along with the 4CPU takes a while to initialize this RAM for use by the applications. So an intensive APP, coupled with 4 CPU, and 4 GB of RAM, there is your slow performance.

Not to mention Windows 2008 is experimental on ESX 3.5 as well....

[RParker]

> We have a x64 Windows 2008 Server with SP2, IPv6 is disabled, any other ideas?

Just a question why are you rebooting your VM so much that you notice how slow the boot cycle is? That could be another indication about what you are using this VM for.. Usually Server means you boot it once, leave it. Very rarely do you need to reboot server. Especially Windows 2008, even less required reboots.. even when the changes notify you that "server needs a restart" still may not be required.

[LucasAlbers · Accepted solution]

good point!, you shouldn't normally need to boot it.

Have you measured your app performance with 2cpu's versus 4cpus?