Best Pratices - Windows Server VM Partitions

[daveclaussen]

In the old days, prior to virtualization, we would build a server with very specific RAID setups. Our standard would be ARRAY1 - 2 x 36GB drives RAID 1 and ARRAY2 5 x 72GB drives RAID 5. The reasoning behind this setup is old, but true: if the OS array goes bad, those drives can be replaced, the OS re-installed and you back up. We all know in the world of virtualization, this type of setup is not longer required.

My open ended question is this: How are all of you good VMware people configuring your Windows server VM in terms of drives?

It seems to me that if I had a new Windows server VM, that required 30GB of total drive space, that one 30GB (perhaps 35GB) drive, with one big "C:" partition would be fine.

I really appreciate your thoughts on this matter as we are just getting started in the wonderful world of virtualization. :smileygrin:

Thanks!

- Dave

[AntonVZhbankov · Accepted solution]

I use 8GB HDD to install Windows, that's enough for template.

You need more - you can always expand VMDK online, you can even expand partitions online, but you can not shrink VMDK if you don't neet so much space.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[byoung111]

I setup my vm with two virtual disks. One for the O/S and one for the data. If the O/S dies, then I can build or clone a new VM and then just attach the data vmdk to it. On my file server VM's I attach a third vmdk that I use for shadow copy.

[jayctd]

We have some restraints in 3.5 and truly getting the throughput needed

As such

We configure the C drive to be between 25 and 35 GB (for average backend servers) these are VMDK's on top of VMFS (Sometimes for big RAM hogs we also break pagefile out to another volume)

We then mount the data drives directly to the virtual using the MSISCSI initiator

This configuration gives us some added benifits for performance

I am also a fan of the model even if they are both VMDK's, my reasoning is we have Teired shared storage, in this model we then can move the data drive between different performance teirs without impacting the performance of the local system drives.

Hope that helps!

Jered Rassier

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[DLeid]

I use 15GB system vmdk drives for my vms and add additional drives if needed for the server being deployed.

I keep to the same standard as with the physical world for the same reason of recovery and mobility.

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