New hardware - resource pools needed?

[Mike_MT]

I'm setting up some new servers with more processors and RAM than I'll need for a while. I was considering setting up resource pools, but after doing some reading it seems like resource pools are intended more for cpu/RAM overcommit scenarios. Are there other reasons for resource pools? Is this something I can put off until I actually need to overcommit resources?

Thanks,

Mike

[weinstein5]

Resource pools are a way to segegate the CPU/Memory resource between different poolls of VMs aloowing you to prioritize delivery those resources if there is contention  - suppose you have a 2 groups of VMs = one is for developers the other is your production environment - dring the day you want to make sure Prod has usfficient resources while during off hors you do not care - this can be accomplished through the use of resource polls -

Check out Duncan's site fro more detailed information on resource pools - http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/11/13/resource-pools-and-shares/

[chriswahl · Accepted solution]

Here's an article I wrote on resource pools that may assist.

I personally like resource pools and use them often in a mixed workload environment. If you don’t have the luxury of a dedicated management cluster, resource pools are an easy way to dedicate resources to your vCenter, VUM, DB, and other “virtual infrastructure management” (VIM) VMs.

http://wahlnetwork.com/2012/02/01/understanding-resource-pools-in-vmware-vsphere/

[Mike_MT]

Great article, Chris! I'll be referring to it as I go.

Another question - I'll also have a View 5 environment (separate cluster), does having resource pools play any meaningful part in managing View desktops? Is it the same kind of scenario - group A desktops (power users) get more shares than group B (casual users)?

Mike

[chriswahl]

It works the same, a VM is a VM. If contension occurs, the shares will be taken into account.

When you create the View pool, make sure to select the resource pool that you want those desktops to be in.