Best Practices for Windows Guest swap file?

[JaySMX]

Are there any advantages in putting the windows swap file on a separate virtual disk on ESX 3.0.2 or 3.5? In the physical world, this would lessen I/O contention, but I still see it done at times in VMs. Both VMDK files are in the same folder on a VMFS datastore, so does a separate VMDK file for swap really make any difference?

[Cameron2007]

Hi jay,

i have seperate vmdk files for the page file within my guest OS. However this was done so as the storage could be carved up as OS luns, Page file Luns and data Luns. I have had VMs with the page file on the same LUNs as the OS , then given them a dedicated page file on a seperate LUn and there doesn't appear to be any difference in the overall performance.

[OlivierTremolie]

Hi,

Well, your Windows Swap is on separate VMDK file in the same directory as others. Well, I can't say if it's good or not. It depend of your SAN configuration. If your LUN is on streaped volume, the performance is as good as if it's on separate LUN. The SAN configuration is a very important point on your ESX infrastructure.

The second point is your Windows SWAP file configuration. Normally, Windows use the Swap file rarely...

In my compagny, our swap file is on the same LUN and same directory than the others files, except configuration files.

Olivier