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gogogo5
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Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3

I have just read the Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3.pdf recently released document, but is there a mistake?

Look at page 11, last bullet point, second paragraph starting with "For the BusLogic adapters, VMware provides a custom BusLogic driver for Windows guest operating systems that is recommended for applications requiring high performance. The BusLogic driver is part of VMware tools....."

I thought it was LSI Logic driver that is better performing, especially under Windows 2003???? Also mentioned in this post too:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=551347&;

anyone have any comments?

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Chris_S_UK
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I think that sounds wrong, too. I've always found that the BusLogic driver is included on the Windows CD and that VMware tools is not needed for that.

Also the LSI Logic driver is supposed to be faster but in many cases you won't notice a difference.

BTW, your link does not work.

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gogogo5
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thanks - I have updated the link.

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timteller
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Contributor

Has anyone clarified this?

I have a db server that was migrated from an old Dell 2450 to a VM. The host hardware is a Dell 2950 Xeon 3Ghz Woodcrest, 15k SAS drives, tons of memory.

A batch job that used to run in 40 mins, now runs in 2 hours. CPU and Memory are near nothing consumed. So I am thinking there is something I can tweak with the storage adapters. The Windows 2003 R2 guest is using the LSI adapter. I am going to increase the I/O size for the LSI adapter in the registry.

Will changing the machines SCSI adapter to Buslogic be better. I am thinking not, but just thought I'd ask.

Thanks,

Tim

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gogogo5
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nope, still haven't found an authoritative answer...

Are you using local storage to host the VM?

Have you fired up Windows Performance Monitor and loaded the disk counters to see if it throws light on it?

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mattpound
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Scott Herold wrote a white paper on this a while back.

http://www.vmguru.com/files/10/whitepapers/entry6.aspx

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gogogo5
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and that's the point, VMware state that the BusLogic is the best performing driver while Scott Herold et al state the LSI Logic is better under Windows 2003. There doesn't seem to be much consistency.

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aenagy
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I asked our VMware Senior Systems Engineer here in Toronto about the LSILogic vs. BusLogic issue. He replied back with a response from the developers:

Only use the Buslogic driver if LSILogic is not supported – the only exception is in the case of RHEL 4 guests in ESX Server 2.x where we have an issue with our LSILogic emulation, which causes the guest to become unstable. Since the fix requires storage recertification for ESX Server 2.x, we only support RHEL 4 with the Buslogic driver. Other than that exception, customers should always use the LSILogic driver.

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