What do you use for Windows 7 Ent 64-bit deployment in regards to vCPU and RAM in your environment?

[iamxCPx]

Hi guys,

In my environment we are currently running Windows 7 Ent 64-bit with 2x vCPU and 2.5 GB RAM.

Everything works fine but recently I just did a free health check from Xangati and would like to see if there is something that I could do to improve the environment.

Basically from the check results, I found out that I might be over subscripting the CPU and RAM on my view desktop.

My host is currently running 16 x 2.599 GHz CPU and according to the report after I hit the desktop hard with activities (CPU maxed out at 100% for about 15 minutes), it says that the hypervisor "CPU usage" is only using 1.9 GHz tops.

That means a 1x vCPU is more than enough to handle our day-to-day tasks so I downgraded it to 1 vCPU and test it hard again by doing Windows Update.

Even though the "CPU Usage" again says that I didn't max out at 2.599 but Windows CPU Usage did maxed out.

For me, it feels like doing a windows update on 1 vCPU is slower than when I was using 2 vCPU but according to the numbers, it shouldn't. :smileyconfused:

It was the same exact situation with the RAM.

If I look at the Windows Task Manager, the Windows RAM was almost maxed out when I was doing the testing, but on the hypervisor side, it says that I'm only averaging about 1.7 GB.

So now I'm not sure which matrix that I should I go follow. The Windows or the hyper-visor side? Haha.

If I follow the hyper-visor, I'm afraid when their view desktop is running slow, the user might come up to me and request for more resources because that's what they see under the Task Manager.

It'll be hard to convince them that not to worry about what the task manager says.

Note: I don't have issue with the datastore since all the desktops sits in the FusionIO card.

Anyway, just want to see what the general admin out there use when they configured their Windows 7 OS.

Are you staying with 2x vCPU and 2 or 3 GB RAM? Or you would rather follow what the hypervisor's numbers tells you?

What would you do?

Thanks guys!

[vcpguy]

I look after very large environment. We have various performance metrics tools at our disposal. I like to use vCOPS to look into these metrics.

Generally, I have noticed for most of the workload 1 vCPU is good. Adding recourses depends on what kind of applications you are using. I always discourage people from looking at the Task Manager to figure out the correct resource usage.

The best way is to use esxtop and get the metrics. Here is the link to one my article which I wrote some time back - http://vmwaredevotee.com/?s=esxtop

[Alfredj1204]

We size the virtual desktops with 2 vCPU and 3GB. We found this to deliver a much better performing VM compared to our former standard 1 vCPU and 2GB ram. Although average load is important I think key is the VMs are capable enough to handle the peak load. If a virtual desktop has a low laod 95% of the time and a high load 5% of the time the average may be justifying a 1 vCPU and 2GB ram. Our users however complained about the 5% of the time their desktop was not performing well.

I am not saying you should size your Vms 2vCPU and 3GB but I am just sharing what we have experienced in our environment. And of course it all depends on the aplications used. the OS tuning, etc.

Regards.

[mittim12 · Accepted solution]

I feel like this is something that has to be determined on a case by case basis.    We started out with 1 vCPU which works great for 95% of our users.    We have others that require more resources so they have been moved into a different pool with additional resources.    Also, we have found that 1 vCPU works well for most everything except video.   If you are going to play a lot of video you may want to test with 2 vCPU and see if that performs better. 

In the end it's all about what your user feedback and needs dictate.   You don't want to squeeze your users of resources because that will lead to poor performance and bad perception but also be careful not to overcommit because they will also lead to poor performance and a bad perception.    Once people get a negative perception of the environment it's difficult to get over.

[iamxCPx]

Thanks guys for the helpful answer.

Surprisingly after looking at the Xangati Metric, I downgraded the vCPU to 1 but kept the RAM to 2.5 GB and so far no one has complaint about the performance. Knock on wood!

Next step probably lowering the RAM back to 2 GB yet for some users.

I also haven't tried the video testing like watching youtube, etc with 1 vCPU.

I guess it's one at a time change.

Maybe I also try VCOPS in the coming future.

I think VMware should include that for the current customer :smileygrin: because it's very useful to be able to evaluate your environment and architect it accordingly.

ESXTOP is good but to be able to see the historical data is important.