New to VMWare

[HMCTech]

I have installed ESXi on a HP Server and that server has 4GB of RAM. I have created two virtual servers running 2008 r2. I am very new to VM's so I just went with standard options. According to vSphere client my host is using only 14% of the CPU and 80% of memory but both my virtual machines are running at 100% CPU usage.

 

Is there a simple reason for this?

[SYNACK]

How many cores does your host server have and how many did you assign to each VM, this could account for the discrepancy.

[HMCTech]

4 cores on one physical processor each virtual machine is assigned 2 processors. I tried taking them down to 1 and got similar results

[ful56_uk]

Have you install the vm tools?

[HMCTech]

yeah they are installed

[DMcCoy]

Are they P2V or fresh installs?

[andydis]

in task manager what process is using the most cpu utilization?

[ful56_uk]

How much does each vm have ram wise? Also what are the vm running on the 2008 boxes?

[apaton]

Sorry more questions

 

What's telling you that the VM's are running 100%, Task Manager ? if so as [andydis] has suggests which process is taking the resource ?

 

32bit or 64bit Win2008 ?

 

How much memory as been assigned to each VM.

 

Do you have the same issue if just one 2008 VM is powered on?

 

What's the HP severer model and CPU specification ?

 

Which version of ESXi are running running ? The latest patch can be obtained from https://www.vmware.com/mysupport/download/

[HMCTech]

Thank you for all your questions

 

Host is an ML 250 G5

 

quad core at 2 GHz

4GB RAM

 

Each host has 2GB assigned and its 64 bit Server 2008 R2

 

Task manager has no specific process using up all the CPU just lots of random ones jumping to 40% - 60% - 30%

 

Installed on one box is fresh 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2, on teh other is a fresh box with SharePoint 2010 with no configuration but the install

[apaton]

AlexPiolt,

 

Sorry to ask again

> Do you have the same issue if just one 2008 VM is powered on?

 

My gut feeling (A GUESS!) is that you have a resource issue, probably memory.

 

Andy

[Theblacksheep]

To rule out CPU contention, what's the CPU ready time with each VM with 2 vCPU?

 

The test sharepoint2010 2008 R2 vm I had needed about 4GB to be happy and used 2GB consistently. Your 2 VMs will be contending for 3GB of ram (vSphere using the first 600mb-1gb of your 4gb) so could be swapping (as andy said memory). 2008r2 uses a fair bit of ram on boot, more so with SQL and sharepoint.

Edited May 8, 2010 by Theblacksheep

[HMCTech]

I have upgrade the memory to 8GB. I have given both VM's 8GB and let them fight for it? Is that a bad idea? Or should I split the momory up more?

[Theblacksheep]

I have upgrade the memory to 8GB. I have given both VM's 8GB and let them fight for it? Is that a bad idea? Or should I split the momory up more?

 

Don't let them fight with each other (and the host) over the 8gb on the host. Work with the 7gb of usable memory. It does memory overcommit well, but letting them trying to squeeze 16gb into 7GB of available ram is too much. 2-3 GB each and see how it goes.. you maybe able to give them more memory than available, as long as they are not using it at the same time... but start with what is actually available or its going to start swapping badly.

 

Whats your 'CPU ready' times?

[apaton]

I agree with "TheBlackSheep", give each VM either 2-3Gb of memory.

 

As with regards to CPU's try each machine first with one CPU then only upgrade to two CPU's when required.

CPU Ready time, relates how long a VM has to wait for a free CPU to execute on. If you have two CPU's allocated to a VM,the it has to wait for two free CPU's, four CPU'S has to wait for four free CPU's.

 

You have a single QUAD core with effectively three machines accessing CPU (ESXi hyper-visor, VM1 and VM2), they are fighting over four CPU's (Hyper-threading enabled, would be eight vCPU nodes but still only four cores) so give them a chance.

 

CPU Ready time can be found via an advance graphing option.

 

Andy

[HMCTech]

I have given SharePoint app server 4gb and SQL 3gb. This did improve things by about 20%.

 

Will try putting in a second processor tomorrow.

[User3204]

You don't need to worry about the task manager within the guest.

 

VMware ESX assigns the processor cycles to the guest when it needs it, so the guest is showing you the percentage of the virtual processor that it has been assigned, IE all of it, which is actually a good thing. The guest task manager graphs are now pretty useless.

 

To really assess whet it is using, check the graphs that are in the VM host.