2003 Server HyperV Client 100% CPU

[HCC]

Hi,

 

Our SIMS server is visualised (p2v) running on 2008 R2 HyperV Host Server. The host server has 32Gb RAM and dual processors with 16 cores available.

 

The SIMS Server runs at 100% CPU most of the time which makes SIMS.net really sloooow. I've checked in the task manager and it is the SQL process (sqlservr.exe) that is the cause. Yet when I look at the host task manager it never goes over 2-3% cpu on any core. So the host processing power is not being passed to the guest.

The guest already has the max 4 logical processors and being 2003 x86 std I can't give it more than 4Gb RAM.

 

I've got to move SIMS over to a new 2008 x64 R2 server in the summer (which I hope would have better performance, being optimised for virtualization).

Is there anything I can do to speed up this 2003 virtual machine in the meantime?

 

Thanks,

[Chuckster]

I think you need to set a max level of memory it can consume through the SQL Management Tool. How to do this I'm exactly unsure of.

 

I run Win 2003 SP2 STD with SIMS.Net in a VM using VMware ESXi. I've only given it 2 processors/cores and 3GB RAM and I've not noticed any degradation.

 

I know it doesn't help but hopefully someone will be able to tell you about the management tool.

[HCC]

Hi,

 

I think it's more about the CPU than the RAM but anyway...

 

I've found the settings as per Suggested Max Memory Settings for SQL Server 2005/2008 - Glenn Berry&#39s SQL Server Performance - SQLServerCentral.com

 

It was set to 2147483647 Max server memory. I've set this to 3500 as suggested since the server can't see any more than 4Gb.

 

So far not much difference, but thanks for the suggestion.

[irsprint84]

I think you need to set a max level of memory it can consume through the SQL Management Tool. How to do this I'm exactly unsure of.

 

I run Win 2003 SP2 STD with SIMS.Net in a VM using VMware ESXi. I've only given it 2 processors/cores and 3GB RAM and I've not noticed any degradation.

 

I know it doesn't help but hopefully someone will be able to tell you about the management tool.

 

Yeah this post is correct, also check in backup is full or simple

[HCC]

How do I find out which way the backup is set up? All I know about the backup is that there is a maintenance plan that runs a backup each night and tidies up the number of copies.

[theriver]

Be careful setting the amount of RAM allocated to SQL, as if you set it too high then you run the risk that SQL Server will rob RAM from the OS. Then things will get REALLY slow. HCC, note that the table in that article is for x64 machines, which would see a full 4Gb of RAM. There's some interesting stuff about RAM limits in the comments section ("I am going to write another post that covers x86"), which I think will explain why upping your limit to 3.5 Mb won't appear to make a difference.

 

High CPU on DB servers can hint at index problems - not familiar with SIMS, does it ship with any utilities or recommendations for reindexing or checking the indexes?

[theriver]

Sorry, obvious question - what was the performance like before the p2v, or do you not have stats for that?