School Virtualization

Hello i currently have an XPS 1530, it has a 7200 RPM HD and 4gb of ram.

So im at a point that im using multiple OS for studies purposes, meaning that i need to run 1 Instance of Server 2003, 1 Windows XP Client, and a linux VM. So that will be 3 virtual machines..

So i will be upgrading from 4 to 8gb soon, so those VM will run faster. Now the 1 million dollar question:

Should i install 2008 r2 and run this VM in hyper-v or should i install windows XP and runt his VM in VMWare WS???

What will run faster??

 

o would say 2008 r2, as i wouldn't touch xp as a main os anymore, ever, again.. very bad memory management, not fun for vms. other than that, you can use vista or win7 as a base just as well. hyper-v doesn't matter much for your situation (but works, of course)

 

speed wise? hyper-v vs vmware workstation?

 

vm workstation will be faster

http://www.thehypervisor.com/2008/08/hyper-v-benchmark-surprise/

 

Speed wise, hyper V will be faster. Theoretically . For evaluation purposes, VM ware will more than do.

As long as you aren't trying to make day long database queries, then you should be good.

 

all im trying to do is install a VM server OS and a client to be able to study better for few microsoft certs, and linux for progming

 

I've never tried to install hyper V on a VM.

Yeah, don't bother using server 2008 as your host OS. Use XP/Vista/7 and just install VMware and go from there.

 

upgrading from 4g to 8g worth it?

 

Consider that this will require a 64Bit OS.

If you need to run several virtual machine simultaneously then yes as each can get more RAM
For 1 - you can argue it to and fro...

 

Meh, I don't think more ram is worth it. Server 2008 runs just fine on 512K. Disk IO is going to be your biggest bottleneck. Loading and taking snapshots can be unbearable on non RAIDed drives.

 

so its probably a better upgrade to get an SSD than the extra 4gb of ram?

 

Yeah.

Although, a different perspective is just get the extra RAM and never close the VMs. That works too.

It's mostly just loading and unloading the VMs which can be a pain. Xtra Ram won't help with the Snapshots though.

 

ummm now im confused get 4gb of ram or get a ssd

never close the vms' ummmm i will say i will not be using VMs all the time.. This is my school laptop so it will run VM only when im testing something or porgraming which is 15% (time) of the week

 

Get the SSD then. It will provide performance boosts outside VM use.

 

I think getting the RAM is more important disk i/o shouldn't matter if it is purely for software testing.

 

Reading a 10GB file at startup isn't a causal affair. Look at how long it takes for your computer to boot up. Then add several more seconds. This is what it is like to boot a VM. Then look at how long it takes to close your programs and shutdown the OS. Add several seconds and that's what it is like to properly shut down a VM.

More RAM just don't do you any good if you aren't out of RAM in the first place. I can run four VMs side by side. Switching between them isn't that big of a problem. It is loading them up. I usually go make a sandwich while I let all four load up in sequence.

 

Poster already has a 7200RPM Drive which should be good enough...

 

Funny, that's what I have......

 

well, my experience is different: as all os' have to access the hdds frequently, and each vm is stored at a different location on disk, the result it tons of random read accesses spread over the whole disk => very bad for performance.

so an ssd helps much there even while all are up and running.

 

and as far as SSD this one is the best bang for the buck http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167005 ???

 

depends on how much storage you need mainly

 

Not a bad model.

Which was already said earlier in the thread.

 

SSDSA2MH080G1 - this is the item ID

(Thanks Dave )

The G1 at the end stands for "Generation 1" - get a "Generation 2" one.

I have a 160GB Intel SSD heading my way it arrived at my grandfather's today and he DHLed it to me today should come on Monday.

 

Do they even make 250GB G2s??

The G2s don't give a substantial gain over the G1s IMO.

 

they have 23% lower latency, which is quite a bunch. and (at least the 160gb one) has/will have around 40% more write speed.

this is quite a bit, not?

other than that, they have trim, which could be quite important on a vm-ware-abused ssd.


and no, 80gb and 160gb. soon 40gb low-price variant should be available (allready is, branded by kingston, but no trim there so far, which is quite bad for such a small storage disk). and the 320gb should be around starting next year, or so.

 

If you have the money and want to get one or the other, I'd say go with SSD because you'll see the most noticeable improvement with one.

 

yeah, you have allready 4gb ram, that allows you to run the os + 3 vms without a problem, as long as they're xp or 2003 or win7 or 2008r2 based systems. they don't need much ram. (you can even push them down to 3/4th of a gb ram, to have more).