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-avatar.jpg "Joe Crabtree"){kind=avatar}
As a developer, I live inside my various virtual machines (VMs). I have at least one VM per project that I’m working on and each VM is rather large (~40GB+). I use VMs because it makes life easier for me. It keeps development programs and other non-standard configuration settings off my host machine. Unlike some developers, I don’t have both a laptop and a desktop/server. I just have my laptop, which is currently loaded with the following specs:
- Intel Core i7 M640 (2.8GHz)
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB Samsung SSD PM810
- 500GB WD WD5000BPKT @ 7200RPM
- NVIDIA GeForce 3100M
- 1080p LED display
- VMware Workstation 8.0.2
All of that aside, I often get asked by coworkers why my VMs appear to run so much faster than theirs or how my host machine never seems to have any problems. The short answer is I have spent a lot of trial and error hunting down the fastest configuration for a VM, specifically a SharePoint VM. I’ve distilled this knowledge down into a few short principles that anyone can follow. I’ve also broken down each principle into the type of performance gain you can expect, from major gains to minor gains. Note: these principles are geared towards SharePoint, but can also be applied to any VM.
Some of these recommendations come straight from VMware’s Performance Best Practices for VMware Workstation, others are based on my own personal experience. Some may run counter to what VMware suggests, so keep in mind that these settings work for me and are intended as a guide only, not gospel. (more…)
