Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5

1 Performance Best Practices forVMware vSphere esxi Server May 14, 2014EN-000005-07 VMware , Hillview Alto, CA , Best Practices forVMware vSphere You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at: VMware Web site also provides the latest product you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback 2007-2013 VMware , Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at , the VMware boxes logo and design, Virtual SMP, and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware , Inc.

2 In the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Revision: 20130919 VMware , ContentsAbout This Book91 Hardware for Use withVMware vSphere 11 Validate Your Hardware11 Hardware CPU Considerations 11 General CPU Considerations 11 Hardware-Assisted Virtualization 11 Hardware-Assisted CPU Virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V )11 Hardware-Assisted MMU Virtualization (Intel EPT and AMD RVI) 12 Hardware-Assisted I/O MMU Virtualization (VT-d and AMD-Vi)

3 12 Hardware Storage Considerations 13 Hardware Networking Considerations 16 Hardware BIOS Settings17 General BIOS Settings 17 Power Management BIOS Settings 172 esxi and Virtual Machines 19 esxi General Considerations 19 esxi CPU Considerations 20UP vs. SMP HALs/Kernels 21 Hyper-Threading 21 Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) 22 Configuring esxi for Hardware-Assisted Virtualization 23 Host Power Management in ESXi24 Power Policy Options in esxi 24 When Some Power Policy Options Are Unavailable24 Choosing a Power Policy 24 esxi Memory Considerations25 Memory Overhead25 Memory Sizing 26 Memory Overcommit Techniques26 Memory Swapping Optimizations 27 Large Memory Pages for Hypervisor and Guest Operating System 29 Hardware-Assisted MMU Virtualization 29 esxi Storage Considerations30vSphere Flash

4 Read Cache (vFRC)30 VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) 30 LUN Access Methods30 Virtual Disk Modes31 Linked Clones 31 Virtual Disk Types 31 Partition Alignment32 SAN Multipathing 32 Storage I/O Resource Allocation 33iSCSI and NFS Recommendations 34 General esxi Storage Recommendations34 Running Storage Latency Sensitive Applications 341 Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere , Inc. esxi Networking Considerations 36 General esxi Networking Considerations 36 Network I/O Control (NetIOC) 36 DirectPath I/O 36 Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

5 37 SplitRx Mode37 Disabling SplitRx Mode for an Entire esxi Host 37 Enabling or Disabling SplitRx Mode for an Individual Virtual NIC 38 Virtual Network Interrupt Coalescing 38 Running Network Latency Sensitive Applications 393 Guest Operating Systems41 Guest Operating System General Considerations 41 Measuring Performance in Virtual Machines 42 Guest Operating System CPU Considerations43 Virtual NUMA (vNUMA) 44 Guest Operating System Storage Considerations 46 Guest Operating System Networking Considerations474 Virtual Infrastructure Management 51 General Resource Management51 VMware vCenter52 VMware vCenter Database Considerations 53 VMware vCenter Database Network and Storage Considerations 53 VMware vCenter Database Configuration and Maintenance 53 Recommendations for Specific Database Vendors 54 VMware vSphere Management56vSphere Clients 56vSphere Web Clients56vSphere Web

6 Services SDK Clients57 VMware vMotion and Storage vMotion 58 VMware vMotion Recommendations58 VMware Storage vMotion 59 VMware Cross-Host Storage vMotion 59 VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) 61 Cluster Configuration Settings 61 Cluster Sizing and Resource Settings 62 DRS Performance Tuning 63 VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM)65 DPM Configuration and Modes of Operation 65 Tuning the DPM Algorithm65 Scheduling DPM and Running DPM Proactively 66 Using DPM With VMware High Availability (HA)66 VMware Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (Storage DRS)

7 67 VMware High Availability 68 VMware Fault Tolerance69 VMware vCenter Update Manager 71 Update Manager Setup and Configuration 71 Update Manager General Recommendations 71 Update Manager Cluster Remediation 71 Update Manager Bandwidth Throttling 71vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)73 VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) 74 VSAN Hardware Selection and Layout 74 VMware , VSAN Network Considerations 74 VSAN Configuration and Use74 VMware vCenter Single Sign On Server Performance 75 Glossary77 Index 851 Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere , Inc.

8 VMware , TablesTable 1. Conventions Used in This Manual 10 Table 4-1. DRS Advanced Options for Performance Tuning 63 Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere , Inc. VMware , This book, Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere , provides Performance tips that cover the most Performance -critical areas of VMware vSphere It is not intended as a comprehensive guide for planning and configuring your 1, Hardware for Use with VMware vSphere , on page 11, provides guidance on selecting hardware for use with 2, esxi and Virtual Machines, on page 19, provides guidance regarding VMware esxi software and the virtual machines that run in 3.

9 Guest Operating Systems, on page 41, provides guidance regarding the guest operating systems running in vSphere virtual 4, Virtual Infrastructure Management, on page 51, provides guidance regarding infrastructure management best AudienceThis book is intended for system administrators who are planning a VMware vSphere deployment and want to maximize its Performance . The book assumes the reader is already familiar with VMware vSphere concepts and FeedbackVMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation.

10 If you have comments, send your feedback to: vSphere DocumentationThe VMware vSphere documentation consists of the combined VMware vCenter and VMware esxi documentation can access the most current versions of the vSphere documentation by going to: You can access Performance and other technical papers on the VMware Technical Papers page: About This BookNOTE For planning purposes we recommend reading this entire book before beginning a deployment. Material in the Virtual Infrastructure Management chapter, for example, might influence your hardware Best Practices for VMware vSphere , Inc.