Essential Guide
Fine-tune your virtualization performance management skills
Introduction
There are many benefits to virtualization, but a key aspect of fully realizing those benefits is ensuring that everything in your data center is performing well. The virtual infrastructure is a complex system made up of many parts -- the hypervisor, VMs, servers, storage, applications -- and if even one of those parts isn't firing on all cylinders, it affects the rest of the infrastructure. As such, it's essential to not only understand what affects virtualization performance, but also how to actively improve performance and successfully troubleshoot any issues.
With this guide, you'll be better equipped to anticipate and prevent virtualization performance problems. Below, you'll find information on how CPU and memory affect performance, how you can benefit from VM performance benchmarking and how to pinpoint application performance problems in a virtual data center.
1Evaluate-
What factors can affect virtualization performance?
Before you can take steps to improve performance in your virtual environment, you need to understand what elements affect performance in the first place. In this section, learn how different variables affect hypervisor and VM performance, with tips on testing and configuration.
How do Hyper-V Integration Components affect performance?
What are Hyper-V Integration Components, and are there any recommendations for boosting virtual machine performance? Continue Reading
How can testing improve nested hypervisor performance?
Not all hypervisors and OSes can play nice with others. The best method for avoiding complications down the road is to thoroughly test your nested virtualization deployment. Continue Reading
How much do server configurations affect hypervisor performance?
Software plays an important role in virtual infrastructure performance, but can you optimize performance by tweaking server configurations? Continue Reading
How CPU and memory affect application performance
Application performance will change depending on if you want more cores, better clock speed or what you choose for memory. Continue Reading
How does antimalware software affect VM performance?
It's important to keep your infrastructure secure, but running antimalware software on your VMs can hurt performance. Continue Reading
How bad do swap files affect virtual machine performance?
Modern technology can prevent VMs from grinding to a halt if there's a memory shortage, but using swap files does slow performance. Find out why. Continue Reading
Local data storage or SAN: How storage location affects VM performance
Do the performance advantages of local storage outweigh the management benefits of a storage area network? Continue Reading
How do disk latency and RAID groups affect VM performance?
VMs may run in memory, but they are stored on disks, meaning disk latency and RAID group configuration can be a big factor in how well they perform. Continue Reading
2Manage-
How can you improve virtualization performance?
Now that you understand what factors affect performance, you are better equipped to manage the day-to-day operations of your virtual infrastructure. Read on to learn about effective performance monitoring, proper resource utilization and important storage metrics.
How you can benefit from VM performance benchmarking
Using benchmarks gives the user a head start in troubleshooting if VM performance begins to falter. But how can benchmarking help with resources, hardware decisions and virtual workloads? Continue Reading
Proper resource utilization can optimize performance
Optimizing performance on a virtual server can maximize efficiency and savings. Microsoft System Center is an example of one tool that can automate and adjust settings as needs change. Continue Reading
Can I improve the performance of a virtual database server?
Virtualizing database servers is no longer taboo, but you can still experience performance problems if it's not correctly configured. Continue Reading
Best choice for free Hyper-V performance monitoring
There are plenty of free performance monitoring tools, but take care in how you interpret results to make sure you understand the big picture. Continue Reading
Five quick tips for foolproof Hyper-V performance tuning
Master Microsoft's virtualization and hypervisor platform with these five tips to Hyper-V performance tuning. Continue Reading
Configuration tweaks to boost Hyper-V networking performance
Hyper-V networking changes can benefit workload performance, but only when they're applied in a careful and systematic manner. Continue Reading
Five storage configuration tips to boost VM performance
Correctly sizing and setting up your storage hardware can help eliminate bottlenecks and improve VM performance. Continue Reading
How to use esxtop to monitor ESXi storage performance
The esxtop utility provides VMware administrators with valuable performance data, but do you know the most important storage metrics to watch? Continue Reading
Improving VM performance through proper disk selection
Improving VM performance starts by speeding up disk access. Consider using these strategies for better allocating and provisioning disk storage. Continue Reading
Improve VM performance with server memory configuration
Memory technologies add flexibility, but aren’t appropriate for every workload in the data center. Find out which configurations are worth using. Continue Reading
VMware vs. Microsoft vs. Citrix
Download now to compare the top ten virtualization management tool providers including VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix, and see what improvements your organization could make with a virtualization management tool.
3Problem solve-
How can you troubleshoot virtualization performance issues?
When managing a virtual environment, you're bound to run into issues, no matter how meticulously you set up the infrastructure and how carefully you monitor it. In this section, learn about common bottlenecks, detrimental background activity and Hyper-V configurations.
Which VMware esxtop metrics can indicate performance problems?
Built-in performance tools offer VMware administrators several important metrics that can help diagnose performance problems, if they know where to look. Continue Reading
Eliminate background activity, boost Hyper-V host performance
There's a lot happening behind the scenes that could be slowing Hyper-V host performance. Keeping the background activity in check can boost performance. Continue Reading
Don't let antivirus software affect hypervisor performance
Antivirus software has good intentions of protecting your environment, but sometimes can cause a hiccup in hypervisor performance. Continue Reading
Eliminate Hyper-V slow network performance with these tools and tips
Network performance can make or break your virtual environment. With Hyper-V networking tools, you can maintain fast network performance and ensure your resources are distributed evenly. Continue Reading
Reclaim Hyper-V configurations for better performance
Certain Hyper-V default configurations should be changed for better performance before using the servers in a production environment. Continue Reading
Pinpointing application performance problems in a virtual data center
Hardware performance is relatively easy to monitor, but acceptable hardware metrics do not always translate to smooth application performance in a virtual environment. Continue Reading
Consider common bottlenecks when troubleshooting storage performance
Admins should begin troubleshooting storage performance problems by considering the many potential bottlenecks that can limit storage IOPS. Continue Reading
4Key terms-
What terms are associated with virtualization performance?
An essential part of fine tuning your virtualization performance management skills is knowing the terminology. Read on to familiarize yourself with key terms.
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