{"id":96,"date":"2006-10-03T20:29:25","date_gmt":"2006-10-04T06:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/?p=96"},"modified":"2009-09-03T20:09:39","modified_gmt":"2009-09-04T01:09:39","slug":"optimizing-microsoft-virtual-server-part-2-managing-cpu-resource-allocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2006\/10\/optimizing-microsoft-virtual-server-part-2-managing-cpu-resource-allocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimizing Microsoft Virtual Server, Part 2: Managing CPU Resource Allocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published on <\/em>SearchServerVirtualization.TechTarget.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

By default, Virtual Server will treat all VMs with equal priority. In production environments, however, it\u2019s common to have some VMs that are more important than others. Accordingly, you\u2019ll want to let Virtual Server know which VMs should get preference. Virtual Server offers two main methods for managing CPU utilization per VM. To access the settings, click on \u201cResource Allocation\u201d in the Virtual Server section of the Administration Web Site. Figure 1 provides a view of the default resource allocations for VMs.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Configuring CPU settings in the Virtual Server Administration Web Site.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The initial display might seem simple enough, but there\u2019s a lot of potential power here. Let\u2019s look at the two main ways in which you can configure CPU settings.<\/p>\n

Weight-Based Resource Allocation<\/h2>\n

The simplest way to assign priorities to your VMs is to assign \u201cweights\u201d to them. When doling out CPU resources, Virtual Server will give preference to each VM based on its relative<\/em> weight setting. The values can range from 1 (the lowest priority) to 10,000 (highest priority). By default, all VMs will have a relative weight setting of 100. Since the values are relative, you can setup your own conventions, such as using only values in the range of 1to 10 or 1 to 100. For example, if you want an important VM to have twice the priority of the others, you can set it to a weight of 200 (assuming that the other VMs are using the default weight of 100).<\/p>\n

The preferences will kick in whenever CPU resources are limited. Weight-based resource allocation is the quickest and easiest way prioritize your workloads while ensuring that all CPU resources are still available for use.<\/p>\n

Constraint-Based Resource Allocation<\/h2>\n

In some cases, you\u2019ll want more granular control over how CPU resources are managed. That\u2019s where constraint-based resource allocation comes in. This method is a bit more complicated (and you can make CPU resources unavailable if you don\u2019t understand the settings). But, it can be very useful in production environments. You can specify two constraint types as percentages:<\/p>\n