GaryRumson
Technical User
We are looking into getting VM ware to replace 4 servers. Has anyone had success with this product and is it easy to maintain? What is best installed on IBM? Dell? Other?
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- Thread starter GaryRumson
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We run several sites around Australia with GSX server, including 2003 Domain Controllers, file/print, SQL databases servers, etc. We are now in the process of de-virtualising the environment. Virtual servers are not ideal for I/O intensive functions, like file and print or exchange. It's useful for web and some database apps which use more cpu then anything else. Mind you, we've been having major dramas with print servers and cpu going to 100% for some reason, so my experience hasn't been a good one. Particularly when we have to manage them remotely. My advice would be to use them in a test environment, but seriously examine the consequences if you put mission critical apps on the same physical host and you need to reboot it cos one of your virtual servers has crashed and is non responsive. Not good for SLAs.
SirCam,
I am saddened to hear of this issues you are experiencing but would recommend that if you are having these issues, you should look at using the ESX version of VMWare as it is an independent version of VMWare unlike GSX which shares the resources with the host operating system.
I am saddened to hear of this issues you are experiencing but would recommend that if you are having these issues, you should look at using the ESX version of VMWare as it is an independent version of VMWare unlike GSX which shares the resources with the host operating system.
I agree with comtec17 in this one, GSX is intended for departamental solutions and development rather than production. The main problem of GSX Server is that it depends on a base operative system and GSX is "dancing to the base-OS rithm"... is your base (host) OS a windows? I hope no...
ESX Server is installed directly in the hardware and you don't need a base OS. I have very good experience with ESX Servers running Active directory, print servers, etc. ESX is the solution for your problems SirCam.
Cheers.
Chacal, Inc.![[wavey]](/data/assets/smilies/wavey.gif "[wavey] [wavey]")
ESX Server is installed directly in the hardware and you don't need a base OS. I have very good experience with ESX Servers running Active directory, print servers, etc. ESX is the solution for your problems SirCam.
Cheers.
Chacal, Inc.
Comtec17/Chacalinc,
What sort of performance hit would GSX have over ESX? We are running the host on a Windows 2003 Server. One particular issue is with a virtual print server where the CPU spikes to 100% every time a print job comes in. A non-virtual print server would not see this kind of performance. The virtual server will also freeze at 100% CPU usage with the System process taking it all, causing us to restart the print spooler to fix. There are 3 virtuals on one host.
Cheers, Cam.
What sort of performance hit would GSX have over ESX? We are running the host on a Windows 2003 Server. One particular issue is with a virtual print server where the CPU spikes to 100% every time a print job comes in. A non-virtual print server would not see this kind of performance. The virtual server will also freeze at 100% CPU usage with the System process taking it all, causing us to restart the print spooler to fix. There are 3 virtuals on one host.
Cheers, Cam.
SirCam, the main problem of GSX is that GSX *depend of* the base OS, in this case Windows, so all resources must be gave by Windows, not directly to the hardware.
Actually, I don't know why are you getting this kind of errors with the print server, but I've never seen this problem before (at least with ESX). Never tryed it with GSX (to be honest)
Cheers.
Chacal, Inc.
Actually, I don't know why are you getting this kind of errors with the print server, but I've never seen this problem before (at least with ESX). Never tryed it with GSX (to be honest)
Cheers.
Chacal, Inc.
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GSX is dependent on the Host OS (linux or Windows) so you have all that overhead to deal with. ESX is a very barebones os that remaps hardware to the virutal servers, this takes up ALOT less overhead and results in better performance.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame GSX for your printer issues. I used to work for MS and supported printing. If you are seeing CPU monopolization by Spoolsv when printing, then you could be looking at a problem with a 3rd party port monitor or version 2 driver (kernel mode driver). Optimally, I would do a perfmon log of the Process and Thread objects and get a userdump of the offending process when the CPU is being monopolized. With that, you can find what thread is causing the problem and get it's thread ID. With the tread ID number, you can track it down in the user dump and nail down the root cause...
Since most people don't know how to use a debugger, I tell them to look and see if their printers are using version 2 printer driver or a 3rd party port monitor. I recommend upgrading any version 2 driver to version 3 (user mode driver) and removing any 3rd party port monitor.
However, as stated in earlier postings, GSX was never intended for production environments, ESX is.
Microsoft Certified Nut.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame GSX for your printer issues. I used to work for MS and supported printing. If you are seeing CPU monopolization by Spoolsv when printing, then you could be looking at a problem with a 3rd party port monitor or version 2 driver (kernel mode driver). Optimally, I would do a perfmon log of the Process and Thread objects and get a userdump of the offending process when the CPU is being monopolized. With that, you can find what thread is causing the problem and get it's thread ID. With the tread ID number, you can track it down in the user dump and nail down the root cause...
Since most people don't know how to use a debugger, I tell them to look and see if their printers are using version 2 printer driver or a 3rd party port monitor. I recommend upgrading any version 2 driver to version 3 (user mode driver) and removing any 3rd party port monitor.
However, as stated in earlier postings, GSX was never intended for production environments, ESX is.
Microsoft Certified Nut.
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