Urgent:VMware Server Installation location

[sgwisby]

I have partitioned two drives, one for the Windows OS(12Gb)
and one for the virtual machines(260Gb), and was wondering What the benefits of installing the VMware Server software on the non-system partition or the system partition?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
David

 

[Chacalinc]

what VMWare? GSX?

Chacal, Inc.

 

[sgwisby]

VMWare Server Beta 3. We will implement ESX in the near future but wanted to get our feet wet first and run some trials.
Any advice would greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[SgtBeavis]

Your initial post states that you partitioned two drives. It doesn't specify if you have two PHYSICAL drives or you have two partitions on one physical drive.

If you have two physical drives, then go ahead and install VMware Server on the root directory, which is the default install. Put your VMDK files on the other drive.

Putting VMware Server on a separate partition isn't really going to increase your performance. Almost all of your disk activity is going to be coming from the data drive.

If you have two partitions on one disk, it won't matter where you put it. Your disk performance will pretty much remain the same.

Microsoft Certified Nut.

 

[sgwisby]

Thanks Beavis. I have two 300Gb harddrives partitioned with 12Gb for the OS(RAID 1) and 270Gb for data(Raid 1).
Will the same advice apply or have not allocated enough space on the system partition for WIndows 2003 and VMWare Server? This is new to me so I may not be phrasing my questions correctly.
I appreciate your assistance.
David

 

[SgtBeavis]

Because you are mirroring two physical drives, you will treat them as ONE physcial drive. So there is no difference where you install VMware Server.

IMO, you have plenty of space on your system partition. VMware server has a rather small footprint, disk space wise. Your 270GB partition is where you'll be keeping your virtual disks so you have plenty of room there as well. The only other file to worry about is the configuration files which can go on either partition.

Microsoft Certified Nut.

 

[sgwisby]

Thanks Beavis, this info will be very beneficial as we move forward with this project.
David