Can A Core2Duo 4500 Handle 4-6 VM's?

B

BfA

Limp Gawd
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May 21, 2007
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Just looking to setup some test servers in a mini network (going to have sharepoint/project server/dhcp/dns etc installed on them) and was wondering if a Core2Duo would be able to handle 4-6 VM's using Microsoft Server 2008 R2 VM's with Citrix Xenserver? They'd be running on Raid 1+0 with 4 Caviar blacks and 4gb of ram. Though I could upgrade to 8 if needed.

Thoughts?
 
you'll usually run into two contention issues on smaller VM builds: RAM and disk. I think you have the right number of disks for your currently sized solution, but I would not go above 6 without adding more spindles. the general rule is 2-3 per spindle of usable space. you're only going to have 2 spindles usable (the other two will be mirrors, and not contributing to the I/O handling), times 3 per SATA drive = 6 total recommended.

You will, however, very likely run out of RAM. 8GB should be minimum, and I suggest that you do not fill all of your slots in getting to 8GB, either. Leave 1/2 open, you'll likely need it.
 
Thanks, I'll have to look at getting more RAM as well. I'm just mainly concerned about the CPU right now as if I'd have to but a new ram/cpu/mobo combo it could get expensive.

Planning on running the base os off of a 30gb ssd so the 4x1tb in raid 0 should be more than enough room for the amount of vm's i'm going to run.
 
The E4500 is a strong processor, but it does not have VT support.

If you are running a VM that can take advantage of it, I would get a processor with VT support.
 
Depends what you are using really. I don't know for sure, but I know some like VMWare recommend it with some of their setups.
 
VT support is required to run 64-bit guests in ESX/ESXi. I don't know about others.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm thinking now maybe I'll just buy a new basic cheap rig with an AMD x4 or something for this project.
 
Is this a test/dev/learn setup or some form of production? - main reason for asking is that the apps you have mentioned are essentially DB intensive and hence IO - you may want to look for a chip that supports both VT-x and VT-d if you are going to run anything production wise on them (even with <5 concurrent users) also RAM RAM RAM ;)
 
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