How to Configure CPU Requirements for a Virtual Machine

Article
01/17/2008

You can configure the CPU requirements for a virtual machine by creating or modifying a Virtual Machine Manager hardware profile. These settings specify the processor resources on a host that you want a virtual machine to use.

Before You Start

The following procedure assumes one of the following:

You are creating a new stand-alone hardware profile and are configuring the Hardware Settings tab.
You are configuring hardware profile settings on the Configure Hardware page of the New Template Wizard or the New Virtual Machine Wizard.
You are configuring the properties of an existing stand-alone hardware profile on its Hardware Settings tab or are configuring an existing template or virtual machine on its Hardware Configuration tab.

To configure CPU settings for a virtual machine

In the left pane, under Hardware Profile, click Processor, and then either accept the default settings or modify the CPU options as follows:
1. CPU Type. Select a type of processor from the drop-down list box. This setting determines the CPU requirements of virtual machines created from this hardware profile. Virtual Machine Manager uses this setting (and the two following optional settings) when placing new virtual machines on hosts.
2. CPU Resource Allocation (optional). Select and modify (or clear) the following settings:
  Set reserved capacity (% of CPU type) (optional). Specify the minimum percentage of the resources of a single CPU on the host to allocate to a virtual machine. The percentage of CPU capacity that is available to the virtual machine is never less than this percentage. The default value is 0 percent.
  Set maximum capacity (% of CPU type). You can specify the highest percentage of the total resources of a single CPU on the host that can be used by a virtual machine at any given time. The default value is 100 percent.
To save the settings, do one of the following:

Option 1: If this hardware profile is a new or existing standalone hardware profile, click Apply to save the settings

Option 2: If this hardware profile is on the Configure Hardware page in the New Virtual Machine Wizard or the New Template Wizard (and you have completed any other settings you want to configure on this hardware profile), click Next to save the settings and continue to the next page. Alternatively, to save your settings not only in this wizard but also as a stand-alone profile, click Save Profile, type a name in the Name field on the General tab (and, optionally, change any other settings); click Apply, click OK to return to the Configure Hardware page; click Next to continue to the next wizard page, and then complete the wizard as usual.

Option 3: If this hardware profile is on the properties page of an existing virtual machine or template, click Apply to save the settings.

How to Configure CPU Requirements for a Virtual Machine

Before You Start

See Also

Concepts

Additional resources