How Virtual Server reacts under specific conditions

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How Virtual Server reacts under specific conditions

This topic describes some conditions for Virtual Server 2005 that are less than optimal, and explains how the technology reacts under those conditions.

In general, if Virtual Server is deployed without adherence to best practices and guidelines, as described in Best practices for Virtual Server, it will not function optimally. In addition, if all or some of the dependencies are not in place or not properly designed and deployed, as described in System requirements for Virtual Server and Setting Up Virtual Server, Virtual Server will not behave in an optimal fashion.

Poor performance and errors can also occur under the following conditions:

  • Virtual Machine Additions is not installed. If Virtual Machine Additions is not installed on a guest operating system, the result can be poor performance and a lack of time synchronization between host and guest operating systems. For background information, see Virtual Machine Additions.
  • Insufficient memory is assigned to a virtual machine. If the memory assigned to a virtual machine does not meet the minimum requirements for the guest operating system as well as any installed applications, poor performance will result. For instructions on configuring memory, see Allocate memory to a virtual machine.
  • Virtual hard disks are stored on shared network resources. Placing virtual hard disk (.vhd) files on a shared network resource for access by virtual machines can result in poor performance because the network speed is limited to that of the network access server (NAS). Better performance is obtained by using local hard disk storage or high-speed storage technologies such as storage area networks (SANs). For more information, see Optimizing virtual hard disks.
  • Duplicate virtual machines are deployed. If you simply copy a virtual machine and then deploy it without taking any additional steps, the result will be duplicate security identifiers (SIDs) and duplicate computer name errors on the network. Before you copy the virtual machine, remember to run Sysprep on the guest operating system. Sysprep is a tool for preparing a master installation for imaging that is included in the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows 2000. For more information about Sysprep, see "Choosing Sysprep Settings" at the Microsoft Web site. For more information about copying virtual machines, see Ways to deploy an operating system to a virtual machine.