VMware swap to disk

I read on a blog that someone got better L4 performance by setting their VMware NOT to swap to disk. I am not sure if this has something to do with the unity setting, but I was curious if anyone here can shed some light on it. I have VMware 3 trial right now running XP SP3 on MBPro 8GB RAM.

Thanks.

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Matthew Bookspan

Which blog? Do you recall the address?

Pat Flanakin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/65235#Comment_65235

Actually, I went ahead and looked up the idea on VMware's website support and found the following which in Logos 4 case, I would use setting one to prevent swapping:

Using Additional Memory

By default, VMware Workstation limits the number of
virtual machines that can run at once based on the amount of memory specified
in the application settings. This prevents virtual machines from causing each
other to perform poorly.

To allow more or larger virtual machines to run, you
can adjust a third setting — the amount of virtual machine memory that the host
operating system may swap to disk. To change this setting, go to Edit >
Preferences > Memory and change the additional memory setting.
Select one of the following radio buttons:

· Fit all virtual machine memory into
reserved host RAM — Strictly apply the reserved memory limit set in the top
of the panel. This setting imposes the tightest restrictions on the number and
memory size of virtual machines that may run at a given time. Because the
virtual machines are running entirely in RAM, they have the best possible
performance.

· Allow some virtual machine memory to be
swapped — Allow the host operating system to swap a moderate amount of
virtual machine memory to disk if necessary. This setting allows you to
increase the number or memory size of virtual machines that can run on the host
computer at a given time. It may also result in reduced performance if virtual
machine memory must be shifted between RAM and disk.

· Allow most virtual machine memory to be
swapped — Allow the host operating system to swap as much virtual machine
memory to disk as it wants. This setting allows you to run even more virtual
machines with even more memory than the intermediate setting does. In this
case, too, performance may be lower if virtual machine memory must be shifted
between RAM and disk.

Matthew Bookspan

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/65247#Comment_65247

Interesting. I am unaware that these were available options on Fusion. I'll go check this out. Thank you very much.

Matthew