2 Virtual PCs or 1 Proper?

Message boards : Number crunching : 2 Virtual PCs or 1 Proper?

Author	Message
Fullsus Send message Joined: 7 Apr 08 Posts: 7 Credit: 375,329 RAC: 988	Message 1317893 - Posted: 20 Dec 2012, 23:47:26 UTC
	Hi All I've got a HP ML110 G6 Sever with a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3430 @ 2.40GHz (4 core), 12GB Ram , 2 x 1TB and 1 x250GB Drives. I'm wondering whether I would get better performance from this with a single OS installed or whether running it under VMware as 2 virtual PCs. My instinct tells running a couple of virtual PCs would be better, but has anybody looked into this already? Any thought on this would be appreciated?
	ID: 1317893 ·

Terror Australis Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 14 Feb 04 Posts: 1417 Credit: 181,686,777 RAC: 158,553	Message 1317945 - Posted: 21 Dec 2012, 2:21:34 UTC - in response to Message 1317893. Last modified: 21 Dec 2012, 2:23:16 UTC
	Hi All I've got a HP ML110 G6 Sever with a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3430 @ 2.40GHz (4 core), 12GB Ram , 2 x 1TB and 1 x250GB Drives. I'm wondering whether I would get better performance from this with a single OS installed or whether running it under VMware as 2 virtual PCs. My instinct tells running a couple of virtual PCs would be better, but has anybody looked into this already? Any thought on this would be appreciated? I've played around with VM's in the past with different combinations of host and VM OS's (Windows + Linux, Linux + Windows, Win + Win and Linux + Linux). In all cases I found that the overhead of the VM program (I used VMWare) negated any possible gain. Both Windows and Linux VM's ran slower than the same OS in Native mode. Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to run BOINC on a VM, such as wanting to run different projects on each VM. I wouldn't recommend it. T.A.
	ID: 1317945 ·

Fullsus Send message Joined: 7 Apr 08 Posts: 7 Credit: 375,329 RAC: 988	Message 1318015 - Posted: 21 Dec 2012, 6:48:56 UTC - in response to Message 1317945.
	Cheers for your quick answer. I wasn't sure as any processor can only be pushed so far whether it's VM or not. I thought maybe the fact that I could set the 2 VMs so that they were running on different disks optimizing the Hard disks might be a bonus. I do run malaria control as well. But I suppose I could also install a cheap GPU into my server in native mode which would help tremendously. Cheers, Steven
	ID: 1318015 ·

rob smith Volunteer moderator Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 5447 Credit: 20,618,535 RAC: 126,385	Message 1318049 - Posted: 21 Dec 2012, 9:00:51 UTC
	Intuitively two VMs will be lower than a single instance of BOINC running S@H on a multi-core (or multi-thread) machine. I say this because there is an overhead associated with running VMs - the VM manager is a task that consumes some CPU cycles to sort out things like disk and video access. VMs are great for low CPU use jobs, but S@H is a very heavy suer of the CPU - on my 6 core all 5 cores are maxed out most of the time. Also S@H is a low disk demand process, only accessing the disk at the start of a new work unit and about once a minute to do a check-point save so there is little to be gained by having uber-fast disk access by whatever technology. ____________ Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?
	ID: 1318049 ·

HAL9000 Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 3278 Credit: 76,714,139 RAC: 77,156	Message 1318227 - Posted: 21 Dec 2012, 17:29:00 UTC Last modified: 21 Dec 2012, 17:30:02 UTC
	IIRC a 3% hit in performance is a "best case" when running in a VM. Another option to consider is to run BOINC on the native OS & then VM's on top of that. That is what I am currently doing with my 24 core box. I am using Windows as the native OS with VirtualBox for the VM's. It is a larger hit in performance for the VM's, but the VM's I am running are very low load, such as DHCP & DNS. So if they have to wait a few extra clock cycles it doesn't really matter. ____________ SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the BP6/VP6 User Group today!
	ID: 1318227 ·

Fullsus Send message Joined: 7 Apr 08 Posts: 7 Credit: 375,329 RAC: 988	Message 1318402 - Posted: 21 Dec 2012, 20:23:24 UTC - in response to Message 1318227.
	Cheers for the heads up guys it looks like native is the way to go. HAl9000.. I'm loving the 24 Cores. You've got to love progress. ;-) Also, I havn't used Virtual box before but I might have to take a wee look at it. Steven
	ID: 1318402 ·

Message boards : Number crunching : 2 Virtual PCs or 1 Proper?