Question : VMWare ESXi v4 CPU resource allocation question

I'm running a frontend and backend Exchange 2003 server on one ESXi host.  Both VM's tend to have random processing spikes.  This is normal considering the frontend server is running GFI Mail Essentiails, Security, and BB Enterprise server.  The backend server has 65 mailboxes connected to it and it's DB is 65 GB's.  I don't mind the VM 'frontend' performing slower than normal for users are not accessing that server directly and/or interactively, however, a few times a day when the processor spikes it tends to result in Outlook clients hanging while waiting for the server to respond...  Attached are snapshots of my available resources and how the CPU resources are allocated.  I was wondering if I could allocate more CPU to my backend server to give my users a better experience...  I'm not sure if the current config is handing the amount of CPU resource I need it to receive.  I noticed the shares are at 1,000.  Not sure if that's limiting my overall CPU availability.

Attachments:

resource-summary-ESXi-host.jpg (141 KB) (File Type Details) 

resource summary of ESXi host

resource-allocation-VM-snapshot.jpg (62 KB) (File Type Details) 

resource allocation of VM

resource-allocation-host-snapsho.jpg (73 KB) (File Type Details) 

resource allocatino of host

Answer : VMWare ESXi v4 CPU resource allocation question

I'm not surprised that it runs better without SAV on it :)

If you want to know how to give a VM more CPUs, power down the VM, right-click on it, Edit Settings, then select CPU on the left and allocate another vCPU on the right if you want to. Be cautious about allocating more vCPU resources as this can potentially degrade VM performance. If that is the case the fix is obviously easy...reconfigure the VM to have 1 vCPU. How much RAM did you give your VMs? I see you don't have a whole lot in your host (10GB?). Your Exchg VMs, IMO, should have a minimum of 4GB.

~coolsport00