Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition installation

Good morning,

I have to install a Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition SP1 on a
HP ProLiant ML350 G5 server with 8 Gb RAM. The machine is going to run
a VMWare Server installation with 3 virtual machines.

With lower memory systems, the virtual memory configuration uses to be
about 1.5 times the RAM, but I don't know what is the optimal
pagefile.sys size configuration for 8Gb RAM systems.

By the way, I'm going to define 3 partitions on the array controller:
one for the system files, another for pagefiles and the last for the
virtual machines files. Will be enough with 10Gb for the system files?
Is necessary to give much more space to the pagefile partition?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Samu

Normaly the virtual memory size depends on the crashdump size
But thinking about a host OS, using its pagefile**
In which geust OS's are active who each use also in their guesthost a
virtual pagefile.. Makes me personaly wonder if virtualization has flaws in
desing..
** >> (when using full crash dumps for a potential 8 gig mem cras....)

Just for test i would try to run with minimal pagefile, so there will be
less swapping and guests should run from memory.. There are even registry
tricks to run a server entirly from mem without pagefile, try google to find
such tricks.


But i'm not an expert in this, i would use perfmon and then look for
bottlenecks of your host-system. This is often the way to go with performance
questions. One can take a good gues about something in the end the only proof
of how it alll works out is measuring it with perfmon. It might as well then
turnout that your memory is oke but your disks are to slow. ( i see that
often)


--
I always have your towl nearby ready to take off


"Samu" wrote:

> Good morning,
>
> I have to install a Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition SP1 on a
> HP ProLiant ML350 G5 server with 8 Gb RAM. The machine is going to run
> a VMWare Server installation with 3 virtual machines.
>
> With lower memory systems, the virtual memory configuration uses to be
> about 1.5 times the RAM, but I don't know what is the optimal
> pagefile.sys size configuration for 8Gb RAM systems.
>
> By the way, I'm going to define 3 partitions on the array controller:
> one for the system files, another for pagefiles and the last for the
> virtual machines files. Will be enough with 10Gb for the system files?
> Is necessary to give much more space to the pagefile partition?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Best regards,
> Samu
>

Hello,
Even though this article references pagefiles for x64, what it's really
doing is explaining what to track on your system to determine pagefile
usage, which in turn helps to determine whether you need more space
assigned to the pagefile or not.
889654 How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions
of Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;889654
It's not an answer that is the same for everyone.

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|> Thread-Topic: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition installation
|> thread-index: Ach3/zc8w172Dp5mTJ2HuszGGlPNIQ==
|> X-WBNR-Posting-Host: 207.46.192.207
|> From: =?Utf-8?B?VHJhbnNHYWxhY3RpY19IaXRjaEhpY2tlcg==?=
<TransGalacticHitchHicker@discussions.microsoft.com>
|> References:
<0793b159-3833-4e2f-9fa3-a59107548111@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
|> Subject: RE: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition installation
|> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:39:00 -0800
|> Lines: 47
|> Message-ID: <AE4CB357-43F8-4A28-B48E-32FB62BFD9BC@microsoft.com>
|> MIME-Version: 1.0
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|> charset="Utf-8"
|> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|> X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
|> Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
|> Importance: normal
|> Priority: normal
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|> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
|> Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
|> Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.windows.server.setup:3633
|> NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftibfm01.phx.gbl 10.40.244.149
|> X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
|>
|> Normaly the virtual memory size depends on the crashdump size
|> But thinking about a host OS, using its pagefile**
|> In which geust OS's are active who each use also in their guesthost a
|> virtual pagefile.. Makes me personaly wonder if virtualization has flaws
in
|> desing..
|> ** >> (when using full crash dumps for a potential 8 gig mem cras....)
|>
|> Just for test i would try to run with minimal pagefile, so there will be
|> less swapping and guests should run from memory.. There are even
registry
|> tricks to run a server entirly from mem without pagefile, try google to
find
|> such tricks.
|>
|>
|> But i'm not an expert in this, i would use perfmon and then look for
|> bottlenecks of your host-system. This is often the way to go with
performance
|> questions. One can take a good gues about something in the end the only
proof
|> of how it alll works out is measuring it with perfmon. It might as well
then
|> turnout that your memory is oke but your disks are to slow. ( i see that
|> often)
|>
|>
|> --
|> I always have your towl nearby ready to take off
|>
|>
|> "Samu" wrote:
|>
|> > Good morning,
|> >
|> > I have to install a Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition SP1 on a
|> > HP ProLiant ML350 G5 server with 8 Gb RAM. The machine is going to run
|> > a VMWare Server installation with 3 virtual machines.
|> >
|> > With lower memory systems, the virtual memory configuration uses to be
|> > about 1.5 times the RAM, but I don't know what is the optimal
|> > pagefile.sys size configuration for 8Gb RAM systems.
|> >
|> > By the way, I'm going to define 3 partitions on the array controller:
|> > one for the system files, another for pagefiles and the last for the
|> > virtual machines files. Will be enough with 10Gb for the system files?
|> > Is necessary to give much more space to the pagefile partition?
|> >
|> > Thanks in advance!
|> >
|> > Best regards,
|> > Samu
|> >
|>

What about crash dump? The 'default' size when W2K3 is installed is 1.5
times RAM up to 4096 Meg. Will I jeapordize my ability to get a crash dump
if I have say 10 GIG of RAM but I only have a pagefile of 4096 Meg?


""Darrell Gorter[MSFT]"" wrote:

> Hello,
> Even though this article references pagefiles for x64, what it's really
> doing is explaining what to track on your system to determine pagefile
> usage, which in turn helps to determine whether you need more space
> assigned to the pagefile or not.
> 889654 How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions
> of Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;889654
> It's not an answer that is the same for everyone.
>
> Thanks,
> Darrell Gorter[MSFT]
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
> --------------------
> |> Thread-Topic: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition installation
> |> thread-index: Ach3/zc8w172Dp5mTJ2HuszGGlPNIQ==
> |> X-WBNR-Posting-Host: 207.46.192.207
> |> From: =?Utf-8?B?VHJhbnNHYWxhY3RpY19IaXRjaEhpY2tlcg==?=
> <TransGalacticHitchHicker@discussions.microsoft.com>
> |> References:
> <0793b159-3833-4e2f-9fa3-a59107548111@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
> |> Subject: RE: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition installation
> |> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:39:00 -0800
> |> Lines: 47
> |> Message-ID: <AE4CB357-43F8-4A28-B48E-32FB62BFD9BC@microsoft.com>
> |> MIME-Version: 1.0
> |> Content-Type: text/plain;
> |> charset="Utf-8"
> |> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> |> X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
> |> Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
> |> Importance: normal
> |> Priority: normal
> |> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.2992
> |> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
> |> Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
> |> Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.windows.server.setup:3633
> |> NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftibfm01.phx.gbl 10.40.244.149
> |> X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
> |>
> |> Normaly the virtual memory size depends on the crashdump size
> |> But thinking about a host OS, using its pagefile**
> |> In which geust OS's are active who each use also in their guesthost a
> |> virtual pagefile.. Makes me personaly wonder if virtualization has flaws
> in
> |> desing..
> |> ** >> (when using full crash dumps for a potential 8 gig mem cras....)
> |>
> |> Just for test i would try to run with minimal pagefile, so there will be
> |> less swapping and guests should run from memory.. There are even
> registry
> |> tricks to run a server entirly from mem without pagefile, try google to
> find
> |> such tricks.
> |>
> |>
> |> But i'm not an expert in this, i would use perfmon and then look for
> |> bottlenecks of your host-system. This is often the way to go with
> performance
> |> questions. One can take a good gues about something in the end the only
> proof
> |> of how it alll works out is measuring it with perfmon. It might as well
> then
> |> turnout that your memory is oke but your disks are to slow. ( i see that
> |> often)
> |>
> |>
> |> --
> |> I always have your towl nearby ready to take off
> |>
> |>
> |> "Samu" wrote:
> |>
> |> > Good morning,
> |> >
> |> > I have to install a Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition SP1 on a
> |> > HP ProLiant ML350 G5 server with 8 Gb RAM. The machine is going to run
> |> > a VMWare Server installation with 3 virtual machines.
> |> >
> |> > With lower memory systems, the virtual memory configuration uses to be
> |> > about 1.5 times the RAM, but I don't know what is the optimal
> |> > pagefile.sys size configuration for 8Gb RAM systems.
> |> >
> |> > By the way, I'm going to define 3 partitions on the array controller:
> |> > one for the system files, another for pagefiles and the last for the
> |> > virtual machines files. Will be enough with 10Gb for the system files?
> |> > Is necessary to give much more space to the pagefile partition?
> |> >
> |> > Thanks in advance!
> |> >
> |> > Best regards,
> |> > Samu
> |> >
> |>
>
>

I would just use system managed size.