VmWare server 2 + Zimbra = slow

[rsw686]

Originally Posted by bougui

Our customers runs a majority of Windows 2k3 server with exchange but some of them are migrating to zimbra. For those customer who already run several windows vm over centos 5.2 x86_64 + vmware server 1.x and 2.x we need to use vmware.

We have ~ 10 sites running centos + vmware server on 2 Dell 2950 running fine.

We have SQL server Exchange and TS service for 20 to 80 users balance on 2 vmware servers and the performance is great for every vm excep Zimbra

I'm really surprised that you are using VMware Server for a production environment. ESXi is certified to run on the PowerEdge 2950 you mention and will increase you performance. The Dell OpenManage tools can be installed in a VM and will connect with the OpenManage VIB installed on ESXi so you can still manage the hardware like you would with CentOS.

With ESXi 4 you even gain paravirtualized SCSI and NIC drivers for both Windows and Linux OS. For I/O intensive applications like Exchange and Zimbra you need RAID 10 and a production level hypervisor like ESXi.

I just migrated my work VMware setup from ESX 3.5 to ESXi 4 as VMware claims ESXi has a superior architecture and is going to be moving all its development efforts towards ESXi. The nice thing is upgrades are painless with ESXi as it has two boot blocks. It installs the upgrade in the second block then marks it active so if it fails it can revert back to the previous boot block. Plus without the service console or an underlying operating system there are less patches released requiring downtime.

[bougui]

Yes We use vmware server over ESXi for 1 particular reason, we rsync vm each night across servers. Almost all our customer buys 2 identical servers and we use both for vmware. Each night I rsync vm from server 1 to server 2 in a standby dir and all vm from server 2 to server 1.

With this very simple script made with "rsync" we have a copy of all vm on a second server ready to power on in case we loose server 1.

If I can do that with ESXi I will look at it.


IT's funny to hear people say that you "need ESXi and RAID 10", its better yes but not sure we all need this ;-)

All our costumers more than 10 sites in production have vmware server and RAID 5 with SAS disk 15 RPM and all are working fine.

Our exchange expert was saying to not go on vmware with exchange and to my surprise this application runs fine in vmware for customers like we have 20-80 users / sites.

[bougui]

Another reason why I prefer vmware server over ESXi, no need for a windows machine to manage my server, I just installed ESXi 4 and found out that to just reboot a vm you need to have a windows machine with the vsphere .... That really not accpetable why not have the web interface we use to have before ?

Bye

[trantor]

Originally Posted by trantor

I don't have any test result to show you, but in my case noop gives a decent improvement.

After further investigation about my problem, I found that during Zimbra slowdown, Virtual CPU wait state was between 50 and 75% (!)

Actually I'm testing my VmWare Server 2 after following modifications:

in /etc/vmware/config:

tmpDirectory="/dev/shm"
prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize="TRUE"

In vmx file:

mem.ShareScanTotal=0
mem.ShareScanVM=0
mem.ShareScanThreshold=4096 (I have 4GB RAM on server)
sched.mem.maxmemctl=0
sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"

on host in /etc/default/tmpfs:

SHM_SIZE=4G

on host in /etc/sysctl.conf

vm.swappiness = 0
vm.overcommit_memory = 1
vm.dirty_background_ratio = 5
vm.dirty_ratio = 10
vm.dirty_expire_centisecs = 1000
dev.rtc.max-user-freq = 1024

Well, altough it is too early to say something (server is running since only 12 hours), I must say that Zimbra seems more responsive after latest modifications.

I will post again next week a more definitive feedback (positive I hope! )

Hi all

Stefano

Well, coming back on this thread after a lot of time.

I think that I've found a solution for my VmWare Server 2 speed problem.
After these modifications, and after a lot of investigations, I've decided to stop Wmware Virtual Infrastructure Web Access, and to go back to the good and old VI client.

For me this did the trick!

Zimbra is running well since 103 days without any need for a restart!

Hoping that this thread will help other "suffering" people out there,

Best regards

Stefano Bonomi

[rsw686]

Originally Posted by bougui

IT's funny to hear people say that you "need ESXi and RAID 10", its better yes but not sure we all need this ;-)

All our costumers more than 10 sites in production have vmware server and RAID 5 with SAS disk 15 RPM and all are working fine.

Our exchange expert was saying to not go on vmware with exchange and to my surprise this application runs fine in vmware for customers like we have 20-80 users / sites.

Pull up the performance monitor in the administrative tools on the Exchange server and watch the disk queue. I've found many servers where they seem to perform but the disk queue goes off the chart during backups or when setting up Outlook clients in cached mode.

I've seen Exchange setup on RAID 5, and RAID 10 will blow it out of the water performance wise. You need to do some IOP calculations for the number of spindles, rpm, seek time, and RAID level to really understand the difference.

DBAsupport.com : Oracle 10g Central : Measuring Disk I/O—A Vendor View
Yonah Russ' Journal: RAID 10 vs RAID 5: Performance, Cost, Space, and HA

Originally Posted by bougui

Another reason why I prefer vmware server over ESXi, no need for a windows machine to manage my server, I just installed ESXi 4 and found out that to just reboot a vm you need to have a windows machine with the vsphere .... That really not accpetable why not have the web interface we use to have before ?

I found the VMware Server 2.0 web interface was slow and buggy. I ended used the Windows client with it. VMware Server 1.0 required the Windows client.

With ESXi you can use the unsupported SSH console to reboot a vm with vim-cmd or the Virtual Management Assistant (VMA) appliance with vmware-cmd.

[bougui]

Originally Posted by rsw686

Pull up the performance monitor in the administrative tools on the Exchange server and watch the disk queue. I've found many servers where they seem to perform but the disk queue goes off the chart during backups or when setting up Outlook clients in cached mode.

I've seen Exchange setup on RAID 5, and RAID 10 will blow it out of the water performance wise. You need to do some IOP calculations for the number of spindles, rpm, seek time, and RAID level to really understand the difference.

I know that RAID 10 wil outperform a raid 5 but on a server with 4 or 5 disk I dont have the capacity that the customer want's for the price he will pay. So for small customer a dell 2950 with 5 disk in raid 5 will give enough performance for there need.

But again I was just saying that you dont absolutely need raid 10, it is just better than a raid 5.

Originally Posted by rsw686

I found the VMware Server 2.0 web interface was slow and buggy. I ended used the Windows client with it. VMware Server 1.0 required the Windows client.

I did not know that we could still use the old client to connect to vmware 2.x I will try that.

Originally Posted by rsw686

With ESXi you can use the unsupported SSH console to reboot a vm with vim-cmd or the Virtual Management Assistant (VMA) appliance with vmware-cmd.

Yes I saw that we can enable ssh on ESXi, do you know if there is an easy way to rsync vm accross 2 ESXi server ?

Thanks


Guillaume

[Klug]

Originally Posted by trantor

I think that I've found a solution for my VmWare Server 2 speed problem.
After these modifications, and after a lot of investigations, I've decided to stop Wmware Virtual Infrastructure Web Access, and to go back to the good and old VI client.

I just tried this.

VI Client can not connect if the Web Access is stopped (/etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt stop)...

[trantor]

Originally Posted by Klug

I just tried this.

VI Client can not connect if the Web Access is stopped (/etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt stop)...

Well.....

In my case I stopped Web Access as you did, and then I point through Explorer to https://VirtualMachineIP:8333/client...e-viclient.exe
I was then redirected to client download.

After installing the client it works for me.

I Don't know why it doesn't work in your case....

[Klug]

If the web management interface is shut down, the server doesn't answer on the web management port and you can not download the VI client from it (as it doesn't answer).

So I think you did not stop the web management but maybe something else.

[trantor]

Originally Posted by Klug

If the web management interface is shut down, the server doesn't answer on the web management port and you can not download the VI client from it (as it doesn't answer).

So I think you did not stop the web management but maybe something else.

Right, you have first to download the VI client and then to stop the Web management.
VI client use hostd service to talk with Virtual machines, not WebAccess.
You have also to modify your /etc/init.d/vmware to avoid autostart of Web Access.

Regards