[NTLUG:Discuss] VM Host Resources

[Christopher Cox]

On 01/27/2013 11:44 AM, Val Harris wrote:
> I'm planning a new desktop hardware purchase that I want to use as a virtual
> host.  (As many as 3 or 4 virtual guests will run on my new desktop; not
> necessarily at the same time.)  Given that my resources are not infinite, I'm
> trying to decide how to rank my needs between:
>
>      Processors
>      Memory
>      Hard disk space
>      and speed (of all 3 above)
>
> Does the profile change depending on whether I choose Virtualbox, KVM, or VMware?
>
> What other questions should I be asking that I haven't thought of yet?
>
> I don't really expect to be more than a casual user of the virtual guests, but
> would at least like to have reasonable options.

Memory is probably the most important.  But I suppose if you have very little 
disk space, that's important too, it's just that most machines can handle large 
drives, whereas memory is a different matter.  If you're looking at NON windows 
VMs (that is, Linux VMs) then you don't really need too much memory.  You can 
run 3 or 4 guests with just 4G quite comfortably (with room to spare).  Disk 
space wise, it depends, but a minimal Linux fits easily in 500M.  A reasonable 
desktop with everything you need fits easily in less than 8G.

Windows is a different matter.  Windows Server is even a bigger matter.  You 
want to consider a minimum of 2G per Windows desktop (and that's VERY tight) and 
probably 4G for Windows Server.  Windows also consumes a large area of disk 
space.  20G nowadays isn't really enough.

If a processor handles virtualization, chances are it's more than enough 
horsepower for 3-4 VMs today.

My laptop can do 3-4 VMs, including one Windows VM... and it's just a Core2Duo 
with 4G.  Anymore, due to the even increasing demands of Windows, most desktops 
and laptop are coming with 6G or even 8G nowadays.

I run KVM for a hypervisor.  It's fast and comes with Linux.

At my office, I have a cheap Dell Optiplex with 8G of memory.  More than 
enough... and I run a Windows 7 VM on it fulltime... the base OS I use is 
openSUSE 12.1 (for now).