Vmware & Physical Hard drive (performance) [SOLVED]

[HeXiLeD]

I dont know exactly how to explain this; but the main idea is to 'boost' the system while using vmware; or at least not to get a slower performance while using vmware.

I noticed that while using vmware with virtual 'hard drives' that the host (gentoo) is a bit less slower opening aplications and in general; than when i am not using vmware.
Gentoo gets a bit slower when doing things. This of course happens for obvious reasons.

Now my question is simple. however i dont know if i will explain it the proper way.

Q: If i use a physical and separate HD to install my vmware OS's will the general performance of the host and vmware OS, be a bit better ?
The point is to have them working in something like "full duplex" style.

ie :
/dev/sda1 -- > /boot
/dev/sda2 --> /swap
/dev/sda3 --> /
/dev/ hda --> (for vmware)


Other than this if anyone knows of any other possibilty i would like to hear about it.
I also was told by some guy in #vmware that "nobody wants to run it in the physical HD" . If this is true i ask why ?
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[darklegion]

Its works and it is useful for modifying a real windows installation or even doing repairs on damaged filesytems/partition tables etc with dos utitilities without leaving linux (not recommended for the careless).
As for it being faster, I'd say the difference is very much minimal.Likely the reason that applications or running slower on your host is because vmware needs a lot of memory, and if it runs out it will start swapping out memory.There is much debate on how to minimise this issue, doing a search here and in the vmware forums may prove useful.
What I do for my windows xp guest, is remove all useless services and replace the explorer shell with an alternative shell (Liteshell in my case).I only need to assign 128mb for the VM and it works fine.However, I am still not 100% this is the best method as this could result in swapping occurring inside the VM.You could try setting a higher value then you'll likely need for memory and setting "Edit > Preferences > Memory > Fit all virtual machine memory in reserved host RAM.".

The other reason for slower VM performance is just that vmware is a layer on top of your host operating system and this layer is never going to be as efficient as accessing your hardware directly from the host.

[HeXiLeD]

[HeXiLeD]

Currently my OS has the following settings:

sata #1 - 36gb - 10k
sda1 = boot (ext2)
sda2 = swap (swap)
sda3 = / (reiserfs) <-------- (i should have gone with XFS on this one)

sata #2 - 400gb
sdb1 = mounted /home (ext3)

Ide #1 200gb (ext3)
hdg = mounted /home/vmware (ext3)

I am not using a physical disc install to run vmware OS's but i do notice better performance for both vmware operating systems and gentoo.

since the host will be free from running the vmware installed operating systems in the same HD as it's Gentoo install (sda3); it becames 'free' of some extra 'stress' when reading the file system that is now on separate drive(hdg)

the idea is something like what is called 'full duplex'

This way i can be using both sda3 and hdg at the same time with the activity being divided by them, insted of having all the effort being made by just one HD.

This topic is now solved for me
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With age, comes great grumpiness and that, was 20 years ago...

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