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  • 1.  Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 04, 2012 11:35 AM

    A follow on from a previous question about Altiris 7.1 Specs.

    I've just gone to set up on vmware.

    Whilst the options for number of CPU's is 1 - 8, if I set 8 I get a message "Virtual Machine has 8 virtual CPUs, but the Host only supports 4" which I believe is down to the licensing - we have vSphere 4.x Enterprise, we need vSphere 4.x Enterprise Plus.

    so setting up a server as per recomendations

    8 core / 16Gb Ram – (For a site server i.e Notification Server / Package server)

    My question is whether a 4 core server is workable for 1000 clients in vmware - has anyone else done this and found it workable? As VMware handles resources differently from physical servers.

    Thanks in advance, Sukh



  • 2.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware
    Best Answer

    Posted Jul 04, 2012 04:46 PM

    As long as you have off-box sql instance, 4 core should be fine for 1000 nodes (preferably with cpu/ram resevations of at least 50%). Of course if you find performance too slow (actually maxed cpu) then you could up the licensing and cpu afterwards. We supported > 15K clients on a physical server with 4 cpu+hyperthreading and it was fine, under 6.x (as long as sql was off-box).



  • 3.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 05, 2012 04:29 AM

    I have 7.1 running on VMWare with 4 cpus and 12 GB ram. The SQL is on another vmware server (2 cpus and 16gb ram). All works OK, the console is a little slow, but it does the job. Nothing too busy on task manager.

    Also it was managing two sites but we have only one now.

     

    Steve.



  • 4.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 05, 2012 09:39 AM

    Just use 4 CPUs and set the number of cores to 2 or set the CPU to 2 and number of core to 4.

    On ESXi 5 you can set this directly, on older versions it is necessary to use an advanced configuration parameter for this.

    Best regards,

    Andreas



  • 5.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 05, 2012 09:47 AM

    Thanks Andreas, I think my question was slightly badly worded, confusing CPUs and cores (appologies to others but input appreciated non the less) - as I'm not that hot on VMware.

    I'm guessing you mean the cpuid.coresPerSocket value? (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010184).

    If so I'll set CPUs as 4 and cpuid.coresPerSocket value as 2, to get the recomended 8 core spec! :)



  • 6.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 05, 2012 10:25 AM

    O.k just tested, upgraded from 2008 R2 Standard to enterprise because i think that's needed for 8 core support and the number of CPUs showing in task manager is still 4 CPUs. Must be the Vmware licensing.

    KSchroeder has the most useful solution, thank you Andreas.



  • 7.  RE: Altiris 7.1 running on 4 core instead of 8 as per recomended Specs in VMware

    Posted Jul 05, 2012 11:04 AM

    You can even use Windows 7 Professional with 8 cores using the way above. BTDT. So we did with Server 2008.

    Is your ESX licensing support 8-way vCPU?

    Anyway, if you are be fine with 4 cores, leave it that way, for all others: Try using the Cores per CPU switch. Most Windows Versions only support 2 to 4 CPUs, but at least 4 cores per CPU.

    Best regards,

    Andreas