Tips that can help *some* reduce VM diskspace and i/o

[bonebox 36]

This is mainly for people with a decent amount of host ram but couple of people asked about this so....

On Host:

If you've got your VMware setup to fit all VM memory into ram VMware still pointlessly creates a mem swapfile (you'll see a vmem file in the vm folder when the vm is running that's the same size as the memory you've allocated to it). To stop this edit the settings.ini file in C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\ and add the line:

mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"

You need to restart VMware to apply this.

In each VM:

This one's for everyone regardless of host ram. In the OS of each of the VMs, check you have hibernation support disabled (it creates a hidden hiberfile.sys file in the root that's the same size as the memory the VM sees). If it's on (which depending on the OS install you used it can be by default, it is with a full Win 7 and some lite) you can get rid of it by disabling hibernation. Open an elevated command prompt (right click on cmd and run as administrator) and type:

powercfg -h off

If you're lucky enough to have enough host ram to assign >2.5GB physical ram to each vm then you shouldn't need the vm OS swapfile either. In each vm right click on computer go to properties -> advanced system settings then performance settings on the advanced tab then the advanced tab in that then change the virtual memory to no paging file.

If you change either of these then you'll need to defrag and compact to reclaim the space as it doesn't do that automatically.

There's a few disk i/o performance tweaks I've applied too, again if you have enough ram in your host, these go in the vmx file for each vm (edited with notepad or whatever)

Disable memory trimming: MemTrimRate = "0"

Disable page sharing: sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"

Disable snapshots: snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"

Disable scale down of memory allocation: MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

With all of this done mine are running @ ~ 7-8GB per VM and smooth as silk as there's a big reduction in disk reads/writes, mainly just the data for zones as you enter them. But I only have 4 running and have 16GB ram on the host so can fit everything into physical ram, it all depends of course on the number you're running and your system specs.

Don't think this is my imagination either; since I've done this there's been a huge drop in the number of wrong coordinate selections for the bot(picking the party board rather than the stash, overshooting the wp and subsequently missing the zone click by a few pixels etc, also item stuck on cursor). Virtually not had that happen since, makes me wonder if maybe they're worsened by a sync issue which is alleviated by the vms not being behind as much because of simultaneous disk reads. That may be balls of course but it's definitely massively improved for me.

I'm just putting all this out there as my experience, don't trash me for it if it doesn't apply to you which seems to happen when you put things up sometimes!

Edited February 23, 2014 by bonebox

[hamncheese 8]

a very nice share, and well written too

hanks for sharing this Bonebox  ::thumbsup::

[darkbluefirefly 11]

one does not need lots of ram to run lots of bots.

[ocelot 1]

one does not need lots of ram to run lots of bots.

It's true, but how about making a guide for others?

[bonebox 36]

Sorry darkbluefly I'm not understanding, is that a counter to something I've said or just a statement? I anticipated the odd comment like this so tried my hardest to repeatedly make it clear that most of this was just for those who DO have a lot of host ram, obviously not clear enough again!

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This is mainly just for people who have enough host ram to fit their vms memory requirements into physical ram

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Hopefully a bit clearer

Edited February 24, 2014 by bonebox

[foom 0]

Sorry darkbluefly I'm not understanding, is that a counter to something I've said or just a statement? I anticipated the odd comment like this so tried my hardest to repeatedly make it clear that most of this was just for those who DO have a lot of host ram, obviously not clear enough again!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is mainly just for people who have enough host ram to fit their vms memory requirements into physical ram

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully a bit clearer

Hey man - don't even bother responding to that dude.

[onlinegamer1102 1]

Great guide, there are 2 problems I have so far:

1. If you've got your VMware setup to fit all VM memory into ram VMware still pointlessly creates a mem swapfile (you'll see a vmem file in the vm folder when the vm is running that's the same size as the memory you've allocated to it). To stop this edit the settings.ini file in C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\ and add the line:

 

Where the hell is programdata? I can't find it anywhere in c:\

2.There's a few disk i/o performance tweaks I've applied too, again if you have enough ram in your host, these go in the vmx file for each vm (edited with notepad or whatever)

Disable memory trimming: MemTrimRate = "0"

Disable page sharing: sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"

Disable snapshots: snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"

Disable scale down of memory allocation: MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

um when I go into the vmx file for the virtual machines it doesn't have any of these in it. Am I supposed to add it in?