I am building a web server right now that will be hosted at a colo facility.
It will be a dual core Xeon @ 3GHz with 8GB RAM and SATA disks. I plan to
run IIS, DNS, SMTP, and SQL Express. Is there any performance benefit to
installing the different services in VMs versus all in the host OS which will
be Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard?

Probably not performance benefits, but there are good reasons why one would
separate out certain applications or services onto separate virtual
machines. Some of these reasons include management, separation of
administration, scalability capabilities, etc. Just remember - treat your
VM architecture decisions no differently than you would when considering
physical servers and their purposes.

Hope this helps,
--Ryan

--
Ryan Sokolowski
MVP - Clustering
MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x8, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP


"Detroit J" <DetroitJ@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0DFA1C5D-0603-494B-8601-ECA080F5353F@xxxxxx

>I am building a web server right now that will be hosted at a colo
>facility.
> It will be a dual core Xeon @ 3GHz with 8GB RAM and SATA disks. I plan to
> run IIS, DNS, SMTP, and SQL Express. Is there any performance benefit to
> installing the different services in VMs versus all in the host OS which
> will
> be Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard?

Thank you very much. I didn't think there would be any performance benefits
but I wanted to double check with the world at large.

"Ryan Sokolowski [MVP]" wrote:

> Probably not performance benefits, but there are good reasons why one would
> separate out certain applications or services onto separate virtual
> machines. Some of these reasons include management, separation of
> administration, scalability capabilities, etc. Just remember - treat your
> VM architecture decisions no differently than you would when considering
> physical servers and their purposes.
>
> Hope this helps,
> --Ryan
>
> --
> Ryan Sokolowski
> MVP - Clustering
> MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x8, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP
>
>
> "Detroit J" <DetroitJ@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:0DFA1C5D-0603-494B-8601-ECA080F5353F@xxxxxx

> >I am building a web server right now that will be hosted at a colo
> >facility.
> > It will be a dual core Xeon @ 3GHz with 8GB RAM and SATA disks. I plan to
> > run IIS, DNS, SMTP, and SQL Express. Is there any performance benefit to
> > installing the different services in VMs versus all in the host OS which
> > will
> > be Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard?

>

Well, I'm not the ENTIRE "world at large" - just a guy with one
opinion...but I'm happy to help - and thanks for saying "Thanks."

--
Ryan Sokolowski
MVP - Clustering
MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x8, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP


"Detroit J" <DetroitJ@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E46E905D-4CB9-4A33-9329-C8239675AF14@xxxxxx

> Thank you very much. I didn't think there would be any performance
> benefits
> but I wanted to double check with the world at large.
>
> "Ryan Sokolowski [MVP]" wrote:
>

>> Probably not performance benefits, but there are good reasons why one
>> would
>> separate out certain applications or services onto separate virtual
>> machines. Some of these reasons include management, separation of
>> administration, scalability capabilities, etc. Just remember - treat
>> your
>> VM architecture decisions no differently than you would when considering
>> physical servers and their purposes.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> --Ryan
>>
>> --
>> Ryan Sokolowski
>> MVP - Clustering
>> MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x8, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP
>>
>>
>> "Detroit J" <DetroitJ@xxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:0DFA1C5D-0603-494B-8601-ECA080F5353F@xxxxxx

>> >I am building a web server right now that will be hosted at a colo
>> >facility.
>> > It will be a dual core Xeon @ 3GHz with 8GB RAM and SATA disks. I plan
>> > to
>> > run IIS, DNS, SMTP, and SQL Express. Is there any performance benefit
>> > to
>> > installing the different services in VMs versus all in the host OS
>> > which
>> > will
>> > be Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard?

>>

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:59:03 -0800, Detroit J
<DetroitJ@xxxxxx> wrote:

>Thank you very much. I didn't think there would be any performance benefits
>but I wanted to double check with the world at large.
>

but if you outgrow your current server, using VMs, you could simply
move a couple of the VMs off to a new server and split the workload up
without needing to remove roles from the single box.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/