PS2007 Hardware vs. Virtualization for Upgrade to x64

[Rick F.]

We are looking to upgrade our current PS2007 from 32bit to 64bit servers,
mainly to increase performance as we have grown in use to the point where we
are out growing our current processsing capacity. Of course, our IT group
would like to go virtual servers with this, but I've been hearing in forums,
blogs and word of mouth that there are performance problems when running
Project Server in a virtual environment.

Can anyone supply feedback or experiences to indicate whether we should stay
away from virtualization altogether? Is it possible to run a mixed
environment (redirect heavy users to HW app servers, light users to a
virtualized app server and hardware on the db server)? This is a big issue
with the push for virtualization, so I'm really interested in what others are
running up against. Your comments please

 

[Ben Howard [MVP]]

Hi Rick, from a management perspective I'd virtualise everything if I could,
I especially like the ability to move virtual servers between different
physical hardware as required. There is obviously a perf overhead of
virtualisation, but given that CPU doubles every 18 months (does moore's law
still apply) this shouldn't be a big issue. Most of my CUs virtualise the
front end, but keep the SQL physical.

 

[Christophe Fiessinger [MSFT]]

If virtualization is done properly you should not have any impact on
performance.
Typically SQL is physical since it tends to be a bottleneck.
Check out these resources on TechNet:
Plan for virtual environments for Office Project Server 2007
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc850688.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/arch...ver-and-sharepoint-server-virtualization.aspx

 

[Rick F.]

Thanks Ben. We have some very large schedules, so the performance concern is
great as the 32bit environment is getting slow as usage increases. I'll take
this back to IT to continue discussion.

 

[Rick F.]

Thanks for the information Chris. I'm forwarding these links to my IT folk to
research deeper.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Rick:

I'm not in favor of virtualizing SQL Server, however we run all of our
front-end systems on VMs. I've deployed Project Server for many customers
running in VM environments. Whether you choose virtual or not, you cannot be
stingy with the resources.

 

[Rick F.]

Thanks to everyone for the information thus far. It sounds like
virtualization of the App Server piece of our setup may be an option.
However, I want to quantify our environment to see if the recommendation
still holds true as we are still hearing that we may be in for some big
performance problems due to the size of our environment.

We need to support an enterprise environment of 1000 CAL's and 150 PMs with
Project Pro access. We have extreemly large schedules (3000 - 7000 lines
spanning 2 or more years) as well as large Master/Sub programs (Master &
10-14 subs). We are hearing fro folks in the field that virtualization will
impact performance when you get over the 50 CAL range. Is that true?

Folks are very sensitive on this issue as the number one user issue here is
performance (especially from PMs who have to save/publish those big program
schedules). Is virtualization still a good bet in our environment or would we
best push back to get dedicated hardware?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Rick:

Of course you should only consider deploying on an 64bit environment. Poor
performance on save and publish is often more a desktop or network problem
than it is a server problem. I've been in plenty of environments where LAN
segments are completely overloaded or are using inferior switching
equipment. Give your PMs who manage large plans at least 2gig of RAM on
their desktops and plenty of processor speed.

All virtualization software takes some resources on the hardware, so sizing
your hardware platform is important, but as Christophe Feissinger from
Microsoft stated in his reply, virtualization should not affect your
performance if you do it correctly. Christophe is one of the top experts on
this subject on the Microsoft Project product team and his advice is highly
reliable.

 

[Rick F.]

Thanks Gary. I'll definitely carry that one home to the IT folks. I've been
suspecting network, router, NIC problems for some time on our current setup,
but can't pinpoint specifically. We are definitely going 64-bit. Just trying
to make sure we are heading in the direction of increasing, not reducing
performance

Will you be in New York next week? I'm going to be up there. Maybe we can
discuss more.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Rick:

Yes, I'm holed-up here in New York writing away on our 2010 books! Taking a
breather for lunch and the newsgroups every now and then.