Running Portfolio Server 2007 and Project Server 2007 under VMWare?

[anovak]

We have been debating this for quite a time and that's whether or not
to run Microsoft's EPM solution under VMWare.

We are already aware that Microsoft doesn't officially support it and
I've had 3 independent groups recommend not following that approach.
I've heard everything from as much as a 25% performance hit to one of
the Portfolio modules crashing under some version of VMWare
(apparently Microsoft has acknowledged this problem).

However, we fully embrace VMWare in general and are not 100% convinced
that this is not an option. Does anyone run these products
successfully under VMWare and do you recommend it?

If not, what are the compelling (technical) reasons not to?

Thanks,
Andy Novak
University of North Texas

 

[Marc Soester]

We have run them on VM and VPC images and it worked fine, BUT you will have
preformance issues, especially if you run your database on the same VM. For
testing and persentation purpose, it is ok, but running in a production
environment may not be the best solution
Hope this helps

 

[anovak]

Marc,
Could you elaborate on the performance issues? What kind (project
pro; wpa)? How much?
Please be as specific as you can and I'd appreciate examples.
We will have about 300 total users (not concurrent), about 38
accessing across a WAN - 20 from project pro client -and no more than
400 active projects.
Thanks,
Andy

 

[Marc Soester [MVP]]

Hi Anovak,
sorry for the delayed reply. I was on holdiday.
Given the numbers you have presented, it is hard to say if you will face
preformance issues since it also depends on your hardware resources you have
available.

The installations we have done on VM have been working ok, appart from the
performance where some people found PWA working fairly slowly. I only have
about 20 PM/s and 40TM working on the server at present, but sitll have some
issues somethimes. I am not convinst that it is Project Server, but also
their network, which at times seems to be very slow.

My personal take on this is: if you are serrious about Porject Server and
Portfolio Server, then give it the right hardware. Afterall both are
enterprise software, which are usually very important within an organisation.
You dont want to comprimise on performance. But this is only my personal
oppinion
Hope this helps