Virtualization with Hyper-V and Memory Paging File

We have discussed many topics on Virtualization, almost all are related to Virtualization on Linux Operating System. Regardless of the host and guest Operating System running Virtualization, probably most writings on Virtualization is actually for Linux as it is, obviously the most used Server OS.

But, the end users who runs Virtualization on Hyper-V Server Server 2008 R2, needs some answers regarding the Memory Paging File.

This article on Virtualization is actually written for a visitor who left a question.

Understanding Virtualization on Hyper-V and Memory Paging File

Most important aspects of the setting or rather performance depends on fine tuning of any operating system, whether it is Linux, Windows or Mac. The same thing applies when Virtualization is running and it is the correct sizing of swap space or memory paging file which can leverage the performance of Virtualization platform.

Usually 2x Physical RAM is alloted for proper running of Virtualization under Red Hat Linux, but, these rule might needed to be changed for Microsoft’s Hyper-V.  IOPS are saving space and reducing the paging file, while reduction of administrative burden to let the system decide the size of the paging file.

We discussed the topic of Virtualization with Hyper-V and Memory Paging file with an expert

The answer from the expert on Virtualization with Hyper-V and Memory Paging file was straight forward : depends on the case. He shared us a bit in depth knowledge with us.

Firstly he emphasized the reason behind for wanting a bigger paging file for proper functioning of Virtualization with Hyper-V.

As we are dealing with Hyper-V, the only reason we can think of to have a pagefile.sys big would be large enough so that in case of occurrence of a fatal system error, this has enough space to make a full memory dump to disk.

Do not forget an important point of the Hyper-V platform running Virtualization, the virtual machines consume physical memory and virtual memory, so in this respect, having a larger paging file does not means wastage of space.

Finally, having a paging file constantly waxing and waning with an intensely running Virtualization  system, merely lead to a possible fragmentation of the system, so if you consider also that by default it is located in the system volume, this is not exactly the best of situations.

So taking into account all the above, a paging file of between 4 and 6 GB would be more than enough for a Hyper-V host to run Virtualization nicely.

Many thanks to Dr. Paul J. Roberts, for his excellent information on Virtualization with Hyper-V for answering our reader’s question. As we have said ago, we do not have much articles on Microsoft centric Virtualization, but this article on Virtualization; Virtualization Software for Server, Workstation and Desktop might be help for you as well.