Tunning 8.0 for multiple VMs (VBox)

Mario Lobo lobo at bsd.com.br
Sat Nov 28 12:09:54 UTC 2009


Hi to all;

I have a system where I will be running 5 VBox VMs (3 W2K3, 1 XP & 1 Linux) 
for a lab simulation (work obligations). I have already ran the 5 VMs with a 
regular load on each and everything went fine. I think VBox is truly a great 
VM Manager, and it runs better (smoother and faster) in FBSD than in any other 
OS I tried it (Ubuntu, Winblows and OpenSolaris (!) ). 

Along the years, I've been running FBSD, picking up info from any "Tuning  
FreeBSD" guide I could find, starting with the handbook of course, going 
through articles and mailing list archives, trying to find a balance that 
would fit my desktop, among the several roles FreeBSD is used for.

I would like to expose the hardware/settings I have now to the list, to see if 
what I've done is appropriate, over or under rated (or simply stupid), to 
squeeze every drop of performance FreeBSD can give with what I have. It is 
pretty fast as it is but it never hurts attempting to make it even better. 

Please bear 2 things in mind:
1) I am trying to learn here; 
2) This is a Desktop machine (not a server!), sitting on my home LAN, behind a 
properly configured (again, to the best of my modest ability) firewall. It is 
used for everyday tasks, plus developing and music production.

I am posting what I believe to be most relevant. 

Thank you all before hand for any advice. Here it goes:

[Machine]

FreeBSD 8.0-PRERELEASE #0 r198930M: Sat Nov 21 14:24:10 BRT 2009 
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (3193.08-MHz K8-class CPU)
 <Cool`n'Quiet 2.0> on cpu0
 cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
 cpu2: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
 cpu3: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
MB:  AOD790GX/128M
RAM: real mem = 8589934592 (8192 MB) avail mem = 7994658816 (7624 MB) 
VIDEO:<ATI Radeon 3300 Graphics> on vgapci0
NET: <RealTek PCIe Gigabit Ethernet>  (yeah, i know...)
HD1: 476940MB <MAXTOR STM3500320AS MX15> at ata2-master SATA300
HD2: 476940MB <MAXTOR STM3500320AS MX15> at ata3-master SATA300

[loader.conf]

verbose_loading="YES"
amdtemp_load="YES"
drm_load="YES"
radeon_load="YES"
linux_load="YES"
vboxdrv_load="YES"
# vboxnetflt and #vboxnetadp loaded later
snd_cmi_load="YES"
atapicam_load="YES"
cpufreq_load="YES"

[rc.conf]

background_fsck="NO"
check_quotas="NO"
clear_tmp_enable="YES"
compat4x_enable="YES"
compat5x_enable="YES"
compat6x_enable="YES"
compat7x_enable="YES"
kern_securelevel_enable="NO"
tcp_extensions="YES"
defaultrouter="10.10.10.1"
hostname="me"
gateway_enable="NO"
ifconfig_re0="inet 10.10.10.2  netmask 255.255.255.0"
linux_enable="YES"
inetd_enable="NO"
sendmail_enable="NONE"
sshd_enable="YES"
smbd_enable="YES"
usbd_enable="YES"
cupsd_enable="YES"
fusefs_enable="YES"
fusefs_safe="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
powerd_enable="YES"
# powerd_flags="-i 92 -r 65 -p 200"
powerd_flags="-p 200"
font8x8="cp850-8x8"
font8x14="cp850-8x14"
font8x16="cp850-8x16"
keymap="br275.iso.acc.kbd"

[sysctl.conf]

debug.cpufreq.lowest=1250
vfs.read_max=32
kern.maxvnodes=400000
kern.maxfiles=65536
kern.maxfilesperproc=32768
kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=524288
kern.module_path=/boot/kernel;/boot/modules;/usr/local/modules
compat.linux.osrelease=2.6.16
kern.ipc.shmmax=1036870912
kern.ipc.shmall=261072


Thanks,

-- 
Mario Lobo
http://www.mallavoodoo.com.br
FreeBSD since version 2.2.8 [not Pro-Audio.... YET!!] (99,7% winfoes FREE)


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