How to increase VMware Workstation 8 performance?

Question

I want to add temporary files to /dev/shm with my VMware but I found this hack to improve the perfomance of the vm:

mount -t tmpfs -o size=5G,nr_inodes=5k,mode=700 tmpfs /disk2/tmpfs

But I don't know what it's doing (it's adaptive ramdisk) and why it could help to improve the performance? Do I've add this to my fstab? This is my vmware settings:

#temp directory 
tmpDirectory="/disk2/tmpfs"
# bugfix
host.cpukHz = "2200000"
host.noTSC = "TRUE"
ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE"
# I/O fix
prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE"
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
# temp file fix
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
MemTrimRate=0
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
# Cpu fix
mem.ShareScanTotal=0
mem.ShareScanVM=0
mem.ShareScanThreshold=2024
sched.mem.maxmemctl=0
sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"
# Disable 3d
mks.enable3d = "true"

Maybe this is the correct command: tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,size=5G,nr_inodes=5k,mode=700 0 0?

Answer 1

This setting increased the performance of my guest a lot. My host is a 64 bit Linux box with BFS and the timer is at 1500hz. My host has 6GB physical ram and I created a 5GB ramdisk.

# create a ramdisk    
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,size=5G,nr_inodes=5k,mode=700 0 0

#temp directory 
tmpDirectory="/dev/shm"
# bugfix
host.cpukHz = "XXXX"
host.noTSC = "TRUE"
ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE"
sched.cpu.max = "xxxx"
# I/O fix
prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE"
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
# prevent swapping
mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"
mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"
# temp file fix
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
MemTrimRate=0
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
# Cpu fix
mem.ShareScanTotal=0
mem.ShareScanVM=0
mem.ShareScanThreshold=4096
sched.mem.maxmemctl=0
sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"
# Disable 3d
mks.enable3d = "false"
#
diskLib.maxUnsyncedWrites = "0"
diskLib.dataCachePageSize = "4096"
diskLib.dataCacheMinReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxReadAheadSize = "0"
disk.locking = "FALSE"
#
logging = "FALSE"
snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"
#
priority.grabbed = "high"
priority.ungrabbed = "normal"
# Enabling VT-x if Unlocked
hv.enableIfUnlocked = "TRUE"
# Linux
mainmem.backing= "swap"
#
disable_acceleration = "FALSE"
hard-disk.enableIBR = "FALSE"

It's also recommended to compile a kernel with max 1khz timer freqquency.

1. https://serverfault.com/questions/275637/degraded-disk-io-performance-on-esx-4-1-over-time
2. Windows 7 kills VMWare performance by disk caching?
3. https://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/post-you-vmware-workstation-optimization-parameters-in-linux.117618/
4. https://virtualizationreview.com/blogs/virtual-insider/2011/06/top-10-vmware-view-performance-tips.aspx
5. https://miketabor.com/my-vmware-view-windows7-optimization-guide/