pvm on SSD make any difference?

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DanSant

Bit poster
I'm running three windows instances (xp,7,8) and ubuntu server on my mac pro in parallels. I have plenty of RAM allocated to each but I'm about to unleash some heavy load on that linux server which mostly does simple file serving.

If I move that pvm to an SSD on the mac will I see any noticeable difference? SSD wouldn't be the main OSX drive, I'd simply buy a small SSD and pop it in the mac as an extra drive.
 
I did this on my MacBook Pro and a DataDoubler. I used to have a conventional drive, but the SSD works great and I will never go back. You'll see near immediate suspend/resume, reclaiming space, snapshots, and everything else will be much much faster. I found that it had a far more significant increase in performance than upgrading to 16GB RAM. It even makes the host VM run faster.

The only caution is that with SSD's, performance will fall rapidly if they become too full. Parallels will just eat up space until you're out so you'll have to keep an eye on it. If your VM's are mature and stable you probably won't have any problem.
 
Thanks for sharing Nathan.

Cool. I'm not real concerned about the suspend/restart as I don't do that very often. It was just performance of the VM while running. Also wondering if Parallels uses the OS drive or the drive where the pvm is stored for persistence while running. I'm not going to replace the main OS drive and the linux pvm is very small so was thinking of popping in like a 64meg SSD and dropping the linux pvm on that one.

I guess it's not that much money to find out trial and error method :).

Do you think the rest of your mac applications benefit a LOT from SSD? I do a lot of development on my MBP and am considering an SSD just to speed up the times when I'm drumming my fingers....
 
You'll find the overall performance of the VM improved. I use Win7 VMs and things like Outlook, Excel, Visual Studio 2010 load immediately rather than 10 to 15 seconds.

In my configuration, OSX is installed on a 1TB 5400rpm laptop drive and runs like what you'd expect. I don't do development on the Mac side, but use it for personal music, photos, Netflix, e-mail, etc. The SSD is a secondary drive and is dedicated to the two VMs of about 100GB each.

Parallels puts everything, including persistance, for a VM in the VM's bundle. You could even run with pretty good performance on a USB 3 external drive (just don't accidentally disconnect!).

Switching to an SSD is like switching from dial-up to broadband. You'll never go back. And prices on a 256GB SSD is quite low now. I bought a SanDisk 240GB for less than $200.
 
AFAIK if pvm is located on SSD drive Parallels reports virtual drive as non rotational (aka SSD). So windows will recognize it as SSD drive.
 
Thanks for clarifying Nathan. I'm gonna give it a go popping all of the pvms on an SSD. Will report back :).
 
A Windows VM knowing the drive is an SSD shouldn't make much of a difference since the VHD is fully virtualized. What is important is making sure that the Mac OS properly handles the SSD, including supporting TRIM to improve the performance and longevity of your drive. See here for details.
 
Cool, seems TRIM is a big topic for SSD's to make sure you don't burn them out early. I will be working the drive hard because it runs both the server VM and a few of the browser selenium test nodes for automated browser testing.
 
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