What hardware is suitable for 6-12 VM Windows 10 on Virtualbox?

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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TPF
Posts: 4
Joined: 1. Aug 2021, 11:52

What hardware is suitable for 6-12 VM Windows 10 on Virtualbox?

Post by TPF »

Hello,

I would like to make an extensive and complete consultation in case any of you can help me with your practical knowledge.

I currently have in the company where I work:

1 HP Z840 2x Xeon E5-2640 v0 (6x2 cores, 12x2 threads), 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Nvidia GT730
Ubuntu 18.04
VirtualBox 6.1
** Intel xeon e5-2640 v0 2.5Ghz dual passmark: 11654 (Single Thread Rating 1349)

On virtualbox they are currently running:

1 Windows Server 2012 Standard Virtual Machine (2 physical cores, 4GB RAM)
1 Xubuntu 18.04 (1 physical core, 2GB RAM)
6 Windows 7 SP1 Virtual Machines (1 physical core, 4GB RAM)
3 Windows 10 Virtual Machines (2c physical, 8GB RAM)

The virtual machines are not as fast as the physical ones installed on fourth generation i3 and i5 processors, but since they are for office work they are a little slow but fine.

I need to migrate Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 and therefore I am considering acquiring new software and incidentally obtaining a little more speed in virtual machines so I have considered acquiring the following second-hand:

1 HP Z640 (2015-2018 series) 2x Xeon E5-2680 v4 2.60Ghz (14x2 cores, 56 threads), 128GB RAM, 128GB SSD SATA (System), 1TB NVME (VM), Nvidia GT730

1 HP Z640 (2015-2018 series) 2x Xeon E5-2680 v4 2.60Ghz (14x2 cores, 56 threads), 128GB RAM, 128GB SSD SATA (System), 1TB NVME (VM), Nvidia GT730

** Intel xeon e5-2680 v4 2.40Ghz dual passmark: 29439 (Single Thread Rating: 1940)

At an approximate cost of 1400 Euros each.

Both installed with Xbuntu 18.04 and VitualBox 6.1

Each server would host 8 Windows 10 virtual machines (2c physical, 8GB RAM) and it would be possible that if one server were to fail, transfer most of its virtual machines to the other and continue working while the new server arrives.

Is this an adequate setting? Do you think it could give a good performance?

Options like Threadripper have not been taken into account because having two Threadripper machines (due to possible redundancy) is going out of budget. You could opt for Ryzen 9 but it would be more expensive than the option of HP workstations and they do not have ECC memory or remote control by AMT (Intel Management)

I would beg how many opinions and advice you can give me.

Regards, and thank you very much
TPF
Posts: 4
Joined: 1. Aug 2021, 11:52

Re: What hardware is suitable for 6-12 VM Windows 10 on Virtualbox?

Post by TPF »

Does no one have experience in a similar case?
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: What hardware is suitable for 6-12 VM Windows 10 on Virtualbox?

Post by fth0 »

VirtualBox users with large-scale setups rarely come to the VirtualBox user to user forums, and when they post here, then about problems they have. Therefore, it's difficult to gather information about positive experience here.

You've already made your own experiences. Do not count on better performance that you have not tested yourself (except for the obvious ones that more CPU cores and more RAM allow for more VMs). That's my 2c.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: What hardware is suitable for 6-12 VM Windows 10 on Virtualbox?

Post by mpack »

IMO the question is unanswerable (beyond general guidelines already mentioned). Whether you can practically run that many VMs on any host will depend greatly on what each VM is doing and when. That, and only the user can decide if the resulting performance is acceptable.
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