VMware FancyCache strategy

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GaryMedia
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VMware FancyCache strategy

Post by GaryMedia »

I am planning an installation of FancyCache into a VMware machine. Here's the planned environment:
+ MacBook Pro 16GB RAM
+ 512GB SSD (Corsair m4) - partitioned approx in half with MacOS and BootCamp Win7-32bit
+ VMware Fusion 3.1.4 - 3GB RAM allocated - Win7-32bit guest.

The currently running environment is the same as the planned environment except that there's a 500GB Seagate hybrid (4GB-SSD) drive installed (I'm upgrading). My objective is to reduce/eliminate the quantity of write activity that seems to be constantly happening from the Win7 guest to the hard drive. Load and activity don't seem to affect the trickle of writing (around 20 I/O per second) that's there all the time when the Win7 guest is running.

I am hoping that either FancyCache or a combination of FancyCache and Primo RAMdisk will provide a way forward to reduce the premature wear on the SSD that could happen when Win7 is running. The 3GB RAM for Win7 was chosen because the knowledge base in VMware shows that amount to be visible/usable/effective.

What do you recommend?
JimF
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Re: VMware FancyCache strategy

Post by JimF »

GaryMedia wrote:I am hoping that either FancyCache or a combination of FancyCache and Primo RAMdisk will provide a way forward to reduce the premature wear on the SSD that could happen when Win7 is running. The 3GB RAM for Win7 was chosen because the knowledge base in VMware shows that amount to be visible/usable/effective.

What do you recommend?
How much writing do you have? You can try out the FancyCache statistics monitor to see. Set the deferred write latency to 24 hours (86400 seconds) to check it. If it is less than 50 GB/day, I wouldn't worry about it, especially with your large SSD. The wear leveling should keep it in good shape for longer than you have your PC.

Of course, you might want FancyCache for other reasons, since it will speed up writes. But I wouldn't bother with caching reads on an SSD; it is just a waste of RAM space that could be better used for caching writes, or leaving free for the OS. Win7 is good at caching programs itself to a point.
InquiringMind
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Re: VMware FancyCache strategy

Post by InquiringMind »

Romex,
User levinagill is posting SEO links (with near-nonsense posts) for his own website in posts here and in his profile (link-spamming). Assuming that spam is barred, such posts should be removed - thanks!
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Support
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Re: VMware FancyCache strategy

Post by Support »

Hi InquiringMind,

Thank you. Have removed his posts.
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