VMware recently released a whitepaper
showing the performance scalability of SharePoint Server 2007 on VMware
vSphere 4.1. This paper demonstrates that vSphere 4.1 exhibits high
performance and includes advanced features that can improve the overall
user experience in multi-tier applications such as SharePoint.
Results
of the experiments, in which up to 171,600 heavy SharePoint users were
supported on a single physical server, highlight the benefits gained by
the ability to easily deploy additional SharePoint virtual machines as
needed to satisfy changing demands
This
paper also discusses some of the advanced features of VMware vSphere
4.1—such as memory compression, NUMA-aware resource management, and
inter-VM communication—that allow vSphere to efficiently virtualize
resource-intensive and latency-sensitive applications. The paper
concludes with a set of recommended best-practices for achieving optimal
SharePoint performance on VMware vSphere 4.1. For more information on
this research, read the full paper: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Performance on VMware vSphere 4.1.