From Aravind Pavuluri on the VMware performance blog, VROOM!
Link: VROOM!: Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3
Over time a number of customers have been asking us for a single
comprehensive ESX performance tuning guide that would encompass its
CPU, memory, storage, networking, resource management and DRS,
component optimizations. Finally we have the Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3 guide. …Some customers will want to carefully benchmark their ESX
installations, as a way to validate their configurations and determine their
sizing requirements. In order to help such customers with a systematic
benchmarking methodology for their virtualized workloads, we’ve added a
section in the paper called "Benchmarking Best Practices". It covers the
precautions that have to be taken and things to be kept in mind during such
benchmarking. …The strength of the paper is that it succinctly
(in 22 pages) captures the performance best practices and benchmarking tips
associated with key components.