At least in VMware when creating or tweaking the settings of a VM I choose how many CPU cores I let the VM use. This question came to mind when thinking about at some point potentially running multiple VMs at once. Is there a limit to how many VMs I can run based off of how many CPU cores are allocated to other VMs or my main system? For example I have 6 cores, would I only be able to run 5 VMs; each one using 5 cores leaving one for my system? Or can I run more than 5 VMs and they'll just share cores at an obvious cost to performance?
Mac – What are the limits of allocating the CPU cores to VMs
cpuvirtual machinevirtualizationvmware
Best Answer
If you're using vSphere (which I assume you are as you tagged
vmware
, when you allocate 1 CPU core you're allocating 1 vCPU core. The CPU does not bind to a physical CPU core (pCPU).https://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.5.pdf
You can also search for 'virtual machine cpu overcommit' for more results.