[CentOS] Virtualization option at first install CentOS-5.4 x86_64

[Mathieu Baudier]

> I selected one virtual CPU for the XP load...primarily because I want to
> run a couple more VMs and the guidance was to allocate one real CPU per
> VM.

My understanding is that Win XP will perform a fundamentally different
install depending on whether it detects 1 or many CPU. So if you ever
plan to reuse your VM with many CPUs, you should install it with many
right away (and follow the tip above: install as Windows Vista, not
XP).

I had this problem with a Win XP VM that I installed with pre v3.0
versions of VirtualBox: after VBox introduced SMP I could not use the
multi-processor feature since XP had been installed with one
processor.

Anyhow, now that I'm using KVM, for my test desktop VMs I tend to
allocate a total of CPUs across the VMs higher than the number of my
physical CPUs, since they rarely need CPU power at the same time but I
want them to be able to run very smoothly if needed.

> run a couple more VMs and the guidance was to allocate one real CPU per

Which guidance are you talking about?