I have a physical server with 384GB memory. My main applications are to run CPU and I/O intensive programs. I could run everything on the physical server.
But I'm wondering if it is better to host a virtual machine on the physical server to simplify future system restoration issues. For example, if the physical server crashes, I can still grab the image of the virtual machine and run it somewhere else. If most of my applications are installed in the virtual machine, then few applications shall be installed on the physical machine. It sounds this strategy can make the system restoration much easier. Also, when I want to duplicate the system configuration, I just need to make a copy of the image of the virtual machine.
On the other hand, running processes on a virtual machine is slower than running on a physical machine. And since I have a large memory, the swap space for the virtual machine is also large (should it be 384GB) and is not based on a physical partition. I think that this can cause performance issues.
Could any experienced users provide some recommendations on whether it is wise to run virtual machines for computing purposes? Thanks.
Your server seems to be a good candidate for a "computing node" hosting several virtual machines. I would recommend reading about MAAS to manage it.