>>I would not put any heavy duty database in a virtual environment. It deserves it own wel equipped box. There are many challenges with virtual environments in regards of I/O, I'm currently battleing one myself where there are TCP/IP problems.
>>
>>If you could just check whether performance is ok on a non-virtualized box. If it is, just get the database out of the virtualized environment and put it on its own box.
>>
>>If you have no choice, I'd call for a VMWare expert to look at your config and make sure that the I/O performance is optimal. Just a simple VM environment is not going to cut it. For databases to perform wel you need to take it a step further like raw mapping of disks or using fibre iSCSI solutions to SAN environments.
>>
>>It might be a lot cheaper to put things on a dedicated box with or without enterprise class SSD disks.
>
>We are talking about a very huge environment so there isn't any flexibilty of moving anything out of it.
>
>But, thanks for the info

Hmmm, One of the advantages of a virtual environment is just that you are flexible with hardware. But anyways, If I were you, I'd let a VMWare expert look at your I/O optimization. From what I've read so for in this thread I do not think the problem is in the SQL server itself, but rather the platform. It is not able to deliver the physical I/O you need.

Walter,