virtualization.info: How to stress test virtual machines

"Performances are the greatest concerns CIO/CTO usually have approaching virtualization.
You surely would compare a virtual machine performance against a physical server, but you could also be in need of exploring how different virtualization technologies perform.

The first aspect you should test is I/O performances: physical raw partitions, proprietary filesystems, remoted SANs systems, local virtual IDE or SCSI disk subsystem. All of these configurations should be tested and compared with each other and against physical machines I/O performances.

Another second aspect you could test is network performances since virtual network adapters devices can handle traffic in different ways and be more or less efficient.

The best way to stress test a VM is to use standard tool for physical machines stress testing.
And just in case you are new to this practice below I compiled a list of great, ready to go, free tools:

I/O performances

Intel IOMeter

Microsoft SQLIO Disk Subsystem Benchmark Tool

Network performances

JMeter

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Load Simulator

Microsoft Web Application Stress Tool

Microsoft Web Capacity Analysis Tool

OpenSTA

SLAMD Distributed Load Generation Engine

Soap-Stone

I found Intel IOMeter and Microsoft Web Application Stress Tool both great for stress tests.

If you are going to test VMware ESX performances you should also absolutely check the VMware ESX Server Performance Troubleshooting lab manual released at VMworld 2005."