increasing cpu and memory on windows 2003

[usr345]

Hello,

I have a windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 virtual machine with 1 cpu and 4 GB of memory.

Can I increase cpu from 1 to 4

In the past I have increased cpu from 2 to 4 on similar machines without any issue, but not sure about going from 1 cpu to 4

Steps takes in the past:

power down vm

Take snpshot

increase number of cpu from 2 to 4

increase memory from 2 to 4 GB

start vm

check device manager to make sure additional cpus are visible

Check additional memory is visible

Delete snapshot

Revert snapshot if process fails

Also what about vmware warning "changing number of cpu after guest os has been isntalled may make your virtual machine unstable"

Thanks

[arturka]

Hi

I did that operation hundreds of times, no issue a all. Problem might occur when you decrease from multiple cpu to single CPU. Going from single to multiple CPU no problem at all. Of course good to have a clone\snapsot of VM before you made any change :-)

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[weinstein5]

Sounds like a good plan- the warning is in reference certain Linux unstall and earlier versions of Windows had specific HALs for multiprocessor computing and if you did not have the right HAL/kernel the OS could fail or run very poorly - 

[shishir08]

You are already doing the correct step.The message you are getting is a generic message.You can either take snapshot of the VM or quickly clone the VM for backup purpose ,shutdown and change the CPU cpunt ,reboot it should be fine.