Very slow performance on Dell PE4600

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Ido friedman - 14 Jun 2006 08:04 GMT

I have a host for VS2005 that hosts only one gust (Win2k3) for now, and the
VM performs very very slow, it took me about 5 hours to install the OS.

The host H/W is Dell PE4600 with 2.4GHz CPU HT, 8GB RAM.

The guest has 512Mb RAM.

I have several other VS hosts that operate much better even on desktop H/W
(Pentium 4).

What could be the cause?

Thanks in advance,

Ido Friedman

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Boogie Shafer - 14 Jun 2006 08:59 GMT

-make sure you are running the R2 release of the VS2005 platform. feel free
to enable hyperthreading on the cpus

-make sure when you are doing an install to use the SCSI Shunt driver for
best storage performance..typical F6 method works as in baremetal install.
you can find a vfd file which contains the driver in the virtual server
install directory

-post install, make sure the vm additions are installed into the OS

-make sure that whatever storage you are using for the vhd is performing
correctly and is not overly fragmented or heavily utilized by other
processes

--also if you search this group and the web in general you will find several
sites with performance recomendations for virtual machines

boogie

>I have a host for VS2005 that hosts only one gust (Win2k3) for now, and the
> VM performs very very slow, it took me about 5 hours to install the OS.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Ido Friedman

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Chris - 10 Oct 2008 14:27 GMT

> I have a host for VS2005 that hosts only one gust (Win2k3) for now, and the
> VM performs very very slow, it took me about 5 hours to install the OS.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Ido Friedman

Ive got some problem but with a Dell Poweredge 2650, take at least 4 hours to install Windows and doesnt even attempt to install linux.

Ive tried all solutions listed by Boogie Shafer and still no faster.

Anyone got any ideas ?

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Steve Jain [MVP] - 10 Oct 2008 17:46 GMT

>> I have a host for VS2005 that hosts only one gust (Win2k3) for now, and the
>> VM performs very very slow, it took me about 5 hours to install the OS.
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
>Posted via http://www.VirtualServerFaq.com - Brought to you by Business Information Technology Shop - http://www.bitshop.com

Are you trying to install on IDE or SCSI virtual hard drive. If
you're doing it on SCSI you need to install the SCSI driver at the F6
prompt, otherwise your install with take hours.
The drivers are included on a .VFD in the VM Additions folder.
IDE doesn't have this problem, you can always switch from IDE to SCSI
after the installation.

Signature

Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

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Bo Berglund - 11 Oct 2008 05:22 GMT

>Are you trying to install on IDE or SCSI virtual hard drive. If
>you're doing it on SCSI you need to install the SCSI driver at the F6
>prompt, otherwise your install with take hours.
>The drivers are included on a .VFD in the VM Additions folder.
>IDE doesn't have this problem, you can always switch from IDE to SCSI
>after the installation.

Do you mean that the VHD file format is the same irrespective of the
IDE/SCSI setting on the guest? So that one can use a VHD created as a
SCSI disk also as an IDE disk if one changes the properties in the
guest???

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Bo Berglund (Sweden)

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Robert Comer - 11 Oct 2008 14:19 GMT

>Do you mean that the VHD file format is the same irrespective of the
>IDE/SCSI setting on the guest? So that one can use a VHD created as a
>SCSI disk also as an IDE disk if one changes the properties in the
>guest???

Yes. Though your OS may not boot just changing things like that. (OS
problem with drivers and boot info, not a VM problem.)

Signature

Bob Comer

>>Are you trying to install on IDE or SCSI virtual hard drive. If
>>you're doing it on SCSI you need to install the SCSI driver at the F6
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>SCSI disk also as an IDE disk if one changes the properties in the
>guest???

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Bo Berglund - 11 Oct 2008 15:49 GMT

>>Do you mean that the VHD file format is the same irrespective of the
>>IDE/SCSI setting on the guest? So that one can use a VHD created as a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>Yes. Though your OS may not boot just changing things like that. (OS
>problem with drivers and boot info, not a VM problem.)

So if I set up a guest in VPC2007 (thus using IDE disk emulation) and
then want to run this in a VS2005 scenario, I can create a new VS
guest and point it to this VHD while telling VS2005 that the disk is a
SCSI drive (the default)?

I have migrated VPC2007 guests to VS2005 before but I always modified
the defaults from SCSI to IDE as the disk type.
Was this unnecessary?

Signature

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

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Robert Comer - 11 Oct 2008 16:41 GMT

>So if I set up a guest in VPC2007 (thus using IDE disk emulation) and
>then want to run this in a VS2005 scenario, I can create a new VS
>guest and point it to this VHD while telling VS2005 that the disk is a
>SCSI drive (the default)?

If the OS can handle the drivers and boot info, yep. You'll have to
make sure the SCSI Shunt driver gets loaded for good performance.

>I have migrated VPC2007 guests to VS2005 before but I always modified
>the defaults from SCSI to IDE as the disk type.
>Was this unnecessary?

It depends on the guest.

Remember that not all OS's have additions and those that don't will be
slower without the SCSI Shunt driver. And then there's the boot info
-- most likely it would be okay with a modern OS.

FWIW, Hyper-V requires the boot VHD to be IDE and the performance
difference is negligible with Hyper-V between SCSI and IDE.

Signature

Bob Comer

>>>Do you mean that the VHD file format is the same irrespective of the
>>>IDE/SCSI setting on the guest? So that one can use a VHD created as a
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>the defaults from SCSI to IDE as the disk type.
>Was this unnecessary?

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Bill Grant - 12 Oct 2008 04:34 GMT

>>So if I set up a guest in VPC2007 (thus using IDE disk emulation) and
>>then want to run this in a VS2005 scenario, I can create a new VS
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>>the defaults from SCSI to IDE as the disk type.
>>Was this unnecessary?

I transferred a few vhds from VPC to Virtual Server IDE and then to
SCSI.

From memory I think the best plan is to add the SCSI adapter but boot up
as IDE. Then add the vmadditions to load the SCSI driver. You can then
allocate the vhd to the SCSI interface and boot from it.

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