virtualbox.org

Hi, I have a win2003 sp2 guest running on a Solaris 10 5/09 s10x_u7wos_08 X86, with Virtual Box 3.2.6.
The system is an X serie Sun server with 8 cores, 8GB RAM.

I had it running with a single cpu for some months, then I wanted to switch to 4 cpus + ioapic.
To do this, after enabling the switches on the guest, I had to start again from win CD and run a recovery, to have windows install the mp kernel.
Then I reinstalled service packs.
Everything went fine, I got my cpus visibile.

But, I did not find any improvement, the machine is sometimes very slow compared to a native system with similar hardware.
Can someone suggest specific switches to make the guest faster?

Thanks for any help,
Gabriele

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Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Name:            office.goppioncaffe.it
Guest OS:        Windows 2003
UUID:            a7680bd6-2047-4ea4-9fd8-f67f4d3511db
Config file:     /.VirtualBox/Machines/office.goppioncaffe.it/office.goppioncaffe.it.xml
Hardware UUID:   a7680bd6-2047-4ea4-9fd8-f67f4d3511db
Memory size:     4096MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       128MB
HPET:            off
Number of CPUs:  4
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): DVD
Boot Device (2): HardDisk
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0 ms
RTC:             local time
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
Nested Paging:   off
Large Pages:     off
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           running (since 2011-02-19T11:09:59.691000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Name (1):            Floppy Controller
Storage Controller Type (1):            I82078
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  1
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
IDE Controller (0, 0): /goppion/xvm/win2003-C.vdi (UUID: 167e5f8d-76e9-455e-9c03-d1180bcbcd66)
IDE Controller (0, 1): /goppion/xvm/win2003-E.vdi (UUID: 43017ff6-3ad6-49f3-aea3-270a9b657f42)
IDE Controller (1, 0): /goppion/xvm/win2003-D.vdi (UUID: 065393e6-2031-4037-9a67-05b372081fef)
IDE Controller (1, 1): /goppion/iso/win2003server.iso (UUID: de5751e9-773c-4e4d-90f6-0308c90176e9)
Floppy Controller (0, 0): Empty
NIC 1:           MAC: 080027740CC0, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'nge0', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: virtio, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
Audio:           disabled
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
Video mode:      1024x768x32
VRDP:            enabled (Address 0.0.0.0, Ports 33150, MultiConn: off, ReuseSingleConn: off, Authentication type: null)
VRDP port:       33150
Video redirection: disabled
USB:             disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Shared folders:  <none>

VRDP Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     6
Last started:       2011/02/21 08:43:13 UTC
Last ended:         2011/02/21 11:02:57 UTC
Sent:               0 Bytes
Average speed:      0 B/s
Sent total:         0 Bytes
Received:           0 Bytes
Speed:              0 B/s
Received total:     0 Bytes

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB

The slowness is usually a result of the 'upgrade' to the multi-processor kernel. A completely new, fresh installation with MP set and enabled should provide better results.

Really?? What is the reason for this? It's a madness to reinstall everything, expecially some software not managed by me...

Also, even though I can see 4 cores in the Windows Task Manager, the impression is that all the processor are having the same utilizations, as if they're just one...
How can it be?

Windows issue. It just doesn't scale that well when you have a multi-core CPU, give one to the VM and then give another one after the OS is already installed. To get the best performance back without a reinstall, is disabling SMP and go back to one core.

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