VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

Hi,

I'm experiencing problems in a Windows 7 Guest VM because VBoxTray.exe have a high CPU usage. This is the environment.

My host Machine is a Windows 2002 Server with Virtualbox 5.0.10 installed, and a Guest Windows 7 VM is configured.
This Windows 7 VM is not much fast. But somehow got slowly until appear frozen.
From my machine (in Lan with Windows 2002) I access Windows 2002 Server via RDP and use VirtualBox GUI to access the guest and run taskmgr.
taskmgr from guest show VBoxTray.exe using CPU from 80 to 100%. This then make VirtualBox go from 15~20% CPU usage (what I think is normal) to 70~85% in the Host (Windows 2002).
If I "end task" then it turns again to normal.

Searching for this, I've found ticket #7260 (link: cannot post link yet...), but it is closed as obsolete.

From now on, I don't know what to do ... I'm asking for help to deal with this. Any advices? Should I give more information?
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

I'm attaching this file in hope it helps anyone who understand it guide me on what I can try to avoid the problem...
Please, if you can explain your reasoning or where I can find more info, that would help me understand better how VBox works.
Thanks in advance.
Attachments
vboxlog-2015-12-17-08-47-11.log
VboxLog from Windows 7 VM Guest while stopped.
(119.44 KiB) Downloaded 52 times
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by mpack »

You should probably raise this as a BugTracker ticket. If it's a bug then it's the devs you need to tell, not us fellow users. Make sure you provide the log right up front.

If you are aware of a specific version in which this problem first appeared, that would be good too.
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

mpack wrote:You should probably raise this as a BugTracker ticket. If it's a bug then it's the devs you need to tell, not us fellow users. Make sure you provide the log right up front.

If you are aware of a specific version in which this problem first appeared, that would be good too.
Hi mpack. Thanks for advice. I'm doing it now... I was a little afraid of doing so because the ticket was closed as obsolete.
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

hmm... Now I see that my problem is slightly different from the ticket I've mentioned before (https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/7260) .

The ticket describes connecting via RDP to GUEST OS. I'm connecting to HOST via RDP. Should I create a new ticket?
Sorry for asking this here, but I'm new in VBox community, and don't know for sure how things are usually done.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by mpack »

I would never think of running a VM on a host PC I've RDPed into. RDP is most efficient when the client can create screen content by reproducing the graphics API calls done on the host, assuming that those calls largely consist of drawing lines and shaded rectangles and text - and not so much blitting lots of bitmaps around. However a VM will do little else but blit bitmaps as far as the host can tell.

Why don't you RDP into the guest?
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

mpack wrote:I would never think of running a VM on a host PC I've RDPed into. RDP is most efficient when the client can create screen content by reproducing the graphics API calls done on the host, assuming that those calls largely consist of drawing lines and shaded rectangles and text - and not so much blitting lots of bitmaps around. However a VM will do little else but blit bitmaps as far as the host can tell.

Why don't you RDP into the guest?
This Host is a server that I don't have physical access to and run several back-end applications that we cannot virtualize yet (license issues). I constantly do maintenance or must access this softwares via RDP. As I am already doing it, I thought it would be easier to access via VirtualBox GUI that is already running.
I must admit that running VirtualBox as a service would be a better choice, but I'm new to this. If you have any tips for this scenario, I would be glad to hear.

Anyway, I was already expecting it to run a little slowly. But was not expecting see VBoxTray consume almost all CPU usage.
Martin
Volunteer
Posts: 2560
Joined: 30. May 2007, 18:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: XP, Win7, Win10, Linux, OS/2

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by Martin »

Did you try also using RDP from the server to the virtual machine instead of the VirtualBox console?
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

Martin wrote:Did you try also using RDP from the server to the virtual machine instead of the VirtualBox console?
No. I don't use RDP to the virtual machine. I just use RDP from my machine to Server (that is, the host of Virtualbox) because I don't have physical access to it.
EMB
Posts: 7
Joined: 15. Dec 2015, 18:10

Re: VBoxTray.exe high CPU usage in RDP session

Post by EMB »

I've updated Windows RDP client on Host (windows 2003) to suport RDP protocol version 6.1.
Also updated VBox to 5.0.12.

I'm no sure yet, but this seems to solve my problem. Thanks for everyone that tried to help.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention that this update to RDP Client was not offered on Windows update application. You must connect using Internet Explorer to Windows update site to download it.
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