VirtualBox with Exchange

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Alexff
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Mar 2023, 17:59

VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by Alexff »

Good morning,

I have 02 virtual machines on my PC (01 computer with Windows Server 2019 with 3 Gb of ram and another computer with Exchange 2019 with 6 Gb of ram), but I work very slowly,

When I use the machine with exchange my hard drive is 100% saturated leaving the equipment unusable

These are the characteristics of my equipment (Amd Ryzen 7 5700G CPU, 16 Gb RAM and 1 Tb HD with Nvidia Geforce GT630 video card)

Could you tell me the correct configuration that I should have?
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by scottgus1 »

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)
Alexff
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Mar 2023, 17:59

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by Alexff »

Thanks for answering,

I attach the logs.
Attachments
VBox.zip
(31.14 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
Alexff
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Mar 2023, 17:59

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by Alexff »

Good afternoon,

Please help me with the review of the logs,
arQon
Posts: 228
Joined: 1. Jan 2017, 09:16
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 16.04 x64, W7

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by arQon »

Math time. 3+6 = what?

How much RAM do you actually have? (Hint: it's less than half a page into the logs).

So, yeah: hardly a surprise. Fix that and you'll be... well, probably not "okay", given what a bloated pile Exchange is, but hopefully at least noticeably better off. :)
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by scottgus1 »

Sorry, looks like we forgot about this one.

I believe arQon is pointing out overprovision of RAM in the VMs:
00:00:02.895873 Host RAM: 16273MB (15.8GB) total, 8754MB (8.5GB) available
00:00:03.186837 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000180000000 (6 442 450 944, 6.0 GiB)
The logged VM's 6GB + the reported 3GB for the other VM would be beyond the 8.5GB available in the logged session.

With high-RAM VMs like these, starting them immediately after boot & login on the host would give them room.
Alexff wrote:When I use the machine with exchange my hard drive is 100% saturated leaving the equipment unusable
Alexff wrote:1 Tb HD
If this is a spinning-platter drive, not an SSD, then my experience says 3 OS's on one HD are too much. My multi-VM hosts were able to handle 2 modern OS's on one spinning-platter drive. The third kills performance: the drive heads can't move around fast enough to satisfy all three. Especially with Exchange in the mix.
Alexff
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Mar 2023, 17:59

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by Alexff »

Sorry, I didn't understand the answers

I have 16 Gb ram and 1Tb of rotating hard disk not SSD, please, could you clarify the answer..
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by scottgus1 »

Alexff wrote:1Tb of rotating hard disk
Two VMs on one host OS are too much for a rotating hard disk. Add another disk, and "Move" the Exchange VM to it.

"Move" is a command in the main Virtualbox window. Right-click the VM in the list, choose Move, pick a folder on the new disk.
Alexff wrote:not SSD
If you can change the rotating disk to an SSD your PC will be tons faster. And you may not have to Move the Exchange VM either.
arQon
Posts: 228
Joined: 1. Jan 2017, 09:16
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 16.04 x64, W7

Re: VirtualBox with Exchange

Post by arQon »

Alexff wrote:Sorry, I didn't understand the answers

I have 16 Gb ram and 1Tb of rotating hard disk not SSD, please, could you clarify the answer..
The requirements for the host are not "larger than the largest VM you want to run", they're "larger than the totals of all the VMs you want to run to run concurrently and the host". When your hardware doesn't meet those totals things may or may not still run, but at best they will always do so with reduced performance.

Imagine you have four glasses of the same size: three that are all more than half full, and one that's empty. Your current position is the same as saying "I can pour any one of the glasses into the empty glass, therefore i can pour all three of them into it".
Hopefully that helps you visualize your problem a little better. This is a common source of confusion for people new to virtualization, and you're far from the first to be tripped up by it.

So, no: you do not "have 16Gb ram" that you can use for these VMs, because all the other "stuff" on the machine needs a place to live too and is taking half of it. You have 8GB available, as the logs say, into which you're trying to fit 9GB of VMs. Since 9 is more than 8, the machine is swapping to the (slow) hard drive, on top of the three copies of Windows you're trying to run that are all doubtless also scanning the drive on a near-constant basis for Windows Search and antivirus and so on, on top of Exchange doing the same for any mail in it, on top of whatever else any of the three machines need for actual work.

You have neither the RAM needed for what you're trying to do, nor anything like adequate I/O for it. Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrashing ... r_science) may help.

My suggestion was that you remove the RAM pressure by either configuring the VMs appropriately, or removing some of the stuff you're running on the host. It's your machine, so it's on you to figure out how much of that is garbage (for example, running Chrome with 100 tabs open) and how much actually needs to be there.
Scott's suggestion was that you improve the I/O, which will certainly help, but IMO doesn't really address the root of the problem.
Ideally, you would do both.
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