Bandwidth tests (iperf)

[vbox4me2]

vb 3.1.8
Gigabit LAN on Host, max fisable 125mbs on gb fd lan.
VM to Host, pcnet: typical 60mbs.
VM to VM, pcnet: typical 112mbs.

Additions?

[vbox4me2]

-w 128KB (it defaults to 8kb)
Host machine to VM: 116 Mbits/sec
VM to Host machine: 89 Mbits/sec
VM to VM: 122 Mbits/sec

[Technologov]

For better performance, please move to VirtIO network. (supported for most Linux and Windows guests on all hosts)

[Perryg]

For better performance, please move to VirtIO network. (supported for most Linux and Windows guests on all hosts)

And what Windows guests support VirtIO natively? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Technologov]

"VirtIO natively?"

Windows 2000 and up. Download drivers and go. Obviously they don't come pre-installed.
Really ancient Windows is supported. Same for Linux -- drivers exist for the ancient RHEL 3 guests. Backported by RedHat from 2.6 kernels.

See chapter "6.1. Virtual networking hardware". It has link to download drivers.

-Technologov

[Perryg]

So I can download SIGNED drivers for Windows? Where do you find them?

[Technologov]

Drivers are not signed. Signed drivers (WHQL'ed) do exist for RHEV customers only.

[Perryg]

Ah there is the rub isn't it. I can get the drivers and I can sign them myself, no problem. But How do you instruct people here how to do it? My point is a lot of people read this and they try to do as we say and it just does not work because they hit a wall and well there you have it.

[Technologov]

*all* VBox drivers are not signed.
Look at VBoxDrv / VBoxNetFlt /VBoxUSBMon... -- they all are not signed and not WHQL'ed.
I would like to see a WHQL'ed version of VBox in the future, but this would require effort.
Besides, on Win 2000/XP systems unsigned drivers work fine. Only Vista/7 have problems with it.
VBox uses some hack, that fakes WHQL signing to install it's drivers on those platforms. Maybe this hack could be extended to VirtIO drivers ?
VirtIO drivers were tested, and found stable, on both Windows and Linux guests.

[kidault]

There is a post about the bandwidth between VMs, and between VM and host.

Network throughput: Intel PRO/1000 MT Server is best
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34895

According to this post, on VB 3.2.8, "The "Intel PRO/1000" is clearly the fastest adapter" and "The "virtio-net" is very slow when doing file transfers from the host to the VM"

The newer version of VB slow down the performance of "virtio-net"?

[vbox4me2]

There is a big difference between bandwidth and throughput, with these tests I'm not interrested in throughput.

[kidault]

Since you used iperf and Technologov talked about "better performance", I think you use the word "bandwidth" for "the actual bandwidth that is available to a network". Am I right?

In the post I mentioned, I think the author use the word "throughput" for "the actual bandwidth that is available to a network" too, beacuse he did some actual file transfer test, and talk about the file transfer rate, not the label on NIC.

"I installed an FTP server within the VM. I created a 100MB file on the host and transferred the file multiple times to and from the VM (using FTP put and get)."

And I did some test with iperf right now.
Host: win 7 Pro 32bit
Guest1: xp home sp3, virtIO, host-only
Guest2: xp pro sp3, Intel PRO/1000 MT Server, host-only

Guests are not running at the same time.

Host as server(8kb)
Guest1: 91.1 Mbits/sec
Guest2: 55.2 Mbits/sec

Host as server(128kb)
Guest1: 151 Mbits/sec
Guest2: 60.1 Mbits/sec

Guest as server(8kb)
Guest1: 122 Mbits/sec
Guest2: 230 Mbits/sec

Guest as server(128kb)
Guest1: 273 Mbits/sec
Guest2: 454 Mbits/sec