Situation: I am using VirtualBox 3.1.6 OSE under Ubuntu 10.04 Server (LTS). The guest is Windows XP running SQL Server 2008. I configured the XP machine on an Ubuntu client installation, tested it, and then exported it as an appliance. On the Ubuntu server, I imported this appliance and am running it using VBoxHeadless.
When configuring this guest, I ran into a problem with high CPU usage. The solution turned out to be changing a driver in the device manager (from "ACPI" to "Standard PC").
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I am now experiencing high CPU usage on the server. When the guest has recently been started, but is basically idle, CPU usage is around 20%. After several hours (but again, when idle), CPU usage has risen to 40% or 50%.
Should it be of use, here is the output from "VBoxManage showvminfo"
Name: SQL2008 Guest OS: Windows XP UUID: e6b69eef-beb3-4937-9f9e-283d20018a6b Config file: /root/.VirtualBox/Machines/SQL2008/SQL2008.xml Hardware UUID: e6b69eef-beb3-4937-9f9e-283d20018a6b Memory size: 768MB VRAM size: 16MB Number of CPUs: 1 Synthetic Cpu: off CPUID overrides: None Boot menu mode: message and menu Boot Device (1): Floppy Boot Device (2): DVD Boot Device (3): HardDisk Boot Device (4): Not Assigned ACPI: on IOAPIC: on PAE: off Time offset: 0 ms Hardw. virt.ext: on Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on Nested Paging: on VT-x VPID: on State: running (since 2011-04-17T16:19:41.738000000) Monitor count: 1 3D Acceleration: off 2D Video 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): /root/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/SQL2008.vmdk (UUID: 7c291838-3cab-4780-8506-5be0c2ee5ea0) IDE Controller (1, 0): Empty Floppy Controller (0, 0): Empty NIC 1: MAC: 080027E73C79, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'eth0', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps NIC 2: disabled NIC 3: disabled NIC 4: disabled NIC 5: disabled NIC 6: disabled NIC 7: disabled NIC 8: disabled UART 1: disabled UART 2: disabled Audio: enabled (Driver: ALSA, Controller: AC97) Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional Video mode: 0x0x32 Shared folders: <none> VRDP Connection: not active Clients so far: 0 Guest: Statistics update: disabled