virtualbox.org

Hi,

I'm running a single VM (Windows 7 32bit) on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite 64bit (iMac 27", late 2011 model: 3.1GHz core i5, 12GB RAM), using the latest version of Virtualbox (4.3.18, including the latest guest additions). I've assigned 1 core to the VM, together with 2GB RAM and 256MB VRAM. As I'm only accessing network resources, and not having to save any data to the VM, I've created a fixed 25GB VDI, which has 7.85GB free space.

When running this same VM under OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the performance was perfectly fine: I'm using it to access a network install of Sage Accounts, and everything was working fine. However, since the upgrade to Yosemite, everything has slowed to a crawl. Searches in Sage (performed across the internal Gigabit ethernet network) that used to take a couple of seconds now take a couple of minutes or more; Windows has noticeable stuttering and lag, and it's generally become unusable.

I've tried numerous things to rectify the issue; I've increased the amount of RAM assigned to 3GB, and increased the core count to 2, but this made very little difference. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Virtualbox. I read on the forums that there were severe network latency issues with a Solaris Guest, and wondered whether this might also be the case with Windows 7; on that post, they said it was fixed by rolling back to version 4.3.16. I've tried all these fixes but nothing has made any difference.

I suspect that something in Yosemite is causing this performance degradation, as performance was great running under Mavericks. Please can anyone offer any suggestions as to how to fix this? All help gratefully received!

Thanks in advance.

I wish I knew what might cause your issue off the top of my head. I have been running VirtualBox in OSX 10.10 since the early developer previews this past June. Among many guests I have a 64bit Windows 7 guest. I didn't noticed any performance degradation switching from OSX 10.9 to OSX 10.10.

I don't think you need more than 2G or RAM or 128M VRAM for a Windows 7 32bit guest.

Is the guest exactly the same as the one you ran in 10.9 or are you saying you set it up to be exactly the same?

If you could post the vbox.log (compressed) for the guest that might be helpful.

Thanks for your response, loukingjr!

I've attached the VBox log as requested; I hope this helps to track down the issue!

In response to your question, it's the identical VM that was run in 10.9. Running in 10.9 it was fine; after upgrading to 10.10 it was slow. Nothing had changed in Virtualbox, other than the Host OS it was running on. Since then, I've reinstalled the latest version of Virtualbox (4.3.18) and reduced the RAM to 2GB and core count to 1. I'd set the VRAM to 256MB as I'd tried to use the 3D support under 10.9 ages ago, but it didn't work so I turned off the acceleration but left the VRAM at 256MB. I've just tried reducing it to 128MB as it was, but it's made no difference to the stuttering or performance issues.

Incidentally, I failed to mention that the VM network interface is set up as Bridged Adapter, using the Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop. Setting the Promiscuous mode to any setting made no difference to the performance. I mention this just in case it's relevant.

I see you have 2D and 3D disabled. That will certainly slow W7 down. Although if you were running W7 the same way in 10.9 it shouldn't be that different. The log you sent says you are running VB 4.3.16 but have the 4.3.18 guest additions installed. You don't have the extension pack installed although I assume you never did.

Other than the things I mentioned I don't see anything obvious.

One thing though, if you are running any anti-virus on the Mac or any network tools, they may not be 100% OSX 10.10 compatible which could cause issues.

Loukingr, you are a star! Thanks very much!

Incidentally, the VBox log file I sent you would have been logged when I downgraded to 4.3.16; I've now reupgraded to 4.3.18 so the guest additions will be the correct version for the version I'm using. You're quite right; I never installed the extension pack.

However, with your help I've managed to find the cause: when I had installed Yosemite, it had reset my exclusion preferences on Sophos AntiVirus; which means it was constantly scanning the VM VDI - hence the slowdown. I've added the VM to the exclusion list, then Voila - it's running at full speed!

Thanks once again for your help!

most welcome. I run Sophos as well but I didn't change its exclusion preferences.

if you could mark this thread as solved. Just go to the first post>edit>type [Solved] in front of the title>submit.

No worries - done!

SpacemanSpiff wrote:No worries - done!

danke

Unfortunately this isn't fixed.

I've come in this morning and exactly the same issues are happening - sluggish performance, stuttering, etc. I've checked the exclusion preferences on the antivirus but they are still set correctly as yesterday. As far as I'm aware, nothing has changed since yesterday; yet I'm back to where I was with a sluggish VM!

Since then I've completely disabled the antivirus and rebooted - no difference to performance (which rules out antivirus as a cause). I've also disabled the network connection and rebooted - again, no difference to performance (which rules out the network issues that others were having).

I'm not running any network tools (as far as I'm aware), so I'm really puzzled by this issue! Does anyone have any further insights?

Thanks in advance.

hmmm, just to clarify something, is your W7 guest always slow or just when you are trying to access the Sage accounts? Also, OSX 10.10 does have some WiFi issues but according to your first post you are connecting via ethernet, correct?

Yes, the Windows 7 VM is always slow, irrespective of what apps I'm running in it. And yes, you're correct - I'm connecting to our network via ethernet. WiFi is turned off.

Can you run W7, shut it down then attach the new vbox.log file? Also, something you can try if you haven't already id run Repair Disk Permissions from Disk Utility.

loukingjr wrote:Can you run W7, shut it down then attach the new vbox.log file? Also, something you can try if you haven't already id run Repair Disk Permissions from Disk Utility.

Thanks for your help, loukingjr - I really do appreciate you taking the time to help me!

I've attached the log after runnning it just.

Since my last post, I've tried a few other things to try and isolate what might be causing the problem. After inspecting the Activity Monitor, I saw a runaway InterCheck process (part of Sophos Antivirus) which was reading and writing a lot to and from the disk (as it seems that the stuttering was caused by disk activity / interruption). To properly isolate the issue I completely removed Sophos (temporarily) and restarted. Checked Activity Monitor to verify that none of these processes were running. Restarted VM > same performance issue.

Antivirus ruled out.

Then, I thought that iCloud Drive was a new feature to Yosemite, so I turned that off. Restarted (and the Mac certainly booted up faster!) but the VM performance issues still persist.

ICloud Drive ruled out.

Then I noticed that some processes spawned by Spotlight (enhanced for Yosemite) were chewing through disk space and CPU time, so I checked the preferences of that, and verified that the VM folder is excluded from indexing. Restarted (shutdown and a cold reboot this time), but VM performance unchanged.

Spotlight ruled out.

So I'm currently in a position where I've tried to remove all possible causes of the poor performance, and none of them have, so far, made any difference. It seems that yesterday's apparent fix was a fluke / aberration rather than identifying the root cause.

I will now try the repair disk permissions (which I've not tried so far) - I thought it worth sharing all this information in the meantime.

Thanks once again for your ongoing help!

Your welcome. I'm somewhat at a loss as to why your guest is slow. I noticed you have drag n drop enabled in the guest which doesn't work except with Linux guests. You might want to disable that and you may also want to enable PAE.

If it is at all possible, can you install a new W7 guest and see if it has the same problem?

Me too!

I've tried repairing disk permissions (no major issues found, and certainly none relating to Virtualbox or any VM), and I also checked the integrity of the disk after (Verify disk) just in case. No problems there. After restarting, the VM is still sluggish. Will try your suggestion about the Drag n Drop and let you know.

I will be able to install a new guest to check, but that will be a last resort - I want to eliminate all other causes first! (Though it's looking more likely that I'll have to do this.)

[EDIT: Drag n drop and PAE made no difference]