virtualbox.org

let me start by saying I have been using virutalbox for years, on both linux and windows. But this is my first post needing assistance

I recently picked up a server with dual Xeon L5420 processors. I haven't decided much on my drives yet, but running a segate barracuda 1tb SATA 3 port.

My problem is SLOW read/write speeds within any machine I run via virutal box . Both across the network and locally on the machine. (Copy about 900meg of data from local c:\ to c:\share folders) only gets about 20Mbs per second.

I currently running windows 10 PRO, with the latest version of Virtualbox. I attemped a fresh install of windows & virutalbox 4.X and it was the same result.

I have tried linux and windows hosts, as well as windows and linux guests. The most I can ever get it 30Mbs file copy. However, I can copy to the HOST (Windows 10) over the network at about 115Mbs
and about 135+ local folder, to local folder on the Windows 10 BOX

The Guest, I am trying to get better performance is a Windows Server 2008 32Bit

It seems my CPU of the Guest (Win 2008 32bit) will MAX during the FILE copy.

I have this VM currently running on another machine, running windows 8. Intel i5 processor....the VM functions great. With much better file IO 100Mbs+

I seem to have ruled out the HOST os (As I tried linux and Windows)
I think I also ruled out Ver 5 of virtualbox causing issues.

I don't have much experience with the Xeon processors, but the host is JUST FINE. Only Vm's running on the host.

I have search high and low, tried just about every setting, yet nothing makes much of a difference. Adding 2 cores is worse than 1, and 4 is worse than 2...

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
Thanks again,
Brian

There's no need to talk like it's a case of demonic possession, just pop up the guest's task list and see what's eating all that CPU or I/O time.

Usually it's your AV or Windows Update.

Neither...explorer.exe. Until file copy is finished.

No av installed and windows updates are off.

Then check what's going on in your host. Really, even if VirtualBox was buggy you can still pinpoint the laggard in a task list. IME it's always AV or network.

Any thoughts on where to start. Since I tried both windows and Linux hosts... I don't think antivirus orbupdates are the cause.

The VM run just fine on another machine, and I'm using the same model drive's.

Thanks
Brian

Mrnikeswsh wrote:Any thoughts on where to start. Since I tried both windows and Linux hosts... I don't think antivirus orbupdates are the cause.

The VM run just fine on another machine, and I'm using the same model drive's.

Thanks
Brian

There is your clue. What is the difference in the two machines? Perhaps if you post the guests log file from both we can see what the difference is. I prefer a Linux host if at all possible but Dan can handle it if it is a Windows host.

I'm game (I prefer if you zip the two logs), but if the problem is excessive I/O on the host - e.g. if it's recently installed and still updating - then that won't appear in the VBox log. But, a log file should always be provided as a matter of course.

Ok. Thank you so much. I will provide the logs when I get to work tomorrow. Is there a link on this forum that will provide the details on obtaining the logs and traces? I want to make sure I provide enough information for you.

Thanks
Brian

Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ). Right click on the guest in the Main Manager then click show log. Save and post as an attachment. Compress if it is too large to post.
Be sure to label the attachments in a way that it will be easy to tell which is the good and bad one.

Please see attached files. one is labeled fast and the other slow.

Same VM, running on different hosts. The one host is basically a powerful workstation. The other is a server level machine, with dual xeon and 32gb of RAM.

Thanks so much for you time.

Brian

Ok, the only thing I see of significance in the log is :-

VBox.log wrote: 00:00:31.467822 OHCI: Software reset
00:00:31.468082 OHCI: USB Reset
00:00:31.536671 OHCI: USB Operational
00:00:32.811508 OHCI#0: Lagging too far behind, not trying to catch up anymore. Expect glitches with USB devices

The line I highlight in red is present in the "slow" log, not present in the normal log. This tells me that you have a process running on the host which is eating I/O bandwidth. Probably this is an AV scan, disk cleanup, etc. I see no evidence that this is a VirtualBox issue.

There is a lot of differences in the two hosts.

• 1) Windows 8.1 VS. Windows 10
  2) Versions of VirtualBox
  3) Slow CPU host does not support EPT and is a lot slower processor.

It seems like an apple to oranges comparison to me, but I am not a Windows host expert any more so I will leave it to Don.

Thanks, but I have nothing on the host. In fact, I tried both linux and windows hosts. with the same result. The disk usage is basically at 0% (windows performance monitor)

it appears that file io will peg the processor at 100% on the guest. Is a dual, quad core 2.5 ghz not enough?

thanks
Brian

Perryg wrote:There is a lot of differences in the two hosts.

• 1) Windows 8.1 VS. Windows 10
  2) Versions of VirtualBox
  3) Slow CPU host does not support EPT and is a lot slower processor.

It seems like an apple to oranges comparison to me, but I am not a Windows host expert any more so I will leave it to Don.

Thanks, I did try to match the virtualbox versions, with no change on the performance.

I know the cpu is slower, but I guess I didn't realize it would affect the disk read/write as much as it is. Again, I can copy a file across the network to the HOST at about 125Mbs...yet only 25Mbs to the Windows 2008 guest.

Yes but don't discount Windows 10 as the reason. I can't state facts but from what I read here it is still not happy with VirtualBox, whether because of MS, VirtualBox, or both.