how much resources should a idle windows vm take up?

[drawde]

specs in sig, they're not great but i figured it'd be OK for my purposes. my windows 10 vm never really appears to go idle. vm is basically a fresh install, no other software added yet. is this normal? my cpu jumps around from sub-1 to 1+ when i'm not even doing anything whereas before it was be consistently low.

 

EDIT: adding xml

 

<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>Win10_VM</name>
  <uuid>1cd290ed-9d25-3e2e-a78b-af4107a545e6</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <vmtemplate name="Custom" icon="windows.png" os="windows"/>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit='KiB'>3145728</memory>
  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>3145728</currentMemory>
  <memoryBacking>
    <nosharepages/>
    <locked/>
  </memoryBacking>
  <vcpu placement='static'>2</vcpu>
  <cputune>
    <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='0'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='1'/>
  </cputune>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-2.3'>hvm</type>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <hyperv>
      <relaxed state='on'/>
      <vapic state='on'/>
      <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/>
    </hyperv>
  </features>
  <cpu mode='host-passthrough'>
    <topology sockets='1' cores='2' threads='1'/>
  </cpu>
  <clock offset='localtime'>
    <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/>
    <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
  </clock>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/>
      <source file='/mnt/cache/.apps/vm/Win10_VM/vdisk1.img'/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/>
      <boot order='1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/mnt/user/APPZ/Microsoft.Windows.8.Enterprise.x64-iNDiSO/Windows10_InsiderPreview_x64_EN-US_10074.iso'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <boot order='2'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/mnt/cache/.apps/vm/virtio-win-0.1.96.iso'/>
      <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='usb' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
    <controller type='ide' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:a2:64:ee'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
    </console>
    <channel type='unix'>
      <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/Win10_VM.org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/>
    </channel>
    <input type='tablet' bus='usb'/>
    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
    <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
    <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' websocket='-1' listen='0.0.0.0' keymap='en-us'>
      <listen type='address' address='0.0.0.0'/>
    </graphics>
    <video>
      <model type='vmvga' vram='16384' heads='1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </video>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>

[jonp]

I'm not sure what you mean by sub +/-1.

[BRiT]

Before what?

[drawde]

I'm not sure what you mean by sub +/-1.

 

sorry, i meant system load.

 

 

Before what?

 

before i had the vm running.

[jonp]

Still too vague of a description for me. 

[drawde]

Still too vague of a description for me.

 

i'm not sure what i'm missing, i was just asking what is the normal expectation of resource usage for an idle, clean install windows 10 vm? is it normal for an idle win vm to be using more than 25% overall system cpu when idle (25% as in 1.0 load on a quad core for the last period consistently. when you run top it tells you the load averages)?

 

am i going crazy lol i'm sorry, i'm new to the virtualization world, maybe if i know what additional information is more useful then i would be happy to provide.

 

2 of 4 cores pinned

4gb ram

[BRiT]

I hope you're aware that fresh Windows OS installs still spend a good portion of time running various optimizations and updates, so you wont get a good idea of what the typical idle characteristics are until after a few hours if not a few days.

[drawde]

I hope you're aware that fresh Windows OS installs still spend a good portion of time running various optimizations and updates, so you wont get a good idea of what the typical idle characteristics are until after a few hours if not a few days.

 

okay great, this is helpful. thank you!

[jonp]

I think where I was lost is what you were expecting vs. what you're getting (as that was never stated).  As far as what you should expect in general, I wouldn't feel comfortable answering that question, especially with a version of Windows that isn't even final yet.  Everyone's experience may vary also based on the apps / services running in background.

 

If you came in here and said:  "Hey, I've got an idle Windows VM that's consuming 50% of my CPU, is that normal?" I'd have said no and would have taken you down a path of troubleshooting to figure out what was causing it, but only if it was Windows 8.1, 8, or 7, not 10.