AMD Epyc with poor performance.

[T65]

Hello Community,

 

I bought a new system to use as workstation and NAS. I created Ubuntu 16.04 in a virtual machine and wanted to use more nested virtual machines (Windows 7, OSX, ...).

Unfortunately, the performance of the VM - Ubuntue 16.04 (hosted by unRAID) is very poor. Simple things like surfing, watching videos, starting programs jerks or doesn't run smoothly.

 

I have already read many threads and tried a few tips:

Quote

- npt patch (read about it and the errata)
- rcu_nocbs
- isolcpus
- disable C state.

everything didn't help or I don't know if there are already updates available. Maybe there's something I missed or maybe someone has a valuable tip for me to help the workstation get going.

 

Quote

unRAID 6.5.3 (Server Pro)
AMD Epyc 7401P
AMD Radeon R9 Fury
Supermicro H11SSL-i
32GB RAM (ECC)
1TB NVME (cache drive - vms on it)

 

Thank you and have a nice Sunday.

Edited July 23, 2018 by T65

[trurl]

Nested virtual machines? Do you mean virtual machines hosted on a virtual machine? Or do really just mean additional virtual machines hosted on unRAID? 

[T65]

I mean, virtual machines hosted on a virtual machine.

 

The performance should be enough or is there something I didn't consider?

[pwm]

Any reason why you want nested virtual machines? That seems like a great way to lose all control.

[T65]

6 hours ago, pwm said:

That seems like a great way to lose all control.

 

Can you explain to me in more detail what you mean by this?

 

Another possibility would be to remove unRAID and install Linux as the base operating system and host all virtual machines and docker containers (Plex, Gitea,...) there. This would eliminate another layer and I could avoid the performance problem.

 

 

6 hours ago, pwm said:

Any reason why you want nested virtual machines?

 

Well, it's personal and compatibility reasons.

1. Windows 7 is and was for me the best and last really usable operating system from Microsoft. Unfortunately I can't use it with current AMD hardware.

2. Since I can't work with Windows 7 and don't want to work with Windows 8-10, I still want to use the programs I bought and own a license, especially since there is no equivalent or better alternative under Linux.

3. At iTunes I consume and buy content from two different countries. Unfortunately there are a few hurdles concerning the second account and I am forced to outsource the second account to a virtual machine.

4. Some programs are twice as fast as under Windows and my workflow is not interrupted by intrusive advertising, constant, long and multiple restarts or highly nested menu structures.

That may not sound quite comprehensible to someone else, but I would just like to have a solid, lean and high-performance operating system (Linux) on which I can do 85% of my tasks and would like to distribute the remaining 15% to nested virtual machines (Windows, OSX, ...), which I can quickly create, exchange, test with or delete if necessary - together with an easy to use NAS system like unRAID.

[pwm]

Still no good answer why you want nested virtual machines, instead of letting unRAID own all the virtual machines directly.

[JonathanM]

You still haven't told us why you need to have nested VM's. Unraid is perfectly capable of running multiple VM's simultaneously. I personally have a windows VM, a pfsense vm, and a general linux vm all running simultaneously, and one linux vm with hardware passthrough connected to my projector and sound system that is also booted whenever needed.

 

I have a whole list of test VM's that I play around with from time to time, all of which are hosted on unraid.

 

Why do you need one of unraid's guests to host other VM's instead of letting unraid host it?

[T65]

3 hours ago, pwm said:

Still no good answer why you want nested virtual machines, instead of letting unRAID own all the virtual machines directly.

 

2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

You still haven't told us why you need to have nested VM's.

 

 

Sorry but I thought my more detailed description made the use of virtual machines clear.

 

I construct different PCB layouts with Cadsoft Eagle v6.6 with my Ubuntu 16.04 workstation (hosted by unRAID). In another virtual machine with Windows 7 (hosted by my workstation) I implement the source code for the microcontroller with Atmel Studio and can construct a suitable housing with Autodesk Fusion 360. I only need to change the window, can switch back and forth and work on both systems in parallel.

 

 

3 hours ago, jonathanm said:

I personally have a windows VM, a pfsense vm, and a general linux vm all running simultaneously, and one linux vm with hardware passthrough connected to my projector and sound system that is also booted whenever needed.

 

I am aware that unRAID can host and manage multiple virtual machines, but I can't work on both VMs (as long as there is only one monitor and one graphics card), can I?

 

If not, I would have to start the virtual machine "Workstation Ubuntu", draw my layout and then quit. Then I would have to start the virtual machine "Windows 7" to implement the source code and make changes to the case if necessary (stupid if I forgot the dimensions of the layout). When everything is done, stop "Windows 7" and start the workstation again?

 

In this case I can't work on both machines at the same time or am I missing something?

[pwm]

1 minute ago, T65 said:

I am aware that unRAID can host and manage multiple virtual machines, but I can't work on both VMs (as long as there is only one monitor and one graphics card), can I?

You earlier spent lots of time debating the need for multiple VM, but zero time debating why that Ubuntu VM should run the other VM. This was the part of your previous posts that you forgot to mention.

 

In your case, it would be meaningful to have the Ubuntu VM own a display + keyboard.

But for the Windows 7 VM, you would normally be fine with RDP - I do lots of work over RDP with no issues. In sit at an older Win7 machine and run lots of software on a different Windows machine - a Windows machine that also runs lots of Linux VM using VMware. Anyway - you would most probably not need to have the Win 7 VM run inside of the Ubuntu VM.

 

With a fast network, it is often possible to play video or run other graphics-intensive applications remotely over the network and still get good enough response times as if the local window had actually been handled by a locally run application and not streamed from a physical machine or VM in a different room.

 

When running Linux machines remotely, it's even possible to run X remotely so the program runs on the remote machine but the display is shown in a X window on a local Linux or Windows machine.

[T65]

1 hour ago, pwm said:

You earlier spent lots of time debating the need for multiple VM, but zero time debating why that Ubuntu VM should run the other VM. This was the part of your previous posts that you forgot to mention.

 

In your case, it would be meaningful to have the Ubuntu VM own a display + keyboard.

But for the Windows 7 VM, you would normally be fine with RDP...

 

I agree and find your advice very helpful - thank you!

 

I just see my first post is a little bit misleading because the VM Ubuntu 16.04 (hosted by unRAID) was meant and its bad performance - not the nested VM (that was just the plan). Sorry for the confusion ... I updated my first post.