Windows VM very slow

[vagrantprodigy]

I recently created a Windows Server 2016 VM to serve as a secondary Domain Controller and DNS. I hadn't previously created any Windows VMs (I have an ESXi host I use for that), but this one is extremely slow, to the point of being unresponsive. My linux based VMs don't do this. I'm using SeaBios, Machine is set to i440fx-3.0, Memory is set to 4-8 GB, and it has 6 CPUs attached. Any suggestions for what to change?

[1812]

not enough info provided

 

what type of disk is the vm on?

what guide did you follow in setting it up?

cpu isolation or shared use?

[david279]

Give it the same min and Max memory.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[vagrantprodigy]

7 minutes ago, 1812 said:

not enough info provided

 

what type of disk is the vm on?

what guide did you follow in setting it up?

cpu isolation or shared use?

 

I've got in on the array, just like my Linux VMs. vDisk type is Sata.

I didn't follow a specific guide.

I've tried both.

[vagrantprodigy]

3 minutes ago, david279 said:

Give it the same min and Max memory.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

I'll give that a try. Is dynamic memory a known issue for Windows VMs in unRAID?

[david279]

I read a couple of times that memory ballooning can sometimes lead to issues.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[1812]

56 minutes ago, vagrantprodigy said:

 

I've got in on the array, just like my Linux VMs. vDisk type is Sata.

I didn't follow a specific guide.

I've tried both.

 

Thats your problem. Windows uses more disk i/o than linux, so hosting it in the array is going to lead to dreadful performance. 

 

Move the disk img to either an independent disk mounted via unassigned devices (preferably an ssd) or a cache device (again, preferably an ssd.)

 

[vagrantprodigy]

1 hour ago, 1812 said:

 

Thats your problem. Windows uses more disk i/o than linux, so hosting it in the array is going to lead to dreadful performance. 

 

Move the disk img to either an independent disk mounted via unassigned devices (preferably an ssd) or a cache device (again, preferably an ssd.)

 

Why is it that I can use the array as a datastore for ESXi, and run my Windows VMs on it with no issues, but I can't run VMs locally on the array? I don't have any independent drives, my only unassigned device is actually an a USB drive plugged into my router that I use for backups.

[vagrantprodigy]

2 hours ago, david279 said:

I read a couple of times that memory ballooning can sometimes lead to issues.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

It didn't fix the issue. Thanks though.

[1812]

2 minutes ago, vagrantprodigy said:

Why is it that I can use the array as a datastore for ESXi, and run my Windows VMs on it with no issues, but I can't run VMs locally on the array? I don't have any independent drives, my only unassigned device is actually an a USB drive plugged into my router that I use for backups.

 

array write speeds are 35-45MB/s..... so.... that's why. But if the performance is otherwise ok with a different virtualization method, then you have to look at how the vm was setup. Look on youtube for the guides by space invader.

[itimpi]

6 minutes ago, vagrantprodigy said:

Why is it that I can use the array as a datastore for ESXi, and run my Windows VMs on it with no issues, but I can't run VMs locally on the array? I don't have any independent drives, my only unassigned device is actually an a USB drive plugged into my router that I use for backups.

The problem is that the architecture of Unraid means that each ‘write’ operation is actually 4 I/O actions (a read on the data drive and parity drive p a disk rotation; followed by writes of the updated data to the parity and data drives).   This adversely affects the performance of Windows VMs as they do frequent writes.

Edited November 7, 2018 by itimpi

[John_M]

In the absence of anywhere more suitable to store your virtual disks you could enable "turbo write" to speed up writes to the array a little. Settings -> Disk Settings then change Tunable (md_write_method) to reconstruct write. The disadvantage is that all your disks will spin all the time your VM is running.

[stormense]

Windows on Unraid is slow. After latest Windows update its terribly (4 GB RAM of my systems 16 GB RAM). Here my Windows 10 virtual on a SSD in Unraid. 

 

 

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, stormense said:

Here my Windows 10 virtual on a SSD in Unraid. 

What model SSD? Vdisk? Passthrough?

Describe your setup a little more.

[stormense]

On 1/24/2019 at 11:13 PM, jonathanm said:

What model SSD? Vdisk? Passthrough?

Describe your setup a little more.

 

 

Outside the array = Unassigned Devices. 

 

unRAID system:unRAID server Plus, version 6.6.6

Model:Custom

Motherboard:Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. - B85M-DS3H

Processor:Intel® Core™ i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz

HVM:Enabled

IOMMU:Enabled

Memory:16 GB 

 

Virtual Machine

 

 

And got this on my two Windows 10 VM:

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by stormense
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