Topic: extremely slow network transfer on 7.4 vmware guest

[jptechnical]

I am running on a Dell PE1900, quad core, 4gig ram and 250gig PERC mirror, with onboard gigabit ethernet, host OS is Ubuntu 8.02.2lts 64bit. vmware 1.0.9

lan is 100mbit with XP Pro sp3 clients all around.

I am having extremely slow file transfers over lan/smb. I get 1-2MB/s transfer rates, with frequent stalls. Lan traffic (from peer to peer) is full link speed as expected. Transferring from host OS to client over lan/smb is also as expected.

Transferring over lan/smb to a client or from guest to host is essentially the same, very slow with stalls.

This is a relatively new setup, I rebuilt the server last week (under a time constraint so I couldn't properly burn in or I would have caught it before deployment). I have moved the important services to a peer client. I am picking up the server tomorrow (Friday) afternoon to try and fix it. I am hoping for an easy fix (don't we all?), but would settle for anything.

I am going to put a windows guest on there and test the transfer speeds (as well as with a recovery cd of some kind to test with) to isolate the SME server or confirm it is another issue.

Any suggestions? Is the 32bit guest on a 64bit host perhaps the issue (I have this setup with PE2950s)?

[CharlieBrady]

I am hoping for an easy fix (don't we all?), but would settle for anything.

Use bare metal rather than virtualisation.

[Stefano]

Use bare metal rather than virtualisation.

I would say "use REAL virtualization as xen or VmWare if you need good performances

[jptechnical]

Use bare metal rather than virtualisation.

Thanks for the reply CharlieBrady

We need to run a windows host for QB9Enterprise sharing. Is SME as vmware host stable enough for this? Otherwise, I would have put it on bare metal in the first place... but I have not done any significant testing of vmware on SME. I can't run ESXi or something similar, because I need the underlying host to be able to perform other tasks and be available even if the guests are not, without the use of special infrastructure tools, just ssh/sftp et al.

[jptechnical]

I would say "use REAL virtualization as xen or VmWare if you need good performances

Thanks Stefano.
The guests will have relatively low utilization. In fact, the SME server could be relegated to only service PDC emulation, while the shares (which are all R/W to all domain users) could sit on a little nas box. I need the host os to be a full os that can be managed with ssh/sftp and not with specialized infrastructure tools or minimal/incomplete shells.

[Daniel B.]

I never tried vmware, but you could have a look at KVM virtualization tool. I'm running several SME guests under KVM (centos 5 hosts), and it's working with quite good performances. As SME 7 is a bit old, you can't use all the latest optimizations like virtio interface for disk and NIC, but it's still reasonable.

Regards

[jptechnical]

I never tried vmware, but you could have a look at KVM virtualization tool. I'm running several SME guests under KVM (centos 5 hosts), and it's working with quite good performances. As SME 7 is a bit old, you can't use all the latest optimizations like virtio interface for disk and NIC, but it's still reasonable.

Regards

I would like to, but I need to compare it, particularly the p2v tools which vmware has a slam-dunk. I would have to test it in my own network for a while before I turned it loose on a client. Plus, there are more vmware people by far than there are any of the others. So, if I get hit by a bus then the replacement tech would be more apt to pickup where I left off.

Does KVM have any kind of gui console like the vmware-server-console? Does it run on sme as host? Thanks.

[CharlieBrady]

Does KVM have any kind of gui console like the vmware-server-console? Does it run on sme as host?

That's all off-topic for this forum, which concerns:

 Discussion of the use of *ONLY* the components and features included on the SME
  Server 7.x CD.

You issue is likely to be with Ubuntu or with vmware. We can't fix either.

[arne]

I run basically the same setup, but with Centos 64 as Host. This should do no change. Performance for the virtual SME server is as for a "real" installation. There is no noticable difference.

I guess the question or the problem is actually a network or a firewall question mainly related to the Wmware installation but possibly partly also to the firewalling fuction of the SME server.

I guess the question could also be asked like this:

"Why does the lan network segment not communicate with full speed with the virtual network segment when using the SMB protocol ?" (Vmware question.)

As the SME server firewall could be a part of this question or this problem it might be a good idea to turn it off during troubleshooting, to eleminate this as a factor.

The solution might be to temperarely turn off the SME server only firewall (if it can be done in a safe manner) and ask the question on the Vmware discussion forum as a question about "any standard Samba server". In the question posted on the Vmware forum there should be a description of the Wmware network setup, how virtual segment is communicating with lan segment, etc.

 

[byte]

Moving this topic to the General Discussion forum, it is more appropriate there. Thanks!

[jptechnical]

I run basically the same setup, but with Centos 64 as Host. This should do no change. Performance for the virtual SME server is as for a "real" installation. There is no noticable difference.

I guess the question or the problem is actually a network or a firewall question mainly related to the Wmware installation but possibly partly also to the firewalling fuction of the SME server.

I guess the question could also be asked like this:

"Why does the lan network segment not communicate with full speed with the virtual network segment when using the SMB protocol ?" (Vmware question.)

As the SME server firewall could be a part of this question or this problem it might be a good idea to turn it off during troubleshooting, to eleminate this as a factor.

The solution might be to temperarely turn off the SME server only firewall (if it can be done in a safe manner) and ask the question on the Vmware discussion forum as a question about "any standard Samba server". In the question posted on the Vmware forum there should be a description of the Wmware network setup, how virtual segment is communicating with lan segment, etc.

It is definitely not just smb. Sftp, rsync, local file copies and interaction with a separate virtual disk on a separate physical disk were also about 1-2MB/s at best. Definitely something in this server as vm host, when I move the vm to another host it works fine.

I went ahead and backed it up and installed it on hardware. I am also testing SME as a suitable vmware host on another box. This should prove to be the safest bet in this case.

Thanks for the replies all, and thanks for moving it to the appropriate forum Byte.

[Stefano]

It is definitely not just smb. Sftp, rsync, local file copies and interaction with a separate virtual disk on a separate physical disk were also about 1-2MB/s at best. Definitely something in this server as vm host, when I move the vm to another host it works fine.

I went ahead and backed it up and installed it on hardware. I am also testing SME as a suitable vmware host on another box. This should prove to be the safest bet in this case.

Thanks for the replies all, and thanks for moving it to the appropriate forum Byte.

if so, it's a hw issue..

can you describe your hw? how much ram? what kind of disks?

on my laptop, with ubuntu 8.10, 2GB ram and a slooooooow hd (4200 rpm) I have no problems with virtualbox VM.. before using ubuntu I was on windows XP and vmware.. no problem