VMware Communities: Message List - Network speed is awful

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:19:07 GMT

Ok, then I'll probably invest in a cheap dedicated sampling PC.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Network speed is awful

continuum — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:07:46 GMT

its all about scheduling tasks - a single CPU running XP on a box dedicated to the sampler does this so much better than a 64bit CPU - probably with several cores...
To Vista the process running the VM is just another process - if it decides so it first printes the screen of the other VMsrunning and then does the sound processing ...

I am a musician my self and I tried to run simple comparably simple stuff like old Halion-sampler and Cubase inside a VM ... it just sucks
If a VM is a little bit late with displaying a picture or print a screen - nobody will notice.
if a VM is a little bit late while processing piano-samples YOU will hear that as flanging ...

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:39:19 GMT

I guess it was a bit rude of me to say "unhelpful", because what you were saying was actually correct - sorry about that.

But a £100 computer off eBay? Higher performance than a virtual machine running on my own £800 computer? I don't really understand how that works.. But I suppose I could pickup a box for dedicated sampling pretty cheaply - I'll look into it.

Re: Network speed is awful

continuum — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:23:22 GMT

What do you mean "unhelpful" ? - the sampler you want to use is a Hi-end sound app - you can not run it on lowest end computers. And as far as sound-processing is concerned a VM is lowest end.
Get a real box for maybe 100 bucks at ebay.

Even if you get your network issues fixed ... to run a sampler you need a very low latency. And you simply don't get that in a VM. No way

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:16:43 GMT

Unhelpful. Obviously if I had a proper XP machine up and running I'd use that, but I don't.

Re: Network speed is awful

continuum — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:37:00 GMT

you want to use Giga Studio 3 in a VM ? - that is a joke - isn't it ?
Get a real XP-machine for this kind of work

System Requirements for Giga Studio 3

For Windows XP with Service Pack 1 & 2

Minimum System Requirements for GigaStudio 3.0 and Above

Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor
AMD 2100 XP processor
512MB RAM
1024 x 768 monitor resolution
1000MB application hard drive space
Midi interface
GSIF-compatible sound card (for stand-a-lone operation)
ReWire-compatible host application

Recommended System Requirements for GigaStudio 3.0 and Above

Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor
AMD 3200 XP processor
2GB RAM
1024 x 768 monitor resolution
1GB application hard drive space
Dedicated Sample Drive 7200 RPM w/8MB cache, 8.9 ms seek time
Midi interface
GSIF-compatible sound card (for stand-a-lone operation)
ReWire-compatible host application

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:57:05 GMT

20 seconds.

But the issue isn't actually transfering files - as my actual application won't be moving any files or using the harddisk - it will just be transmitting audio data. I need this transmission to be as fast as possible (the audio isn't saved on the harddrive - the harddrive shouldn't be an issue at all).

Re: Network speed is awful

NicholasFarmer — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:16:35 GMT

I would suspect that you are limited by the local Hard disk and the Operating system calls.

It needs to pass the data from the windows OS, into the VMware API which then translates it into a VMDK file. Must more overhead then doing a file copy from one folder to another.

Try doing a file copy in the host OS and see how fast it can copy the 600 Meg file/files.

Re: Network speed is awful

RDPetruska — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:13:15 GMT

HamishM wrote:
Well I'm not using my actual NIC here - I'm using VMware's virtual NICs, I don't know what speed they are supposed to be

In the guest OS, the virtual NIC labels are merely that - labels. There is not network bandwidth throttling... all network traffic is handled by the CPU. So even though the label may say 100MB for example, with the VMXnet adapter, the network speed is not limited to 100MB/s.

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:53:14 GMT

Well I'm not using my actual NIC here - I'm using VMware's virtual NICs, I don't know what speed they are supposed to be.

Actually, for my purposes I don't actually need to transfer files - just data (audio data) across the network. How do you suppose I test for the speed when doing just data transfer?

Re: Network speed is awful

NicholasFarmer — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:40:42 GMT

600 MegaByte file

600 MegaByte = 4800 Megabit

1Gbit nic = "should" hit the file in around 5 seconds if running 100% effeciency.

100Mbit inc = 48 seconds.

BUT! your hard disk on the workstation is going to be the limiting factor along with any OS over head. If you are running a single 5400 or 7200 RPM SATA hard disk then you might need a raid to reach higher throughput.

What hardware and hard disks are you running VMWorkstation on?

Re: Network speed is awful

RDPetruska — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:36:49 GMT

I'd first recommend updating to the latest, 6.5.2, in case any bugfixes/tweaks may help your issue.

Other than that, nothing I can really recommend. Other than upgrading your host to XP for better performance that that bloated Vista.

Re: Network speed is awful

HamishM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:24:42 GMT

6.5. Host: Vista, guest: XP.

Same behaviour with both of those.

I have a few possibly quite CPU intensive processes running. You see I'm a music producer - and the sampler I use, GigaStudio 3, isn't compatible with Vista so I run it in an XP virtual machine and use a specialized program to transmit the audio back and forward over the network. The program recommends a 1 Gbit/s transfer rate and currently I'm not getting anywhere near that.

Are there some tweaks or settings I can change that'll speed up the networking?

Re: Network speed is awful

RDPetruska — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:40:30 GMT

Workstation version? Host OS? Guest OS?

Using the VMware Shared Folders feature, or standard network file sharing?

Do you have a lot of other processes running at the same time? The virtual network traffic is ALL handled by the CPU, so if the CPU resources are busy with other things, the networking to your guest will be affected.

Network speed is awful

HamishM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:37:03 GMT

I have a virtual network set up between the Guest and the Host only.

Problem is that speeds are awful! It took me around 5 minutes to transfer a 600 MB file. That's like 15 Mb/s. I need atleast 1 Gb/s.

I have VMware tools installed.