Broken slow network performance between Vista host and XP guest; file shares on host are slow, file copy slow, Explorer browsing slow

[TesBayd]

EDIT October 2, 2008: I updated to version 6.5 and the performance problem is still there. No change

When using Vista SP1 as the host and XP as guest, I'm getting very very slow network transfers. Copying a 1 megabyte file from host (file share) to guest takes almost 4 minutes!

• Vista host XP guest: 5 KB/sec (yes, ~5000 bytes per second)

• XP host XP guest: 40 MB/sec

It's the same computer in both scenarios so it's not a hardware issue. Clean install of Vista (SP1) and XP (SP2 or SP3) in both scenarios.

I tested with Workstation version 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.5 and both have the same slow network bug. Others tested with 6.0.3 in the threads cited below and also had the same problem.

Has this Vista host VMnet issue been fixed in 6.5 beta?

I'm having the same problem discussed in thse 2 older threads:

>> "Slow network access from XP guest to Vista host"

>> http://communities.vmware.com/thread/151344

>> "Horrendously slow network connection between (Vista x64) host and guest"

>> http://communities.vmware.com/thread/99579

Apparently, this vmnet network issue remains unsolved.

I've searched google and tried all the hacks mentioned including:

• -- disabled IPv6

• -- disabled "Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level" (netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled)

• -- disabled "Chimney Offload State"

• -- disabled SMB 2.0

• -- disabled SMB signing

• -- deactived Remote Differential Compression (RDC)

• -- 127.0.0.1 .host (should only relevant for Shared Folders but I put it in anyways)

None of those changes made any difference.

I don't know what is different about Vista network stack that makes the VMnet functionality broken.

Any ideas how to fix this?

[Sanjer]

I can verify that I also have this issue. Oddly, it seems to be SMB specific. (XP 32 Bit "guest" OS mapping an SMB share to VISTA 64 bit host OS).

It is specific to a "bridged" network connection from the "guest" OS to the "host" OS and SMB mappings. When the network type of the "guest" OS is set to "host only" the problem (unusable SMB performance between "guest" and "host" OS) dissapears.

For a "bridged" SP "guest" network connection, SMB performance is entirely unusable (slow).

Also strange is that even with the aforementioned "bridged" host connection SMB performance being slow, the raw TCP/IP throughput seems unaffected (500 Mbps using the Ixia throughput tool between "guest" and "host").

I need to test ftp performance between the two also...

Any ideas??

[Scissor]

Interesting...

I assume that you have installed the VMware Tools in your Guest. (perhaps try uininstalling and then reinstalling the VMware Tools).

I also assume that you are not trying to use Jumbo Frames on either the Host or Guest.

Try temporarily disabling any "Checksum Offload" and/or "Large Segment Offload" settings on the Properties -> Advanced Settings of your physical Ethernet adapter. Does that make a difference?

[Sanjer]

RE:

Try temporarily disabling any "Checksum Offload" and/or "Large Segment Offload" settings on the Properties -> Advanced Settings of your physical Ethernet adapter. Does that make a difference?

That sure seemed to be it... (like night and day performance gain now)

Disabled ALL Checksum Offload(s) in the VISTA "host" physical network adapter properties as well as DISABLING "Jumbo Packet" support.

I'll try to narrow it down from there.

Thanks a bunch.

[dalrympleana]

Thanks indeed ! I found that Jumbo frames were ok (9014), but that I had to turn off Large Send Offload. I was able to leave xxx Checksum Offload IPv4 as RX & Tx Enabled. I disabled all IPv6 checksum / offload - only as I don't use IPv6. I have a Intel 82567LM gigabit nic on Vista x64 SP1 with workstation 6.5. Oddly enough it worked fine for a month or more since install without needing to tweak these settings, maybe it was a Windows update change - 2008-12-09 ?

[psavides]

I had the same problem! I confirm the problem solved with the NIC settings referred!

[nextech]

I can confirm that this problem still does exist.

The slow network transfers between guest and host is unbelievable. To transfer a 13MB file, it's 4 hours and 19 minutes.

There is definitely something wrong with VMWare.

Here are my system specifications (hopefully this will make sense or help the developers with debugging):

Host: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

Guest: Windows Server 2008 x64

When trying to use file sharing, if I try to transfer files back and forth over the network on a shared folder (that is on the Guest Machine) and I try to transfer files or access shared folders (the shared folders from the Guest OS - Windows Server 2008 x64) and try to access the shared folders on the Host machine (by mapping the network share folders to the host machine) the transfer speeds between the Host and Guest are incredibly slow (definitely broken).

My system specifications are this:

2008/2009 Apple Mac Pro with dual Quad-Core XEON 3.2Ghz processors, 32GB RAM, Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 (native boot), VMware Workstation 6.5.0 build-118166.

I have 8 cores, and 32GB of ram, and certainly this is not an issue with my machine being slow, or running slow. This is not a hardware issue. The problem seems to be a slow network bug in VMWare 6.5.

I'm having the same problem discussed in thse 2 older threads:

"Slow network access from XP guest to Vista host"

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/151344

"Horrendously slow network connection between (Vista x64) host and guest"

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/99579

As well as what is being described by this post as well:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1044985#1044985

I'm using VMWare Workstation 6.5.0 build-118166, and I've searched Google, and have read hundreds of posts with uses complaining and various hacks, but I've had no luck in resolving this issue.

I've searched google and tried all the hacks mentioned including:

• -- disabled IPv6

• -- disabled "Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level" (netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled)

• -- disabled "Chimney Offload State"

• -- disabled SMB 2.0

• -- disabled SMB signing

• -- deactived Remote Differential Compression (RDC)

• -- 127.0.0.1 .host (should only relevant for Shared Folders but I put it in anyways)

None of those changes made any difference.

I don't know what is different about Vista x64 network stack that makes the VMnet functionality broken.

Is this specific to Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1? Any ideas how to fix this?

If I read all the other posts, it seems that everyone seems to be having these same problems on a Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 Host, so is there something different with Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 that is causing VMWare to break? Any ideas how to fix this?

As a previous poster (Sanjer) has stated:

+*I can verify that I also have this issue. Oddly, it seems to be SMB

specific. (XP 32 Bit "guest" O

+*It is specific to a "bridged" network connection from the "guest" OS to

the "host" OS and SMB mappings. When the network type of the "guest" OS

is set to "host only" the problem (unusable SMB performance between

"guest" and "host" OS) dissapears.*+

For a "bridged" SP "guest" network connection, SMB performance is entirely unusable (slow).

+ *Also strange is that even with the aforementioned "bridged"

host connection SMB performance being slow, the raw TCP/IP throughput

seems unaffected (500 Mbps using the Ixia throughput tool between

"guest" and "host").*+

I checked my settings, and I can confirm that yes... I'm definitely experiencing this same bug with VMWare Workstation 6.5.

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 as my host and I am running Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise as my guest OS. I am using VMWare Workstation 6.5 build-118166, and I have my VMWare network adapter on the Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise GUEST set to "Bridged".

It does seem specific to a "bridged" network connection from the "guest" OS to the "host" OS and SMB mappings (shared folders on the "Guest" Windows Server 2008 x64 machine that when you map the shared folders on the "Guest" Windows Server 2008 x64 machine and then try to map those shared folders to your "host" Windows Vista x64 Ultimate machine the network performance is unusable.

Sometimes it hesitates (lots of lag) just clicking on folders, but if you try to transfer large files (26MB+) it can take well over 45 minutes or even an hour sometimes. If I do the same exact transfer between my laptop, and a completely different machine (over the LAN), the same transfer takes about 20 seconds, but when I do the transfer on the Windows Vista Ultimate x64 "host" machine, between the host and the Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise "guest" machine, the transfer speeds between the host and guest are just completely broken.

Sanjer said in his previous post:

For a "bridged" SP "guest" network connection, SMB performance is entirely unusable (slow).

+ *Also strange is that even with the aforementioned "bridged"

host connection SMB performance being slow, the raw TCP/IP throughput

seems unaffected (500 Mbps using the Ixia throughput tool between

"guest" and "host").*+

This is true. The problem seems to be specific to shared folders (SMB) performance being slow. It seems to be specific to Windows Vista Ultimate x64 host machines, and I'm running a Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise guest OS and I can reproduce this exact same problem over and over on several different machines.

Any ideas as to when this will get fixed? These posts are over 5+ months old, and I've found several hundred posts on various websites all complaining/discussing this same problem/issue and there doesn't seem to be any fix for it.

Could a developer please take a look at this, and please work on fixing VMWare Workstation 6.5 so that it works correctly on Windows Vista Ultimate x64 host machines?

[nextech]

I had the exact same problem! I just read Sanjer's post, and tried it and it worked!

It used to take 1 hour and 19 minutes to transfer a 19.4MB file between my host machine (Windows Vista x64 Ultimate SP1) and my guest machine (Windows Server 2008 x64).

I tried hundreds of hacks, but nothing worked. I've read thousands of posts from hundreds of websites, but nothing worked. After doing much research, and testing everything I could, I believe I have found a solution.

My host computer is a 2008/2009 Apple Mac Pro with dual Gigabit ethernet adapters. In my particular case, I have a Gigabit ethernet adapter in my host machine. This is the ethernet adapter in my host (2008/2009 Apple Mac Pro) machine:

Intel(R) PRO/1000 EB Network Connection with I/O Acceleration

I was experiencing the same exact slow network performance problem between the Vista x64 Ultimate host and guest OS machines that everyone else was experiencing.

I solved the problem by doing the following:

I disabled "Checksum Offload" and/or "Large Segment

Offload" settings on the Properties -> Advanced Settings of your

physical Ethernet adapter. That seems to have fixed the problem for me.

The problem seems to be that VMWare Workstation 6.5 doesn't like the default settings on some Windows Vista x64 ethernet adapters (Intel Pro/1000 EB Gigabit Ethernet adapter). I wasn't having any problems until a Windows Update (December 2008?) and suddenly something changed, and the network folder transfer speeds were extremely slow. So Microsoft must have done something when they pushed out their Windows Updates for Windows Vista x64 Ultimate machines.

This is how I fixed the problem with VMWare Workstation 6.5:

First, I went into the network properties on my HOST Windows Vista Ultimate x64 machine. I right clicked on the Local Area Connection Adapter and went into the Properties then I clicked the "Configure" button then clicked on the "Advanced" tab settings of the PHYSICAL Ethernet adapter on my host machine. After click on the "Advanced Tab" I looked under the "Property" window and I had to DISABLE the "Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4)" and DISABLE the "Large Send Offload v2 (IPv6)" on my host machine's network adapter.

By doing this, and after disabling the "Large Send Offload" for my host machine's network adapter it seems to have fixed the problem, and now I can transfer files back and forth normally, and the speed is native and extremely fast. So the problem seems to be with "Large Send Offload" on the Windows Vista x64 host adapter.

That is what solved my problem and worked for me, I hope this helps!

I just moved 18.5 MB of data between my host machine, and guest machine and it now takes 1 minute and 20 seconds (instead of 1-4+ hours!

Thanks,

Mark

[nextech]

I had the same exact problem in a previous thread, I posted the solution to this problem here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1191790#1191790

[angelleye]

Can you guys help me out real quick? I'm running Windows 7 RTM and

I'm having this issue (although I never did seem to have the issue.

I'm trying to follow the instructions to fix the problem but I don't

have a "Large Send Offload" option in my host adapter's advanced

settings. What I show are as follows:

Adaptive Inter-Frame Spacing

Flow Control

Gigabit Master Slave Mode

Interrupt Moderation

Interrupt Moderation Rate

IPv4 Checksum Offload

Link Speed & Duplex

Locally Administered Address

Log Link State Event

Piority & VLAN

Receive Buffers

Receive Side Scaling

TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4)

TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6)

Transmit Buffers

UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4)

UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6)

Wait for Link

I did try disabling each of the Checksum Offload

options just cuz that's the closest thing I see but that didn't seem to

fix the problem for me. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[zeneri]

Hi,

I had the same problem using "Windows 7 prof. 64" with an "Intel PRO/1000 EB" as an host and running VMware Server 2.0.2 Build 203138. Trying a lot of steps, the last one gave me the result. I now need 5sec to copy 24MB instead of 13min.

Beginning with the last step:

I disabled the "Large-Send-Offload v2 (IPv4)" and "Large-Send-Offload v2 (IPv6)". I assume thats what it means, because I'm not able to see the "4)" and the "6)".

All values:

Large-Send-Offload v2 (IPv4) disabled

Large-Send-Offload v2 (IPv6) disabled

adaptive Interframe-Spacing disabled

flow control RX- & TX-enabled

Gigabit Master Slave Mode auto

Jumbo Frames disabled

Interrupt Moderation enabled

Interrupt Moderation Rate adaptive

IPv4 Checksum Offload disabled

Link Speed & Duplex auto

Locally Administered Address empty

Log Link State Event enabled

Piority & VLAN Piority & VLAN enabled

Receive Buffers 256

Receive Side Scaling enabled

TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4) disabled

TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6) disabled

Transmit Buffers 512

UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4) disabled

UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6) disabled

Wait for Link auto

Hope it helps.

Good luck.

[WimDeVriendt]

Hi, I am using the trial version of Workstation 7 on my HP 330be? I have disabled all offload stuff and everything what i could find on the threads but the issue isn't solved. The network is UNUSABLE..

I have also a 'Windows Virtual PC' and everything works fine

I have te make a decision which one to keep. I prefer VMWare but if I can't solve the issue I have no choice

Is there someone who could made a script or configuration ?

REgards,

[oleav1]

I confirm that setting NIC Advanced parameter "Large Packet Offload (IPv4)" to "disabled" solved problem of slow network on Windows 7 host (from W2K3 Server guest) on VMware Player.