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FreddyFredFred
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

windows 10 1809 slow

I downloaded the Windows 10 1809 and Server 2019 ISOs the day they became available so I can start working on my templates.

I built the templates with EFI, paravirtual for the C drive and vmxnet3 adapter. I've been using this combo for other versions of windows 10/8/7and windows server 2008r2/2012r2/1016 without issue.

So far Windows 2019 (with desktop experience) seems to be ok at least for a basic vm and guest customization. Haven't tried anything else yet.

Windows 10 1809 on the other hand is very, very slow to reboot after the initial install or even just rebooting after making some changes post install. After installing the OS it took 10-15 minutes for the initial windows setup stuff (user, security settings, etc) to appear . I tried a VM set to BIOS and it seemed faster but was still quite slow. Server 2019 and other versions of windows 10 have no issue.

The hosts are esxi 6.5 and 6.7.

I haven't had a chance to try every combo of BIOS/EFI/vmxnet3/e1000e/paravirtual/lsi sas to see if one is the cause of the issue but was wondering if anyone else had noticed any issues or if it was just me?

Thanks

126 Replies
StevenPa
Contributor
Contributor

I can confirm, this is still not working correctly with Windows 10 1903 and all the latest updates for Esxi 6.7 with VMFS 6, completely unusable.

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svc
Contributor
Contributor

Same problem here:

VMware ESXi, 6.7.0, 13644319

VMFS 6

Storage connected via fiberchannel

Windows 1803: normal boot

Windows 1809 with snapshots: slow boot

Linked Clones (and golden image) with Windows 1809: slow boot

It is a very annoying situation that VMware let's its customers down in this case 😞

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mhinterholz
Contributor
Contributor

We created a datastore VMFS5 and it soon solved the problem.  Any prediction of vSphere 6.7 U3?

Thanks!

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Raj1988
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Issue to be fixed in a future ESXi release for 6.5 and 6.7 . ETA might be (Q3 2019) .

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castroanth
Contributor
Contributor

Not sure what is different on mine but I created a VMFS 5 data store and composed a new set of VMs on this data store but have not noticed any significant difference in boot times (Win 10 1803). Still seems to hang for upwards of 20 minutes just spinning at the Windows splash screen.

nschlip
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for this info - exact same issue we're experiencing. Doesn't matter if it's Win 10 1803, 1809, or 1903 - VMFS5 of VMFS6, using Pure Storage or vSAN. I also completely left out Horizon and just composed a Win10 VM in vSphere from a template, and THAT helped. It seems if you create all dedicated Win10 VM's from a template (which won't have associate snaps) the issue is fixed, but that's only a workaround (if you have the host resources).

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nickcasa
Contributor
Contributor

So 6.5u3 dropped, however i still don't see this fixed in the resolved section, anyone else?

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FreddyFredFred
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I see this in the release notes which seems like the issue in question:

PR 2292798: Virtual machines with Microsoft Windows 10 version 1809 might start slowly or stop responding during the start phase if they are running on a VMFS6 datastore

If a virtual machine is with Windows 10 version 1809, has snapshots, and runs on a VMFS6 datastore, the virtual machine might either start slowly or stop responding during the start phase.

This issue is resolved in this release.

SummaCollege
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

We installed 6.5 U3 (Build 13932383) today and all VDI desktops feel snappier. Overall feeling with me and my colleagues is that this update also improved performance for us.

Our floating desktops are stored on local VMFS 6 SSD storage.

We were not affected by the slow boot issue so i can't say if this update indeed fixed that.

Edit: we did some measurements and logintimes on average dropped from about 30sec to 20sec!

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timothyhasty
Contributor
Contributor

Is this an issue in 6.7?

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johnny05
Contributor
Contributor

Experiencing this in ESXi 6.5 U2 with VMFS6. We are looking to determine whether or not this will be resolved in ESXi 6.7, either U2 or the upcoming U3.

StadtHS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

New  vcenter update doesn't fix it. Booting time is up to 5-6 minutes on VMFS5.

Still waiting for the fix..

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HendersonD
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Anyone know when ESXi 6.7 Update 3 is going to be released which rumor has fixes this problem?

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ranand_2000
Contributor
Contributor

Nathan,

I am experiencing the same issue but using Insta clone, will this resolution work with Insta Clone as well?

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nschlip
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm not sure, we unfortunately do not have licensing to use instant clones.

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sjesse
Leadership
Leadership

I'm not to 1809 yet in our Horizon Deployment, but from my understanding of the issue, it wouldn't matter if its in instant clone or not.

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nickcasa
Contributor
Contributor

what version of w10 are you running?  non-persistent linked clones?

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HendersonD
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

ESXi 6.7 Update 3 was just released. Has anyone tested this yet to see if the the slowness is gone with VMFS6 datastores?

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nickcasa
Contributor
Contributor

at the bottom of page 6, summacollege reported that 6.5u3 did fix this issue, no reports of anyone with 6.7u3 reporting from what i can tell

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nschlip
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We're getting the updated scheduled (probably a week or two out), and I will report back on findings once that's done.

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