ESX display performance

[_S_1]

I have installed 3 different guest OS on an ESX server :

XP workstation,

2000 server

Solaris 10 u3 (32 bit).

All work well but ... I have some very poor performance with display.

All guest have vmware tools installed.

In fact, when I drag window, I get short freeze (display).

If I run this same guests (same vmdk) with vmplayer, no problem with display.

I make some investigations on Solaris :

slow and freeze display under console and vnc : I have less freeze if depth display is set to 8 (256 colors). But it stay too slow !

if I "redisplay" application on other machine, display is very quick.

So It seems that problem come from (ESX) server !?

Is display performance depend of ESX server graphic card or other factor ?

What can be done to improve (avoid freeze) display ?

=S=

[Chris_S_UK]

For the Windows VMs, try the following;

Control PanelDisplaySettingsAdvancedTroubleshootHardware accelerationmove slider bar all the way to the right.

Chris

[_S_1]

Thanks, but it is not the solution.

Under Windows XP/2k or Solaris, when i drag a window, this one moves smoothly for about (2/3/4/)5 seconds then a freeze occurs (i.e window or mouse are not refreshed on screen) and finally freeze dissapear (for a short moment).

Does someone know how display is generated by ESX server ?

Does it use (and need) internal hardware card (then "send" buffers to console) or just use ram ?

May be problem come from server architecture ? : machine is IBM x235.

Can people give me experience about display performance ?

[arraya-halim]

The ESX console performance is VERY dependent upon your network connection from the VI Client system to the ESX host. I've seen horrible console performance at clients with slow 10 meg hub networks, or via VPN. Check for issues like packet loss and excessive TCP retransmissions.

You may want to try enabling VNC console access for your guest, although this must be done on a per-VM basis and the ports must be opened on the ESX firewall to allow the connections.

The following KB article which is for GSX applies to ESX as well:

http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/475/1246_f.SAL_Public.html

VNC may still be slow at times but it is more optimzied for slow networks. Another solution could be running the VI Client in a Windows VM or Windows system that is on the same switch as your ESX host and then connecting to that Windows system using RDP.

[Mike_Fink]

The solution to this problem, in my experience, is to install the VI client either on the VC server, or another server with high speed connectivity to VC and then RDP into that machine (when using a slow connection).

I publish the VI client on Citrix, that works MUCH better then trying to use it over a slow connection. However, the RDP solution also works if no Citrix is available/in use.