VM CPU spikes at 100% during a period of inactivity

[NYSDHCR]

Our enviornment: Dell PE 2950, 32GB ram, ESX 3.5 U2, VC 2.5 U2. We have two vms in particular. One is a SQL db vm (SQL 2005 SP2), 1 vcpu, 2GB ram. The other is a Livelink application server, 1vcpu and 2GB ram. More often than not if a user logs onto the server via VC client and there is a period of inactivity of say, 15 minutes or more, VC reports a spike in the vm's cpu of 100%. Noting unusual is going on. I have noticed on more than one occasion cmd.exe is using 100% of the vm's cpu when I log into the vm via VC. When I 'End Task' on this it drops right down. Has anyone else experienced this before? Thie ESX host is not part of a cluster. Just a stand alone in VC

If so, what was the resolution?

[sflanders]

How long have you had the VMs? Where they converted from physical systems?

[NYSDHCR]

They have been around for 4-5 months or so. They were built as vms (not P2V'd). we have only seen this behavior on these two vms. Our enviornment conists of a total of 16 ESX hosts and 160 vms.

[sflanders]

If the VMs remain active does the issue occur? Is it possible you have a virus or spyware?

[Troy_Clavell]

I'll throw this out there, just in case

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002262

[ablej]

I have seen this with a virus which the CMD.exe process is not actually the real cmd.exe. Do you any odd programs under Start > Run > msconfig > Startup.

David Strebel

www.holy-vm.com

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[adolopo]

What kind of storage are you running?

[tekka]

For what it is worth to the discussion, I just experienced yesterday that during installation of a VM (rhel 5 x86_64), from vcenter client I connected a local file as virtual dvd-rom and then I kept the VM console window open at the boot prompt for half an hour, due to an incoming phone call.

When I came backp to the window, I saw a cpu warning message because it appeared that this guest was using 100% cpu for half an hour..... while doing almost nothing but stayng in the welcome page of the installation dvd, waiting for a return key press...

[NYSDHCR]

Troy - we have the same a/v installed on all of or vms - sophos. The other s are not experiencing this issue.

Thanks anyhow

[NYSDHCR]

Storage is Network Appliance FAS 3040s

[NYSDHCR]

Did you notice any processes in Task Mgr pegging the cpu?