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heikki_m
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 3.5 management network very slow

Hello,

I'm having problems with ESXi (3.5 U2 latest, both embedded and installable) on three different hosts. Hardware is HP DL380 G5. Both NICs on every server are connected to 1000FDX ports without any duplex issues. ESXi network configuration is the default: both vmnic0 and vmnic1 are used for VM Network and Management Network. Switches show no errors on the ports.

VM Network is not showing any performance problems. I'm getting steady 30-40MB/s to and from guest machines.

Accessing the management network (copying to datastore, converter access, downloading VI client etc.) is painfully slow. Ranging between 100kB/s to 3MB/s - usually around 1MB/s.. needless to say that this is very frustrating when for example converting existing virtual machines to the ESXi hosts.

Any idea where to start looking for a solution?

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Peter_vm
Immortal
Immortal

Enable ssh, use WinSCP? Or better yet, use NFS.

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heikki_m
Contributor
Contributor

How does that help in getting better network performance?

How does that help when accessing the ESXi host from Converter?

I'm trying to find a solution to the problem.

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heikki_m
Contributor
Contributor

Enabled SSH.

I'm getting the same ~3MB/s when scp'ing back and forth.

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Peter_vm
Immortal
Immortal

Or better yet, use NFS.

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heikki_m
Contributor
Contributor

Well, it's still unclear to me how this would actually solve the original problem Smiley Wink

Or is it by design that in ESXi management network connections are dog slow?

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Anything about the equipment doing the management. I had a situation where my management network actually showed to ESXi as 100MB rather than GB. (physical switch problem)

If this isn't production can you simplify. As Sherlock Holmes did "eliminate the things that it wasn't" leaving only the "thing that it was". It is too easy to have things like multiple routes to the host.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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jcasares
Contributor
Contributor

As this is a generalized "issue" I would say that this is intended. The management interface is restricted on traffic. Or is somebody able to work at full speed on it?

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

The management network isn't restricted. It is the network that has access to remote storage; NFS, iSCSI and SAN. Make sure you don't have multiple management ports on the same subnets.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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koit
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having the same issue with slow performance.

I've tried two different servers with the same result. I get a maximum of 3MB/s during, Converter, SCP and datastore upload.

Any solution to this problem yet?

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damiand
Contributor
Contributor

Same here. I have tried it on all versions of ESX 3.x and the same results. I was able to get 10 - 11 MB with version ESX 2.5.2. I am sure they did something to limit the speed when copying using scp

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Rynardts
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What speeds are you guys getting when using Veeam FastSCP?

Rynardt Spies

www.virtualvcp.com

Rynardt Spies VCP | VCAP-DCA#50 | VCAP-DCD#129 www.virtualvcp.com
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damiand
Contributor
Contributor

I have never heard of that. Do I install it on the ESX server? or workstation.

The speed I get is at max 3MB

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damiand
Contributor
Contributor

I downloaded and installed FastSCP and it is now copying at 4MB/s 1MB/s better than before.

Thanks

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Rynardts
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

4MB p/s is still pritty crap.

I'll install ESXi 3.5 tonight on a test box at home and see what speed I can get out of it.

Rynardt Spies

www.virtualvcp.com

Rynardt Spies VCP | VCAP-DCA#50 | VCAP-DCD#129 www.virtualvcp.com
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JCU_ESX
Contributor
Contributor

Hey,

I have the same problem. I think it is by design. I get between 1MB/s and 10MB/s using convertor. When I transfer files using datastore browser or SCP it is dog slow. I have raised this with VMWare as a support request but they didn't flag it as a known issue. I have only used ESXi but have had the same issue on all servers.

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gi-minni
Contributor
Contributor

Indeed this is a major problem. I also recognized the speed of 1MB/s even using the embedded scp

and copying files inside an IBM BladeCenter H from one box to another.

Is there a general advice how to configure the management port & policy to get a better throughput?

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BThunderW
Contributor
Contributor

With a mounted NFS datastore (async) I can sustain about 405Mb/s when cp'ing from the local datastore. (6 drive SAS Raid-5 -> 8 drive SATA Raid-5)

This is over a single 1Gb/s nic @ 1500mtu. It was the biggest problem with ESXi that I found was that backups were horribly slow. I've tried everything from SCP (too slow), VI (I/O Error on large files), Converter (stalling, too slow). ISCSI was pretty slow too compared to NFS. I have run extensive benchmarks on various drive options, different raid configurations to figure out where the problem is. Turns out that all that was needed was to enable (async) on the NFS export. This works great for backups but I wouldn't recommend it for VM's as there's a high change of data-loss if the NFS server goes down for whatever reason.

Cheers,

Tom

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TechFan
Contributor
Contributor

Anyone else tried this? We also are getting only 3-4MB/s transfer speeds. . .craziness. . .must be limited somewhere. . .

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Simon2009
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem. Esxi 3.5 U3 on HP DL380G5 connected to Cisco 6509 , very slow. ?:|

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