Windows 2003 VM running slow with high cpu usage

[GoforIT70]

Hello everybody.

We have an application (Siemens WinCC HMI system) running on a virtual Windows 2003 server. The CPU usage is constantly running on 30-40% and the application therefore runs terrible slow. The same Vmware host is running other Windows 2003 instances with no problem at all.

I have tried to setup the same application on the same box without VMWare. Now it runs on 4-5% cpu usage. Can someone please tell my why and how to tune VMWare to solve this problem??

Our custumer is prefering to run this application under VMWare so it would be excellent to solve this.

Regards

Ola

[Troy_Clavell]

We have an application (Siemens WinCC HMI system) running on a virtual Windows 2003 server. The CPU usage is constantly running on 30-40% and the application therefore runs terrible slow. The same Vmware host is running other Windows 2003 instances with no problem at all.

hmmm... 30 - 40% to me doesn't seem to be an issue. Nonetheless, do you have the VMware Tools installed and current, and there are no limits set on this guest?

How many vCPU's?

[GoforIT70]

2 vCPU's.

No other limitations

O

[Troy_Clavell]

have you checked your %RDY times in ESXTOP to see if they are high?

[GoforIT70]

login as: administrator

administrator@10.10.1.6's password:

Last login: Mon Mar 15 19:17:51 2010 from 172.16.1.141

$ top

19:38:43 up 2 days, 20:02, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.02, 0.00

119 processes: 117 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped

CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle

total 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%

Mem: 799752k av, 460464k used, 339288k free, 0k shrd, 53440k buff

159504k actv, 210928k in_d, 38460k in_c

Swap: 554200k av, 0k used, 554200k free 268332k cached

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND

1 root 15 0 500 500 440 S 0.0 0.0 0:04 0 init

2 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 keventd

3 root 34 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 ksoftirqd/0

6 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 bdflush

4 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kswapd

5 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kscand

7 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kupdated

19 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 vmkmsgd

20 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 vmnixhbd

24 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 vmkdevd

25 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_0

839 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_1

867 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kjournald

917 root 22 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 khubd

1043 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kjournald

[Troy_Clavell]

you have ESXi? If so, you have to run ESXTOP from the console, alhough a little tricky

See here

http://virtualizationreview.com/Blogs/Everyday-Virtualization/2009/08/ESXTOP-Locally-ESXi.aspx

You are runnning a Linux guest I assume? I can't help to much with that.

[GoforIT70]

!file:///C:/DOCUME_{1/OLAB/LOKALE}1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png!!file:///C:/DOCUME_{1/OLAB/LOKALE}1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png!I'm sorry.

Server is running ESX server 3.5.0 Build 153875.

I'm accessing the server on putty from home right now so I have to get back to you with information from the console tomorrow.

Thank your for your help so far. :smileygrin:

o

[Troy_Clavell]

plus as subject states you are running W2K3, my bad. You may have to maximize your PuTTy session to see the %RDY. Also, you do have the right HAL running within the guest, correct?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283

see this too

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9279

[cchesley]

I suggest that you install a trial of our Capacity Analyzer and our Optimization Pack. They will tell you your %ready numbers as well as if you really need 2 CPU's for that VM or not.

Both of them are free to trial for 14 days.

Chris

http://www.vkernel.com