Major troubles with Beta 4.1

[tirmidi]

Having just upgraded to 4.1, I'm having some major problems. I have a rather large SCSI-based VM, XP SP2, originally converted from Parallels way back in 1.0. After upgrade from 4.0, which went smoothly enough, I tried to run an application, and the system slowed to a crawl, with CPU usage of 200%. I had to do a hard reset of the VM, as it wouldn't shut down. After starting up again, another hard reset was required. Now, after the third time, everything is running, but very slowly, and resting CPU usage with Outlook, Firefox and Quickbooks loaded is around 35%. It's very sluggish.

How can I begin tracking down, and ideally correcting this problem? Thanks in advance to the tireless team and their equally tireless supporters.

[Andreas_Masur]

Well...unfortunately, I do not have a straight answer...but you may want to take a look at the following three topics:

\* CPU usage vmware-vmx at25 % when idle[/url]

\* Processor Utilization[/url]

\* airport process using excess CPU?[/url]

Ciao, Andreas

[tirmidi]

>three topics:

*

[url=http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threa

dID=90181]CPU usage vmware-vmx at25 % when

idle[/url]

*

[url=http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threa

dID=89766] Processor Utilization[/url]

*

[url=http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threa

dID=90476] airport process using excess CPU?[/url]

Thank you. I had looked at these, detached all USB devices, and upgraded to 4.1 to correspond to OSX 10.4.10. And I'm running a Quad MacPro with 6 gigs RAM, rather than a McBook.

[Andreas_Masur]

Thank you. I had looked at these, detached all USB

devices, and upgraded to 4.1 to correspond to OSX

10.4.10. And I'm running a Quad MacPro with 6 gigs

RAM, rather than a McBook.

Did that help or do you still experience the same issue?

Ciao, Andreas

[tirmidi]

The problems I am experiencing are after having taken the recommended corrective measures. I certainly notice an increase in CPU load when connecting USB devices, so they remain detached.

[bgertzfield]

What's the CPU usage in the virtual machine? What process is taking up CPU time when this happens?

[tirmidi]

What's the CPU usage in the virtual machine? What

process is taking up CPU time when this happens?

Sending "control-alt-del" from the Virtual Machine menu isn't launchingi task manager; I have to launch it from the command line (taskmgr.exe).

When I do so, I find that the VM CPU using is varying between 4% and 19%. "System Idle Process" consumes 82-95% of CPU usage, though occupying only 28K of memory.

Meanwhile, on the Mac side, with only Task Manager running, CPU usage varies between 28-40%. (I initially thought it was higher, but Outlook left its executable running when I quit the interface).

[admin]

When I do so, I find that the VM CPU using is varying

between 4% and 19%. "System Idle Process" consumes

82-95% of CPU usage, though occupying only 28K of

memory.

The System Idle Process is Window's way of accounting for idle time, it's normal for an idle system so show this as accounting for 98-99% CPU.

Meanwhile, on the Mac side, with only Task Manager

running, CPU usage varies between 28-40%. (I

initially thought it was higher, but Outlook left its

executable running when I quit the interface).

Is this for all processes, or only vmware-vmx? If just vmware-vmx, it does sound high, but your guest also doesn't quite sound idle.

[tirmidi]

Meanwhile, on the Mac side, with only Task Manager

running, CPU usage varies between 28-40%. (I

initially thought it was higher, but Outlook left

its

executable running when I quit the interface).

Is this for all processes, or only vmware-vmx? If

just vmware-vmx, it does sound high, but your guest

also doesn't quite sound idle.

Yes, it's just for vmware-vmx. But you are right, it wasn't quite idle. I was responding to bhertzfeld's request to determine host CPU usage with Task Manager running.

Follow up: I just rebooted, and found the resting usage at 8%. In shutting down, however, I got a BSOD and a memory dump. Then, upon shutting down again, the shut down process did not complete, and I had to power down the VM.

Further followup: I started up the VM successfully, and scrutinized the various processes. I found two instances of the indexing service running, and shut down both of them. Now, with Firefox and Outlook running, the CPU usage is fluctuaing at 20-23%.

[tirmidi]

I am still hoping someone will have some ideas about what to do. I've become quite dependent upon my Fusion VM, and would really like to get it stable. The high CPU usage condinues, as do the freezes requiring a reboot, and the overall sloth.

Should I reconvert my Parallels VM and try again? Reinstall Fusion? Send formal bug reports?

I have no way of knowing how representative this is, but I would still hope that it is a matter of concern.

[Pat_Lee · Accepted solution]

Since this was imported from Parallels, I am going to recommend trying one thing to see if this helps at all though I don't think it will. Let's create a new VMware Fusion VM settings file that points to your existing virtual disk that you have been using.

1) Launch VMware Fusion and click New, click Next to proceed

2) Select Windows XP Professional and click Next

3) Assign it a new name and click Next

4) In the Virtual Hard Disk screen, click on the Advanced Disk Options arrow, check the "Use an existing virtual disk" checkbox and click on the popup menu to select your existing VMDK from your existing virtual machine. Click Next

5) On the last screen, I believe it will have a Start VM option. Uncheck this and click Finish

6) In the Virtual Machine Library, select the new VM and click on Settings. Make sure the memory setting is appropriate for your VM and click OK.

7) Select the "New" VM in the VM Library and click on Run

NOTE: I am running an internal build and steps to finish may be slightly different.

This should give you the default settings for a new VM but use your existing virtual hard disk. Make sure to update the VMware Tools to the latest version as well by select "Install VMware Tools" from the Virtual Machine menu once Windows has booted. You will then have to restart after the update to tools.

Once you have done these two things, if things still are funky I would be looking at to what could be wrong with Windows installed inside your VM.

Let us know if this helps.

Pat

[tirmidi]

Brilliant. The only problem is that Fusion believes that tools are already installed and current.

Now all I have to do is edit the .vmx file for my second hard drive and I am off to the races. But where, oh where is the new .vmx file?

I should say that Fusion is an order of magnitude snappier--in initial boot, launching programs, etc. Control-alt-delete still doesn't bring up the task manager, but it appears that the new settings file fixed all the problems.

Thank you, Pat.

[tirmidi]

OK, I found the .vmx file hiding inside the Virtual Machine package. But when I tried to edit it with BBEdit per usual to add a second SCSI drive, when I launched the VM a message box appeared, saying the VM was corrupted. When I replaced the edited version with an archived copy of the original, it worked fine.

I tried adding a second drive in Settings, and specifying my existing second drive, the one I had running in the original VM, and it didn't "take."

What's the proper way to edit the .vms file?

[admin]

BBEdit or other text editor should have been fine. Can you post the "corrupted" vmx and the backup vmx (and maybe the problematic vmx so we can figure out what was wrong)?

[tirmidi]

BBEdit or other text editor should have been fine.

Can you post the "corrupted" vmx and the backup vmx

(and maybe the problematic vmx so we can figure out

what was wrong)?

I see the mistake I made that led to the "corruption": I doubled up the SCSI 0:1 entry. However, here is the current vmx, which I thought should, but doesn't, load the second SCSI drive upon boot (though it works just fine).

Is there another problem that is preventing the second drive from being seen? For example, should there be a SCSI1.present = "TRUE" line?

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "6"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

memsize = "1424"

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "/Volumes/HItachi 2/DriveC/DriveC.vmdk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

usb.present = "TRUE"

ehci.present = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.fileName = "-1"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

displayName = "DriveCII"

guestOS = "winxppro"

nvram = "DriveCII.nvram"

deploymentPlatform = "windows"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "0"

tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "soft"

powerType.suspend = "soft"

powerType.reset = "soft"

numvcpus = "2"

ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

uuid.location = "56 4d 47 63 53 5a cf 84-ff 2b a4 46 48 ca 10 17"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 47 63 53 5a cf 84-ff 2b a4 46 48 ca 10 17"

sharedFolder.maxNum = "1"

mks.keyboardFilter = "allow"

sharedFolder.option = "onetimeEnabled"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"

ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:ca:10:17"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.enabled = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.writeAccess = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.hostPath = "/Users/smg"

sharedFolder0.guestName = "MacHome"

sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName = "/Volumes/Hitachi2/DriveC/DriveE.vmdk"

scsi0:1.redo = ""

[admin]

However, here is the current vmx, which I thought

should, but doesn't, load the second SCSI drive upon

boot (though it works just fine).

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Do you mean that apart from the second drive, the rest of the VM works fine, or that you're able to load the second SCSI drive after boot, or something else?

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName =

"/Volumes/Hitachi2/DriveC/DriveE.vmdk"

scsi0:1.redo = ""

Does the second SCSI drive show up in the BIOS? If not, I would try changing these to scsi1:0 instead of scsi0:1. If so, is it already partitioned, or is it blank? If it's blank, Windows might not show it until you format the drive.

[tirmidi]

However, here is the current vmx, which I thought

should, but doesn't, load the second SCSI drive

upon

boot (though it works just fine).

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Do you mean

that apart from the second drive, the rest of the VM

works fine, or that you're able to load the second

SCSI drive after boot, or something else?

I mean that with this vmx, there is no "corrupted VM" screen, the boot proceeds correctly, and everything runs as it should. However, there is no second drive available, nor does it appear in the bios.

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName =

"/Volumes/Hitachi2/DriveC/DriveE.vmdk"

scsi0:1.redo = ""

Does the second SCSI drive show up in the BIOS? If

not, I would try changing these to scsi1:0 instead of

scsi0:1. If so, is it already partitioned, or is it

blank? If it's blank, Windows might not show it until

you format the drive.

It is a fully formatted and partitioned drive, one that I had used reliably in version 3 and below, using precisely the same entries as those in the vmx shown above, which suggests that the grammar was correct, at least for those versions. Nevertheless, I am willing to try SCSI 1:0, but I wonder if I need to add a line to turn on SCSI 1, similar to the one that seems to turn on SCSI 0?

[vinayv]

It would seem to me that your second drive should be in "Hitachi 2" not "Hitachi2" from looking at the path to the other VMDK.

Just a thought. Maybe that will help.

[tirmidi]

Quite right!

I've cleaned up the vmx a bit, and the correctly working version is as follows:

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "6"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

memsize = "1424"

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "/Volumes/HItachi 2/DriveC/DriveC.vmdk"

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName = "/Volumes/Hitachi 2/DriveC/DriveE.vmdk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

usb.present = "TRUE"

ehci.present = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.fileName = "-1"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

displayName = "DriveCII"

guestOS = "winxppro"

nvram = "DriveCII.nvram"

deploymentPlatform = "windows"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "0"

tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "soft"

powerType.suspend = "soft"

powerType.reset = "soft"

numvcpus = "2"

ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

uuid.location = "56 4d 47 63 53 5a cf 84-ff 2b a4 46 48 ca 10 17"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 47 63 53 5a cf 84-ff 2b a4 46 48 ca 10 17"

sharedFolder.maxNum = "1"

mks.keyboardFilter = "allow"

sharedFolder.option = "onetimeEnabled"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

scsi0:1.redo = ""

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"

ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:ca:10:17"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.enabled = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.writeAccess = "TRUE"

sharedFolder0.hostPath = "/Users/smg"

sharedFolder0.guestName = "MacHome"

sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"

[tirmidi]

The moral of the story:

When creating new settings for the VM, it's possible to select an existing vmdk for the primary disk. I think this same functionality should be available when editing the settings, such that one could add an existing VMDK as a second (or third, etc) hard drive, rather than having to edit the vmx file. This is especially true since the vmx file is hidden inside a "package" and isn't immediately visible in the Mac file system.

Couldn't this be implemented rather easily?

Thanks for all the support!