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brenthilg
Contributor
Contributor

Slow host networking with Fusion

After installing Fusion on my Mac I get very low transfer speeds transferring files from my host computer to another server on the network. It seems to cap at ~9MB/sec going up to the server, but pulling a file from the server I get ~65MB/sec. This is the only machine I have this problem with on the network, and this is the only machine with Fusion (or any other hypervisor) installed on it. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I don't know what info helps, but here is some stuff it case it is needed.

Machine info:

Mac Pro 8-Core @ 2.8 GHz

OS X 10.5.5

ifconfig output:

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384

inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1

inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000

inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128

gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280

stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280

en0: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 00:1f:5b:39:ba:a8

media: <unknown type> status: inactive

supported media: autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,flow-control> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>

en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

inet6 fe80::21f:5bff:fe39:baa9%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5

inet 192.168.2.12 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255

ether 00:1f:5b:39:ba:a9

media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>) status: active

supported media: autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,flow-control> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>

fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078

lladdr 00:21:e9:ff:fe:c8:62:4a

media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive

supported media: autoselect <full-duplex>

vmnet8: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

inet 172.16.95.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.95.255

ether 00:50:56:c0:00:08

vmnet1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

inet 192.168.179.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.179.255

ether 00:50:56:c0:00:01

en2: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 00:22:41:d0:38:a1

media: autoselect status: inactive

supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex>

Route table:

Internet:

Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire

default 192.168.2.200 UGSc 145 3 en1

127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0

localhost localhost UH 1 66 lo0

169.254 link#5 UCS 0 0 en1

172.16.95/24 link#7 UC 1 0 vmnet8

172.16.95.255 link#7 UHLWb 2 42 vmnet8

192.168.2 link#5 UCS 11 0 en1

xserve.edit.oma 0:d:93:9d:de:cd UHLW 27 4521655 en1 1020

192.168.2.11 0:14:51:67:8e:1c UHLW 1 326 en1 228

192.168.2.12 localhost UHS 14 105436 lo0

192.168.2.13 0:14:51:67:8e:21 UHLW 6 5256639 en1 1000

192.168.2.14 0:14:51:11:7f:94 UHLW 4 11025 en1 241

192.168.2.15 0:d:93:58:9f:34 UHLW 1 31489 en1 1000

192.168.2.21 0:14:51:65:ff:48 UHLW 7 6306001 en1 535

192.168.2.22 0:1f:5b:2f:72:b9 UHLW 6 11309593 en1 39

192.168.2.33 0:14:51:67:8d:ea UHLW 7 6572612 en1 227

192.168.2.121 0:c:29:59:47:d6 UHLW 1 25 en1 1192

192.168.2.200 0:1d:7e:43:d0:74 UHLW 146 2167198 en1 1133

192.168.2.255 link#5 UHLWb 2 205 en1

192.168.179 link#8 UC 1 0 vmnet1

192.168.179.255 link#8 UHLWb 2 42 vmnet1

Internet6:

Destination Gateway Flags Netif Expire

localhost link#1 UHL lo0

fe80::%lo0 localhost Uc lo0

localhost link#1 UHL lo0

fe80::%en1 link#5 UC en1

r2.local 0:1f:5b:2f:72:b9 UHLW en1

e2.local 0:1f:5b:39:ba:a9 UHL lo0

ff01:: localhost U lo0

ff02:: localhost UC lo0

ff02:: link#5 UC en1

(Sorry the formatting is so bad)

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6 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Try using Bridged mode as a workaround.

I believe the upload slowness is partially fixed in 2.0, but the bug report notes that very fast connections may not see much of an improvement. I think you're sort of near the border; e.g. you should see a noticable improvement in 2.0 but not all the way up to matching the download speed.

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brenthilg
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I am using Fusion Version 2.0 (116369). The slow transfer speeds are on the host machine, not the guest machine. The guest is in bridged mode.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I would shut down the guest, quit Fusion, and stop the Fusion networking daemons with sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh --stop, then check what upload speeds you're getting. If you still see this slowness, I don't think it's related to Fusion.

brenthilg
Contributor
Contributor

This is quite embarrasing, but the problem is not Fusion, although your steps led me in the right direction to find the problem.

As a side-question though: I have two network interfaces on my Mac. Normally I would link aggregate them, but this does not appear to be supported in Fusion for use with bridged networks. My question then is can I dedicate one NIC for my host computer and use the other for bridged connections on my virtual machines? Will this give me any better performance over just using the host's NIC? I transfer large files most of the day (video), so any extra performance I can squeeze out of the system helps.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

This is quite embarrasing, but the problem is not Fusion, although your steps led me in the right direction to find the problem.

What was the problem?

As a side-question though: I have two network interfaces on my Mac. Normally I would link aggregate them, but this does not appear to be supported in Fusion for use with bridged networks.

Right, Fusion doesn't currently understand bonded NICs.

My question then is can I dedicate one NIC for my host computer and use the other for bridged connections on my virtual machines?

It's possible to specify which NIC guests use by modifying boot.sh and the .vmx config file. See . Note the host must still have access to the second NIC (or else Fusion, and by extension the virtual machines, won't be able to use it).

Will this give me any better performance over just using the host's NIC?

No idea, but I think it might work.

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brenthilg
Contributor
Contributor

The problem: The volume I was testing with is in my login items, but I was using an old IP address to mount it with. This IP is now on the 100mb subnet. Using the correct IP I am now using the 1000mb network.

Bonded NICs: Do you know if there are future plans to allow this?

I will take a look into modifying the files. Thanks for the help!

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