vmware-vmx high CPU usage

[AaronA1975]

I've read a handful of posts here about RC1 using an unusually high amount of CPU and I wanted to add a data point. I've noticed that the vmware-vmx process uses anywhere from 30-80% constant CPU time while I have a virtual machine (XP or Vista) running. I have checked to be sure that the VM isn't actually doing anything, and usually the only running process in the VM is Task Manager, which uses about 2% CPU.

Is this something I can correct, or is it simply a bug in the release candidate?

[tirmidi]

I'm experiencing much higher CPU usage under RC1 than in the previous beta, using a well tested and tweaked VM. But apart from saying this, I shall not file an SR, as I am sure it must be the same problem.

[dajhorn]

The SB-DAT-00498 error is now happening for me too, a week after this thread was created. It prevents opening a Customer Service Request for non-premiere accounts.

[simonf00]

Well... I've been running a Win2k3 x64 VM for the last 36 hours... my CPU is around 10%...

So for me at least this seems to be a Vista issue. As the original problem stated, with Vista running my CPU sits at around 34% when Vista states that it's 98% idle.

So, the Vista problem is still in need of repair... Windows 2003 server looks ok (I'm assuming 10% CPU is ok; someone please let me know if this is not a correct assumption).

Simon.

[simonf00]

Update for everyone...

I got a response for the SR I raised on this issue. Here is the response:

Dear Simon,

I would like to thank for your cooperation and patience rendered by you.

Your Support Request has been tagged with Bug # 173438

As a result of our initial qualification and analysis, we have been unable

to determine the root cause of the problem, and no workarounds are available.

We will follow up with you when a fix is available in a production release.

We will also contact you if we post an experimental build that will help with

your problem. The status of your support request will be marked as

"Pending/Problem Report" until the bug is fixed.

Thank you for your time and interest in VMware Products.

Thanks

Mallesh

VMware Technical Support[/i]

So... it looks like we're all out of luck.

I would suggest everyone who runs into this, submit an SR and include all your log and .vmx files. Maybe with more information the guys can figure it out.

Simon.

[neilio]

I'm seeing this too and it's driving me a bit nuts. I took a sample of the vmware-vmx process and will open a SR to see if my information helps.

FWIW this is under Windows XP running via Boot Camp. Where does Fusion keep the vmx file for Boot Camp?

Message was edited by:

neilio

[time_ed]

That's a shame. I downloaded RC1 last night and installed on a dual-boot 10.4.9 core2duo Mac. Second partition is Vista. VMWare found the Windows partition and created a guest called Boot Camp. When I started the guest, CPU on the host went to 50% on both cores. I also started to see an incredible amount of disk I/O.

The guest desktop never fully loaded but installation of VMWare tools started automatically. Mouse and keyboard inside the guest was spotty or non-responsive. Operations on the host were fine except for the CPU.

Since the guest desktop never loaded, I couldn't run checks on the guest. Also, because I booted the guest from a physical partition, I couldn't suspend. I finally had to kill vmware-vmx.

At first I thought because the physical drives on my host are SATA, that I might need to change the controller mode to IDE in the BIOS in order to get the guest to run properly, but I see now that's not the case.

I can provide machine details and package up the vm image and logs if need be.

[mpeters13]

It's a relief to know that I wasn't going crazy when I noticed this issue as well. So from what I gather, the only solution is to destroy my virtual machine and create a new one? I don't suppose there is anyway to revert to Beta 4?

[mbarnett]

I am having the same problem of the vmware-vmx process using about 20-40% CPU utilization with WinXP SP2 running at 99% idle. It is typically at 20% utilization. I did NOT build my virtual image from a BootCamp partition, so I doubt that it is related to BootCamp.

I believe I created the image under Beta 3 or Beta 4, but I cannot recall now. I'm currently using the latest official v1.0 release, and I still have the problems.

I'll have to contact customer support.

[bgertzfield]

Hi neilio,

That's a great idea. Could you post the sample here?

The VMX for Boot Camp is in ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/... .

[jas8522]

When I try to take a sample of vmware-vmx I get:

sample cannot examine process 506 for unknown reasons, even though it appears to exist.

Definitely the right pid.

This doesn't matter for me though because I found a solution:

For those of you with a Boot Camp install or who have installed the Apple Boot Camp driver package, I really had only updated the Boot Camp drivers and VMWare Tools in the OS, so I decided to start playing with those processes and services. Once I disabled the Apple Mobile Device service the Vista Boot Camp VM was back to 5-10% CPU usage while idle.

For Vista: Click Start & type services.msc

For XP: Click Start > Run & type services.msc

Click Enter on the keyboard

Find the Apple Mobile Device service in the list and disable it (right click or double click and use the dropdown). Reboot or click the STOP button.

Now whenever the OS is idle (which isn't nearly as often with Vista as with XP :P) it sits at about 6% CPU usage. My guess is the Mobile Device service polls the USB ports or something similar to that, and may have been changed with the 1.3beta update.

Jordan

[bgertzfield]

Hi jas8522,

You would need to use 'sudo' to sample vmware-vmx (since it's running as root).

[jas8522]

Of course... can't believe I didn't realize that. I'm so used to sudoing as soon as I login (practically automatically) on my server I always forget when I'm running commands on the local machine.

[Gredo]

I had a similar issue with my VM idling around 20-25% in OS X even though XP was showing 0% CPU. Once I disconnected my iSight from VMware it dropped back down to around 5%.

[marcusaurelius]

For those of you with a Boot Camp install or who have

installed the Apple Boot Camp driver package, I

really had only updated the Boot Camp drivers and

VMWare Tools in the OS, so I decided to start playing

with those processes and services. Once I disabled

the Apple Mobile Device service the Vista Boot Camp

VM was back to 5-10% CPU usage while idle.

For Vista: Click Start & type services.msc

For XP: Click Start > Run & type services.msc

Click Enter on the keyboard

Find the Apple Mobile Device service in the list and

disable it (right click or double click and use the

dropdown). Reboot or click the STOP button.

Now whenever the OS is idle (which isn't nearly as

often with Vista as with XP :P) it sits at about 6%

CPU usage. My guess is the Mobile Device service

polls the USB ports or something similar to that, and

may have been changed with the 1.3beta update.

Jordan

Has anyone else tried Jordan's workaround? If so, did it help?

[msh_]

<snip>

For those of you with a Boot Camp install or who have

installed the Apple Boot Camp driver package, I

really had only updated the Boot Camp drivers and

VMWare Tools in the OS, so I decided to start playing

with those processes and services. Once I disabled

the Apple Mobile Device service the Vista Boot Camp

VM was back to 5-10% CPU usage while idle.

Has anyone else tried Jordan's workaround? If so, did

it help?

I tried it with XPSP2 but didn't get any change - it's still idling at 14 or 15%.

Configuration is 1 CPU, no USB devices attached, macbook core one duo 1.83ghz, 10.4.10, 300mb memory.

It's running on a boot camp partition, originally had Parallels set up but I removed that.

[jeremydb]

I can confirm that this fix doesn't appear to do much. However, since updating to v1.0, CPU usage of vmware-vmx has dropped from 20-40% to 8-15% when idle, mostly hovering around 10%, on my BootCamp-partition-based VM. Which while still not ideal, is a lot better. I have no explanation for the change, beyond the version + tools update. The system remains the same.

[jas8522]

jeremydb and msh, did you both remove the Boot Camp VM folder when you updated to 1.0 in order to allow it to create a new optimized config file?

~/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp

Delete that and load Fusion - it will auto detect your boot camp partition again and re-configure it when you load it. On a previous upgrade that solved my problem after I had verified there were no USB devices plugged in. Once that didn't do it this time I went in search of my previously posted solution.

jeremydb, I think that 5-10% (approximate) is considered normal. In comparison, when I had Parallels running of my Boot Camp partition it would idle at about 30-40%.

With Vista, you have to wait until the Windows Task Manager shows 97%+ on the System Idle Processes, when it's still at 92% or 95% I still see 25-35% usage on vmware-vmx in Activity Monitor, seemingly due to hard drive accesses. You can also monitor hard drive accesses by using Menu Meters or iStat Menus for OS X. Once it reaches 97%+ idle in Windows (and you'll notice iStat Menus reports no hard drive accesses), the vmware-vmx process in OS X shows about 9-12% idle. Then when I closed Task Manager it dropped again to 5-8%

Jordan

Message was edited by:

jas8522

[msh_]

jeremydb and msh, did you both remove the Boot Camp

VM folder when you updated to 1.0 in order to allow

it to create a new optimized config file?

~/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/Virtual

Machines/Boot Camp

Just tried it now, didn't seem to make any difference. I appreciate the suggestions though

Interestingly vmware doesn't seem to quit when windows shuts down - it just says "now safe to turn off" etc. I wonder if that's indicative of something related...

[jeremydb]

I didn't.

[jas8522]

That is odd - mine definitely shuts off and goes back to the giant Play button.

To get the sample that was suggested earlier in this thread, run:

sudo sample vmware-vmx 10 -file ./vmware.sample

Then attach the vmware.sample file or open it in text edit and paste the content here. The file will be in your currently running directory, so if you just opened terminal it should be in ~/vmware.sample (your home directory).

Jordan