vmwareuser.exe cpu 100%

[juliangall]

Since upgrading to Fusion 2.0, I have had a couple of times when the Mac has slowed to a standstill. The culprit has been the vmwareuser.exe process in the running VM consuming 100% CPU. Windows XP SP2. OSX 10.5.5.

Restarting the VM cures the problem for a while, but it comes back.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Julian

[admin]

Thanks very much for the dump Matt, I've grabbed it and we'll start looking it over and see what it reveals.

Andrew 8-)

[topgunli]

Thanks very much for your feedback and dump files. Now I can reproduce the bug. What happened is that when you drag something into guest, we will start a DnD thread in guest, but it may take time. And when you drag it out, we will cancel the DnD. But if you drag out right after drag in, guest DnD thread may be not up yet, so will miss the cancel signal. And unfortunately, DnD thread is very expensive. Actually there is a workaround. If you got into this bad case again, just drag a file into the VM and stay inside for a while, and drag out again. This will reset our DnD status and kill the DnD thread. Let me know if the workaround works or not. This will help me to know if it is the cause of the bad situation.

[reesd27]

I am seeing this problem at drag and drop, but also when the guest starts. I am hoping its part of the same problem so I am looking forward to the fix. I'll add the Mac seems to sometimes treat whole window moves as "drags" so maybe its happening during some window moving/resizing (vs. dragging from inside a window).

Is it possible to just turn drag and drop off for now?

Thanks,

d

[reesd27]

Actually, I am not sure I am seeing the exact same problem, though it may be related. To recap what I am seeing:

Every few hours in Unity (and less often when not in Unity) windows within the guest become non-responsive. This is coupled with a bunch of messages in the log like the following:

Sep 29 08:54:10.854: vcpu-0| TOOLS call to unity.get.binary.handlers failed.
Sep 29 08:54:10.854: vcpu-0| VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB: failed: ret = VMDB failure
Sep 29 08:54:10.854: vcpu-0| VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB: failed: ret = VMDB failure
Sep 29 08:54:22.697: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 08:54:55.863: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 08:54:59.025: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 08:55:54.430: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 08:55:57.313: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 08:56:02.575: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 08:56:05.451: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
...
Sep 29 09:00:01.455: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 09:00:08.993: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 09:00:13.556: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 09:00:20.319: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 09:00:24.120: vmx| VMXVmdbCbUnityCmd: failed: ret = Schema path not found
Sep 29 09:00:28.490: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 09:00:28.555: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
Sep 29 09:00:29.043: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.

I am also seeing this when the guest starts up in the vmware-vmfusion.log:

Sep 29 09:28:16.061: vmfusion| Failed to get guest app info: VMDB failure
Sep 29 09:28:37.373: vmfusion| Failed to get guest app info: VMDB failure
Sep 29 09:29:24.317: vmfusion| Failed to get guest app info: VMDB failure

The vmwareuser.exe sometimes spikes, but not always to 100%. Though its hard to say because really the whole guest becomes non-responsive for a bit and then catches up.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling tools with no improvement. It may be worth noting that even with tools uninstalled I still get the "vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out." lines in he vmware.log.

As I mentioned above this is a parallels import, so it may have something to do with the import.

I've attached my latest vmx and logs. Hopefully we can find a fix for this because when this isn't happening I am enjoying vmware's responsiveness and the dual-monitor support, but if we don't get it figured out before my trial expires I will have to go back to parallels since I am not having these lockup problems with it.

Thanks,

d

[JeFurry]

Actually there is a workaround. If you got into this bad case again, just drag a file into the VM and stay inside for a while, and drag out again. This will reset our DnD status and kill the DnD thread. Let me know if the workaround works or not. This will help me to know if it is the cause of the bad situation.

In my case, the DnD procedure above made things much worse. The (supposedly idling) VM was taking 138% of a core on the host's CPU (a 2-CPU VM on an 8-core Mac Pro), so I dragged an icon on to the VM's Explorer window, waited a few seconds, then dragged it out again. I hoped that the CPU usage would drop back to the normal ~7%, but instead it went up to 204%. The dragged icon left a ghost image which didn't clear for several minutes, and a shutdown of the VM took over 15 minutes.

I tried the same procedure, this time waiting longer before dragging out the file (which was a PNG image, ~2.4MB, and I did not actually drop it in the VM, just dragged it over and back out) and the same thing happened.

If this is making it worse, it suggests that although this is a problem, there is another one...

-Jef.

[reesd27]

To help isolate the problem I created a new image from scratch using default settings. It seems to have similar issues making me think the issue is at the host level rather than the guest level. I've attached its logs as well. Generally I continue to see errors like the following in the log:

Sep 29 11:41:31.884: vcpu-0| VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB: failed: ret = VMDB failure
Sep 29 11:41:31.885: vcpu-0| VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB: failed: ret = VMDB failure
Sep 29 11:41:31.946: vcpu-0| TOOLS call to unity.get.binary.handlers failed.

Thanks,

d

[topgunli]

Thanks for all the information. I guess maybe VMwareUser inside the guest un-registered all callbacks. Can you follow the instruction to collect guest log?

Copied from arolett's comment:

To do that go to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools, Then open the tools.conf file.

Add two entries:

log = "TRUE"

log.file = "C:\vmtools.log"

Then log out and log back in to your VM Wait for vmwareuser.exe to start using 100% of your cpu and upload the resulting log

files. There should be one at c:\vmtools.log and possibly more than one

at c:\vmtools.log.<process id> where process id is just a number.

Once you are done, make sure to turn off logging by removing the two entries because they can take up a lot of space over time.

[reesd27]

Thanks for all the information. I guess maybe VMwareUser inside the guest un-registered all callbacks. Can you follow the instruction to collect guest log?

Thanks, here are the guest logs zipped with the other logs. I hadn't realized this was a different log (the guest log) or I would have included it sooner.

Thanks,

d

[reesd27]

Another issue I am seeing is that saving a 200K file to a shared folder can take several seconds. During that time the CPU of the process I am saving from (e.g. notepad.exe) spikes to 100%. Its happening across a variety of applications - notepad, wordpad, natura bonsai, so it seems to be file system related.

Thanks,

dave

[topgunli]

Another issue I am seeing is that saving a 200K file to a shared folder can take several seconds. During that time the CPU of the process I am saving from (e.g. notepad.exe) spikes to 100%. Its happening across a variety of applications - notepad, wordpad, natura bonsai, so it seems to be file system related.

Thanks,

dave

How long it will take to save the file to virtual disk? Also looks like your setup is not very powerful. Can you provide more information about your setup? Mac Pro or Mac Book? How big is memory? Also what is your guest OS? XP?

[topgunli]

Thanks for the log. It is very helpful. Now we are investigating, and will keep you updated.

Your efforts and time are highly appreciated.

Thanks, here are the guest logs zipped with the other logs. I hadn't realized this was a different log (the guest log) or I would have included it sooner.

Thanks,

d

[reesd27]

How long it will take to save the file to virtual disk? Also looks like your setup is not very powerful. Can you provide more information about your setup? Mac Pro or Mac Book? How big is memory? Also what is your guest OS? XP?

Virtual disk save is very quick and no CPU bump.

I don't think my system is that weak. I don't see these delays in Parallels for example (though I see other issues). Here are the stats:

Host:

MacBook Pro

2.33 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

3GB RAM

Mac OSX 10.5.5

Guest:

Windows XP Pro SP3

1GB RAM

Thanks,

d

[mudaltsov]

Could you try to uncheck "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine" in the VM's Sharing settings and see if it helps the VMwareUser CPU usage?

If it's checked, Fusion will re-publish proxy applications for all guest apps when Tools are started, which might contribute to the CPU load in the guest. It's also the reason for the "VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB" errors, although they are harmless. Basically some applications don't have any file type or URL associations, so the call to get them fails, and the error is logged.

Looking at your log files, I'm more concerned about log messages such as "Command WRITE(10) took 1.183 seconds (ok)" and "Command READ(10) took 1.178 seconds (ok)". These mean that writing and reading from the virtual disk is delayed because of some OS X kernel file system locking issues. Basically the VM tries to read or write to the virtual disk, but OS X is blocking it from doing so, which will basically hang the VM for short periods of time, which would appear as slow performance. We are looking into these issues and working on a fix with Apple.

[reesd27]

Could you try to uncheck "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine" in the VM's Sharing settings and see if it helps the VMwareUser CPU usage?

I've unchecked it and it seems to have reduced the number of "VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB failed", "Schema path not found", and "toolbox-dnd timed out" entries from the log. I still get 4 "VMXVmdbGuestBinaryHandlersCB failed" when going into Unity (none at startup). I also get a few Schema path not found", when I drag emails between Outlook windows (in Unity). But generally my log is certainly much cleaner.

Looking at your log files, I'm more concerned about log messages such as "Command WRITE(10) took 1.183 seconds (ok)" and "Command READ(10) took 1.178 seconds (ok)".

I am still getting these. Note I am keeping my Outlook PST files on the host side and accessing them through the Shared Folder mapping. These files are huge (1G) and Outlook hops around in them a lot (but obviously doesn't read the whole file into memory).

Thanks for keep my hopes alive :)....

d

[JefferyRPrice]

Just wanted to chime in. Running XP SP3 on MacBook Pro (10.5.5, 4GB RAM, 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo) with 1.5GB assigned to VM. I saw this problem continually. I have actually rolled back to a snapshot I took just before upgrading and reverted back to Fusion 1.1.3.

An interesting note though while I was still using 2.0... I tried the uninstall/reinstall of the tools. After uninstall, Windows of course rebooted. After this reboot, the VM window shows what appears to be only the top right corner of a much larger screen that the VM thinks I have. I am able to log in, but after that I have no visible/accessible Windows task bar. Installing the tools is quite problematic because the dialog boxes that appear (well, I assume they appear) for the install are in another area of the virtual screen that I cannot see or access. After trying this several times (revert to snapshot, upgrade VM to 2.0, uninstall tools, failed tools install), I gave up and went back to 1.1.3. Much more robust for me now, certainly not as snappy with moving large windows in Unity, but small price to pay for actual usability.

[Matt_Stevens]

Actually there is a workaround. If you got into this bad case again, just drag a file into the VM and stay inside for a while, and drag out again. This will reset our DnD status and kill the DnD thread. Let me know if the workaround works or not. This will help me to know if it is the cause of the bad situation.

Seems like you found the source of the problem, after getting into the high CPU state I dragged another file over the guest OS and CPU use returned to normal. Glad you were able to track it down!

[jarome]

I see this without drag and drop. It made 2.0 unusable for me. The final beta usually works however.

This is triggered by the Cisco VPN for me. With 2.0, the VMWare tools goes to 100% cpu usage after the connection is made. Also, Norton Internet Security 2008 and PC Tools Spyware Doctor always peg to 100% cpu if I do not disable them before connecting the VPN. Something is very rotten here.

I have a dual quad MacPro with 8 GB memory.

[ryankennedy]

I just wanted to chime in and say that unchecking "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine" made all of my VMwareUser CPU problems go away.

MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, Fusion 2.0, OS X 10.5.5, Windows SP3 VM

Thanks.

[jarome]

I have that off all the time. I made a new VM with just the Cisco VPN and the McAfee software, and starting the VPN tunnel pins everything to 2 cpus 100%. Support is looking and stumped.

[bgertzfield]

I just wanted to chime in and say that unchecking "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine" made all of my VMwareUser CPU problems go away.

Thanks, Ryan.

Can other folks affected by this problem please try these steps, and let us know if it resolves the issue?

1) Go to the menu Virtual Machine -> Settings

2) Click the Sharing icon

3) Uncheck "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine"

4) Restart your virtual machine



Please let us know if this resolves your boot time problem. If it does, could you let us know what software you have installed in Windows?