Awful performance with VMware Player 16.1 - frequent slowdowns/freezing (Linux)

[Crotalidae75]

I have serious problems getting Player to run well under my Linux system, and I struggle with slowdowns and freezing, and I've had far too many instances where the program freezes altogether, forcing me to reset my system (and often losing work).  It's really getting obnoxious and I really don't know what's caused.  I've tried setting my vCPU count to 4, instead of higher (originally I set it to 8 vCPU cores).  I later learned that a lower number is preferable, for stability reasons.  I've also tried 2 which results in more issues.  But it still persists and I wonder if it has to do with using multiple files for the virtual disk.  More recently I turning the 'Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI' setting to on, but that doesn't seem to make any real difference.

My disk space is not pre-allocated, either.  Would re-installing under with a single disk file be a better option here?

The guest OS is Windows 10 Pro x64, and I'm running it under Kubuntu 20.10,  kernel version 5.8.0.33-generic, under a Ryzen 7 2700x, with 32GB of RAM, and an older 1080 Ti GPU.  By all means it should be enough to run VMWare smoothly but that's not my experience with it.  Something is wrong here and I don't know what.  

 Any ideas? If need be I can provide more information.  The only thing I really use it for is to run Daz Studio under, but I don't think that would cause the problems I have.  I still suspect the multi-file disk settings to be causing trouble.

[RaSystemlord]

I have had a similar question open for Ubuntu 20.04.1 for over a week now. It's too slow to even start to work.

No answers available, it seems.

I have used VMware Player & Pro for 15+ years on Ubuntu and Windows - this is now a new situation.

[fatihoz]

hi

I have a similar issue that i wanted to share maybe you have an idea taking me a step further

running Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa, i have downloaded and installed the vmplayer 16.1 but its not able to power on CentOs or debian10. it can create the folder but doesnt power on. instead gives me an error message "virtual machine is powered off or suspended" then closes the program. i have installed all the updates but still doesnt power on

[RaSystemlord]

Sorry, forgot to update you on this - I got this sorted out in my own thread.

The problem is kind of simple - since Ubuntu 18.04 Host (if we talk about LTS versions, only), NTFS does not work on a location of a VM-computer. 16.04 works fine.

So, you cannot use an ntfs-filesystems when running for you VMs. Otherwise the performance is horribly bad - never really got the VM all the way opened up because of the horrible performance.

When using the normal, current ext4, everything works fine. I'm not sure what the matter with VMware Player versions is, I only tried on 15.x and mainly 16.x versions - so only with the latest versions. I doubt VMware version makes any difference in this.

[RaSystemlord]

@fatihoz 

Based on your description, we don't have the same problem. I'm not sure what you really got done - do it in two stages, for clarity, anyway, first create the VM and second stage to load the operating system.

My problem was really bad performance on NTFS, only. With ext4 everything works as it is meant to be.

Based on this description, it is hard to way what the problem is, I suggest to open a new thread and give clarity to the below things:

- are you solely trying to create a VM first?

- do it in two stages and tell where it stops

- have virtualization ON in your BIOS

- have virtualization ON in your VM settings (I think I always turn ON, "virtualize CPU performance markers", because in Win 10 it is a must

- check prerequisites, there may be more for Mint than for normal Ubuntu (even Ubuntu has them since 18.04, check with Google what you need to install)

- there can also be something very wrong in your VM settings

- check that you really boot from ISO image and it is good

As you see, you cannot be absolutely sure, what your VM has before installing operating system, if you don't do VM creation in two stages.

Anyway, I have tried with a large bunch of VMs now, including Kubuntu, many Ubuntu versions, Garudo, many Puppy Linux versions, Debian 85 Ham Radio version. No problems with them. Hosts have been Ubuntu 20.04, lately Kubuntu 20.04.2 or Ubuntu Studio 20.04. Mint host I haven't tried.

[Dominik_WR]

Hi

i have same problem and today i will plan to reformat my ntfs partition on which i had VM's to ext4. Let you know if it solved my problem

My case is recent because i had installed ubuntu 20.04 yesterday and later installed vmware workstation pro and found out lag problem. Today i saw your topic and it could be solution

[RaSystemlord]

@Dominik_WR 

Yes, your problem seems to be exactly the same that I had. I did test it pretty thoroughly and the problem was the combination of Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 with NTFS-filesystem. Ubuntu 16.04 was working fine also with NTFS.

I have used VMware since then on ext4-filesystem and it works just fine on Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Ubuntu Studio latest LTS versions (20.04.x) . SSD, HDD and external SDD-USB3 - disks are all giving the expected performance (for a VMware computer) when there is ext4 filesystem in play.

[Dominik_WR]

Hi

I can confirm that after ext4 reformat from ntfs no lags on vmware machines

thx for advice !

[Carroux13]

Hallo zusammen,

auch ich kann nur bestätigen, dass die Performance von Vmware 16.1 unter Windows 10 bzw. 11 und / oder Windows 2022  Server eine einzige Katastrophe ist. 

Gibt es hier einen Workarround?

Beste Grüße Carroux13

[RaSystemlord]

@Carroux13 

I hope answering in English is OK - my German is nicht so gut.

This thread is about VMware performance of a Linux Host. The solution was NOT to use NTFS filesystem for the VM computer location. That solves the problem of utter slowness (if working at all). This was relevant since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS times (not 16.04 LTS or before) until the Linux kernel at that time - not tested with latest kernels (which are said to have new NTFS drivers).

As for bad performance on Windows - maybe a reason for a new thread. As such, I would expect the problem being with the configuration of the VM computer or possibly missing resources of the Host. The most likely candidate is the memory allocation (too little for the VM, too much for the VM in terms of Host RAM, too little RAM on the Host (not likely since you see similar things on a server where you probably have enough RAM), awful disk performance (= old HDD), too little resources available for you actual VM task (= your system is busy doing something else), missing Windows Updates (there are many things that screw up Windows performance), 3rd party antivirus software which is blocking the decent use of VM disk files (= try without, or change the config). And then there are bunch of other reasons.

If you want to discuss with me, link the question to me - I'm not actively following this Forum.