Long delay shutting down virtual machines

[JRohde]

Hi

I experience a 5 minutes delay from when I shut down a virtuel machine running i.e. Windows Server 2008 R2 until the machine is turned of. This happens every time, and hasn't changed after I reinstalled Windows 7 and VMWare Workstation.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit and VMWare Workstation  7.1.5 build 491717.

Any suggestions?

Regards

Jakob

[a_p_]

This issue has been reported a couple of times here in he forums, but I'm not aware of what's actually causing it. I am using VMware Workstation 8 with Windows 7 64 bit and don't have any issues at all. What I did though, was to exclude my virtual machine files from being scanned by the AV application. Maybe worth a try!?

André

[JRohde]

Hello André

No, that did not fix my problem 😞

I use Avast and in the settings, I made an exception for the entire "Virtual Machines" folder.

Other ideas?

/Jakob

[vignesh_11]

Hi,

I think you increase your memory size in physical machine and check your virtual machine memory size.

-vicky

[zXi_Gamer]

I am also facing the same prob. but what I was able to debug so far is that if I trigger a shutdown inside the VM, the shutdown is quite fast like 20 secs.. But if I trigger the power off button in WS, [power off set to shutdown guest os], it takes around 3 mins... What I also figured is that memory has got nothing to do with it nor cpu cycles.

Also, I understand that the power off button from a WS, sends a backdoor call to the guestOS, which on receiving the call, cleans up the handlers, completes all writes, and sends the backdoor call again stating that the power state of the guestOs is from Powered_on to Powering_off.. And after this, the state of the VM, from powering_off to powered_off takes a helluva time. I was able observe that between the last two states, there are a LOT of

AIOWIN32C: asyncOps=..... operations going on. I am understanding that they are asynchronous IO operations going on for the vm to complete and I suspect it to be the culprit..

But again, this happens only to certain goses like win2k8, win7, and rarely on Vista [running webserver].

I will do post if any findings.. Also, let me know, if you have found any

[JRohde]

Hi zXi_Gamer

I have now tested again, and the delay is the same when I shut down Windows Server 2008 from Windows and from VMWare. The delay is about 4 minutes in average and that was also the case for the latest version of Linux Mint. So my conclusion is, that the error is not in the guest OS, but in VMWare Workstation. I wonder if we can get a response from the company?

/Jakob

[TXuser]

Try adding the following lines to the config.ini file.

prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"
mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"

Under Win 7, C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini AND

                    C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Player\config.ini

Under XP, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini AND

                C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Player\config.ini

Hope this helps.

[JRohde]

Hi TXuser

Thanks, but I don't get you - I am runnning Windows 7 but I don't have, and I have never heard of a folder called c:\ProgramData\*

Please clarify...

/Jakob

[JRohde]

Hi vignesh_11

My host pc (a laptop) has 16 Gb RAM and I never assign less than 4 Gb for a guest OS no matter which kind. So I guess that won't help...

/Jakob

[TXuser]

Jacob,

The C:\ProgramData folder does exist. It is a hidden folder and thats probably the reason why you can't see it.

However, after your reply, I did find that the files are also under c:\users\all users\vmware\vmware workstation\config.ini. This is the one you should edit.

FYI, I verified that the config.ini files were identical in both folders. Sorry for the confusion, as Windows must be keeping another copy for whatever reason.

Let me know if this helps your shutdown problem.

TXuser

[Chad2013]

Hey, not sure if anybody is still having issues, but I'm running VMware workstation 9 and TXuser's .ini fix worked for me. Thanks!!!