Suddenly slow guest VM

[MullionBlasto]

I have a Windows 2003 Server (32) that I've been using for a long time with VMware Workstation 6.5.3 (latest) on Windows Vista x64 with 8gb of RAM and plenty of hard drive space. For reasons unknown the virtual machine (guest) is dramatically slower than a few weeks ago. I haven't changed any VMware Workstation settings nor I have I added or subtracted any substantial system components. The primary process that I monitor for performance on each boot once took 10-12 minutes which now takes 40-50 minutes. Nothing has changed in the guest either.

How might I trouble shoot this?

Things I've done:

• Turn off anti-virus on host

• Defrag both host and guest

I did see a few posts on turning off memory optimizations but the instructions weren't clear and didn't seem to apply to 6.5.3.

Thanks!

Mullion.

[continuum]

are you using a growing disk-type ? - if yes - when did you last "shrink" the guest ?

VMs that use growing disks can slow down up to a standstill if they are not shrinked regularly.

Do you use a lot of snapshots ?

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[MullionBlasto]

Thanks for the reply.

I am not using snap shots and I am not using a preallocated hard disk.The hard disk file is rather large though - 27gb.

I ran the shrink a couple of weeks ago. I'll try again to see if it helps.

[MullionBlasto]

I'm running performance monitors now. Are there any in particular that are best to look at?

[MullionBlasto]

I realized that all my virtual machines are running about 3 times slower. All other applications on my host run with the same performance. VMware Workstation launches and seems to perform fine. The guest virtual machines just run significantly slower.

Any ideas?

I guess I need to write another post.

[rhking]

I'm seeing a similar situation lately too. In my case, if running multiple VMs, one of them will begin to slow down drastically, and the guest system clock will actually begin to lose time. Leaving the VMs running idle overnight will generally result in a loss of 45-60 minutes off the clock.

Host: Ubuntu Desktop 8.10 8GB

Guests are all XP, Sp3, single CPU