VMWare Workstation 16 Pro taking a long time for snapshot capture to start

[dlhtox]

I have VMWare Workstation 16 Pro and for some reason the capturing of a snapshot is taking an unusually long time.

I can select Take Snapshot and the actual taking of the snapshot takes 1 minute and 50 seconds to start where it used to be instant.

I can watch the bottom left corner of the VMWare Workstation screen where it says "Saving State...0%" and it sits there for 1 minute and 50 seconds and then from there takes another 3 minutes or so,

The guest OS being saved has 4 gig of memory. 

No Hyper-V is installed on this computer.

The only difference between the prior snapshot and the new snapshot are a couple of wallpaper changes.

There is 139 gig free on the drive the VM's are stored on.

64% memory usage on the host computer.

Any ideas?

I have attached a video of the snapshot progress % for anyone that wants to watch paint dry.

[RDPetruska]

Host OS and version?

Workstation version?

How many snapshots for this VM currently exist already?

What is the type of the virtual hard disk? (growable vs. preallocated, split vs monolithic)

[dlhtox]

Host OS and version? 

Windows 11 Pro 21H2 (22000.708)

Workstation Version?

16.2.3 build-19376536

How many snapshots for this VM currently exist already?

Two

What is the type of the virtual hard disk? (growable vs. preallocated, split vs monolithic)  

Split into multiple files - not preallocated

FYI: The physical disk everything is housed on is an NvME solid state.

Another thing I've noticed is that when I'm playing music (Spotify or Tidal) that it makes the music stutter quite a bit even as it sits at 0% of saving state.  Once it starts counting up on percentages the music stops being choppy.

Of course I have tried it without music playing or anything else taking up resources on the system.

[mwb1100v]

I am also seeing this behavior:

  - Host OS and version?

    Windows 11 Pro 21H2 (22000.795)

  - Workstation version?

    Workstation Pro 16.2.1

  - How many snapshots for this VM currently exist already?

    Two

  - What is the type of the virtual hard disk? (growable vs. preallocated, split vs monolithic)

    growable & split

Would appreciate any ideas for troubleshooting this.

[wila]

Hi,

Please attach a vmware.log file to a reply here.

--
Wil

[gerion]

I have the same problem, but it takes much more time. Yesterday it took approx. 20 minutes on 0% and another 15 minutes to go to 100%.

Host:

Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11950H @ 2.60GHz 2.61 GHz
Installed RAM 64.0 GB (63.2 GB usable)
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 21H2
Installed on ‎12/‎27/‎2021
OS build 19044.2130
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4180.0

VMware:

VMware® Workstation 16 Pro 16.2.4 build-20089737

I attached the vmware.log from the VM. The snapshot I took yesterday was called '[infected] debugging metal.dll'. In the log you can see that it starts at:

2022-10-18T22:05:22.511Z In(05) vmx SnapshotVMX_TakeSnapshot start: '[infected] debugging metal.dll', deviceState=1, lazy=1, quiesced=0, forceNative=0, tryNative=0, saveAllocMaps=0

and finishes at:

2022-10-18T22:40:02.182Z In(05) vmx SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot '[infected] debugging metal.dll': 38

So it took 35 minutes to take the snapshot.

[wila]

Hi Gerion,

From the log:

2022-10-18T20:41:12.455Z In(05) vmx Monitor Mode: ULM

Which means that you are running in User Level Mode and thus Workstation cannot use VMware's hypervisor, but instead it has to go through the Hypervisor API that Microsoft provides.

There's been other reports with snapshots being slow when running as ULM.

Only when Monitor mode returns CPL0 it is running in ring 0, a.k.a. no hypervisor.

Monitor mode CPL0 (Current Privilege Level 0) is required for VMware Workstation to be able to use their own hypervisor.

See also:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/MikroTik-RouterOS-boot-speed-is-drastically...

In order to turn off ULM/Hyper-V mode, run the following command at the host in windows command-line with Administrator privileges:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Reboot the system to activate your changes.

If you want to go back to Hyper-V mode again, then you can enable it like this:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

See also:

• Workstation 16 Pro Error "Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported on this platform
• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2146361

Note that you also might have to disable Memory Integrity.

Windows Security -> Device Security -> Core Isolation details

Don't forget to reboot the host after making any of these changes.

Good luck!

--
Wil

[munrobasher]

Similar problem here on Workstation 15 and Windows 11. For me, disabling Memory Integrity was all that was needed. I've raised a ticket to investigate what this security feature is. Guessing it's new to Windows 11 as don't recall it before.

[gerion]

Thanks wila, it worked!

I used to turn the Windows hypervisor off exactly for this reason, but since I heard that VMware could run parallel to it, I left it running because it still provides some security features. I think with this performance, VMware saying that it can run with the Windows hypervisor is more a marketing thing than a usable feature.

Thanks again.

[kittenMasher]

I have the same problem.  I have a brand new machine, 10 cores, and loads of Ram. 4Tb m.2 drive for VM machines.  Used an older version of VMware for years with no problems.

All worked OK until about two days ago.  When I take a snapshot, the system seems to come under load, Windows 7 VM guest appear to hang.  Leave for ages, no much happens.  Have to reboot the host to regain control.  If music or video playing on host then audio and video become choppy.   CPU is under stress on several cores but not all.

Tried the suggestion below.   Spent £3500 on the new computer to run this kind of tech and am now very disheartened.

Host Windows 11 latest updates applied.  VM workstation 16.2.4

[kittenMasher]

I have found a few more things about this issue.   On a Small Windows 7 VM it took 5 mins to take a snapshot after just having taken one.   I could see the clock was frozen while waiting.   I then did one on a small Windows 11 VM, and it took one immediately.  As It should.   

I think it's all VM's which came for a previous Machine and Workstation 15.   Were configured to 9.x and now upgraded.

[kittenMasher]

SOLUTION FOR ME

I tried the above things did not work for me.  Now since my new VM snapshots worked fine, and only OLD ones were affected.  I tried in settings, drive, defrag and compact.  And now the performance has improved and the snapshot seems to work quickly.   Even though its running on a 4TB m.2 VERY FAST drive.   It would seem if fragmented it just took an age to do the snap shot.   Even if very little had changed since the last snapshot.