Client processor spikes when tools are installed...

[carboncowmoo]

Running latest build of Fusion 8.5x on my mac mini server which is running OS X 10.9.5 (I won't be upgrading that any time soon as I've found Fusion to not run well on Sierra yet, please don't offer upgrading my host OS as a solution to my inquiry).

I'm running two clients on this server and both are Windows Server 2008 R2 with approx. 4GB RAM and dual processors assigned. They run great and the first unit has been in production for 3 years w/o a hickup. I"ve recently built the 2nd 2008 R2 machine to be a 2nd DC and it's running a proof of concept test for the last two months.

ONLY when VMware tools are installed I see these spikes on the DC unit. At the moment they don't seem to be causing any issues such as lockups or slowing but the reason they are a concern is they don't appear on my older server which is running the same client OS on the same host.

If I remove the VMware tools the spike goes away. This is a fresh install of the client OS with all updates as required by our network. No other software installed at this time on the client other then VMware tools and the AD/DC/DNS roles created.

Any idea why VMware tools are causing this spike on one box and not the other considering these two clients are 100% the same size?

The only different pertains to hardware with server #1 running on two SSD mirror raid while the DC (new) server is running on two 500GB 5400rpm drives mirrored.

NOTE: I have done some searching here on the forums and all I have found is continuous CPU usage and not intermediate spikes.

[Darcyz]

Hi carboncowmoo

Welcome to Fusion Community.

Is anything in the Guest spiking high (task manager) while the vmware tools is running?

Regards

[carboncowmoo]

Thanks for your time...I guess I am using the wrong terms for a VM environment. When I use the term client I should be saying guest. I've done some basic searching of processes and nothing registers long enough to see and I"m not skilled enough to do a Perf Mon data dump and root through that. So basically since there was no software installed to cause it beyound the Tools and as stated once, I remove it the issue is gone.

Is something in the DC/AD roll not playing well with tools?

[carboncowmoo]

I'm going to add to my own post. Best I can tell trying todo some forensics that when vmwaretools is installed it and the process SYSTEM spike. Disable the VMWARETOOLS service and not issues.

Since I run this headless and connect via RDP I can run it w/o tools but then I look some required sharing needs for backups.