Poor transfer speed between VMWare host and VMWare Image

[A_Edwards]

Is there a simple fix to the following issue:

VMWare Server 1.07 (build 108231) running on a Dell PowerEdge 1900 server with 8Gb memory and Broadcom BCM5708c NetXtreme II GigE intergrated network card. Using Windows 2003 R2 Server Enterprise on the host.

WIth 1 VMWare image set up (again Windows 2003 Server) we are experiencing really slow transfer speeds when connecting to a share on the host and copying files to the image.

After some searching on the web I've found suggestions that disabling the TCP Offloading on the network card should improve performance but after making the change I see no difference.

Transferring a 34Mb file currently takes 20 minutes!

Your helps appreciated

[AWo]

Do you only have problems between the host and the guest?

What about transfer speed to the host and the guest from systems?

You can try if the "host-only" network is working better for you: create a "host-only" network connection between both by adding a second NIC to the guest (VMnet1) and use this link. You should have the VMware DHCP server service running to provide IP addresses for this network automatically.

You circumvent the use of the physical NIC by doing so.

[A_Edwards]

Transferring the same 34Mb file from my laptop to the host takes 50 seconds. From laptop to guest is 50 seconds. I'd prefer to used a bridged connection.

I've finally found the cause of the problem, W2k3 Server SP2 includes Windows Scalable Networking Pack which includes support for all the offloading and other fancy features of the Broadcom NIC. Using the command line run the following to disable the TCP Chimney ofload:

netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED

Microsoft Knowledgebase article 912222 descibes the pack in detail.