What configuration changes can I make to speed up extremely slow Windows VM's in ESXi 4.0.

Posted by Shawn Anderson on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Shawn Anderson
Published on 2010-06-01T19:37:58Z Indexed on 2010/06/01 19:44 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 463

Filed under:

esxi

I've recently moved from VMWare Server to ESXi 4.0. Running on Dell T310. My VM's have been restored but they are running dog slow compared to VMWare Server. I loaded ESXi 4.0 using only default values.

Where are some areas where I can tweak the performance? Even logging onto the VM's can be extremely sluggish. Trying to install software on any of them is a new experience in pain.

Dell PowerEdge T310
Xeon X3460 2.80 GHz
32 GB RAM
1 HD (2 TB)

I have 16 VM's on this server, but only six or so will be running during my testing. I keep an eye on the Resource Allocation and Performance tabs for the host and I never see CPU or RAM getting anywhere close to pegged. Events tab does show some notices for video RAM issues and some hints on Windows activation issues, but nothing that would point to the sort of sluggishness that I'm experiencing.

1 Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) - 4 GB RAM
1 Windows 7 (32-bit) - 2 GB RAM
1 Vista (32-bit) - 1 GB RAM
3 XP (32-bit) - 1 GB RAM

Over to you!

Thanks - Shawn

Related posts about esxi

ESXI 4 IPMI 2.0 - Cannot connect to IPMI after boot past bios

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Dear All, I would appreciate any help here. I have a Supermicro 6016T-NTRF running ESXI 4 fine. The health monitors are showing up so ESXI is picking up the IPMI status. But I cannot connect to the host remotely via the dedicated IPMI nic. When the machine is in bios section I CAN connect but as… >>> More
Problems with 2 ISCSI connections esxi 3.5

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am running a dell poweredge 1950 with 4 nic cards. 1 is bonded to SAN #1 on 192.168.90.xx. The second SAN is on a separate network - 192.168.7.xx The network adapter can view the ip range of the san and the NIC can be pinged from 192.168.7.xx range. vswitch1 and vswitch2 are configured identically… >>> More
Are VMWare ESXi 5 patches cumulative?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
It seems basic, but there's confusion about the patching strategy needed to manually update standalone VMWare ESXi hosts. The VMWare vSphere blog attempts to explain this, but it's still not clear. From the blog: Say Patch01 includes updates for the following VIBs: "esxi-base", "driver10" and "driver… >>> More
Slow VM on esxi 4.1

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
We have a FreeBSD 64bit running on a esxi 4.1, the hardware platform is a DELL R710 with 2 x 56xx (intel 6core cpu) and 48 GB ram. The FreeBSD vm is very slow, when we compiles/builds something on it, it takes 5 minuts and it says "build time 18 seconds.". There's no vmtools installed on the vm. The… >>> More
How do I add a VMware ESXi Host to Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to manage virtual machines running on a VMware ESXi host using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager. I was able to add the ESXi machine using the "Add VMware VirtualCenter server" option, but can't access any of the VMs on the datastore associated with this ESXi server. The… >>> More

Developer IT