VMware performance issue

hertz

I am running a number of VMware machines using VMware workstation. I have found if I run a windows7 or Vista VM on a Windows XP machine these VMs run very slowly, even if I assign 2GB ram and 2 CPUS. I can run other XP or w2k3 vms smoothly enough. The host machine, Windows XP has 4GB Ram 32bit. All Vms are 32bit.
Has anyone else found poor performance issues if running more advanced VMs on an older OS? Could it be Windows7 and Vista's high graphics and advanced features? Could it be Hard disc drive IO speed?

I am struggling to find any information on the web about this. I mean they work but it can be annoying when you need to wait for small things to happen when you have already assigned it 2GB of virtual memory. I know these OS do require alot of memory to run smoothly but 2GB is sufficient for basic stuff, I am not loading up any other memory hungry applications.

Any ideas?

SickBoy

You need to supply all details of the host system for someone to answer your question properly.

Fysh

How optimised is your host OS? What, if anything, do you have running on the host OS when the VMs are running? What hardware is present in your host machine?

How optimised are your VM installations? Do you have stuff like the Aero interface enabled? What performance metrics have you run to try and quantify the issue?

hertz

Sorry I should have included more information.

The Host machine is a Dell Dimension 360, 32bit, 4GB Ram, Pentium Dual Core CPU 2.4GHZ. Running Windows XP SP3 32bit. This machine does have an AV, Office, but is a test machine is not being used for any day to day stuff. Memory and CPU usage is normal in task manager, page file set to the maximum which would be 6GB in this case. Is a member of a domain.

The Guest VM machine is running in VMware workstation 6.5 configued as Windows7 Enterprise 32bit, 2GB Ram, 2.4GHZ Dual core CPU. Fresh install so there is no other 3rd party software, no AV, no office.
The VM machine files are running off a secondary SCSI hard disc, connected via a SCSI controller to the motherboard. I am in the process of moving the VM machine to the C drive in order to test the performance and response time but was wondering if anyone had come across this and had any ideas.

Capt'n Midnight

define poor performance - 50% / 10 times as long / timeouts

oyu could also look at perfmon in the VM too, if you haven't already done so on the off chance it shows something else

is there any time dependent stuff , are you using anything other than the base VM drivers ?

have you optimised the BIOS settings for your VM setup ?

BTW - sometimes it works out the other way
LOL at the way that an XP VM running under the initial Vista release copied some large files much faster than the Vista host, ( 100-1000 times :eek: ) till it got sorted out in a service pack.

Fysh

I would suggest checking out VMMark to try and get some quantifiable information about the performance of your VMs. It should help you work out what may be causing the problem, although TBH I suspect that your hardware and host OS configuration aren't going to lead to particularly good performance for newer guest OS.