[Novalug] Win 7 64 painfully slow in KVM on Ubuntu 12.04

jecottrell3@comcast.net jecottrell3@comcast.net
Fri Dec 14 15:31:04 EST 2012


So if that is the case, Why Isn't It The Default?!?

Either way it Looks Like Emulation to me.

BTW, your allocation to Windows seems Overly Generous, especially for a system that is rarely used. I'd cut the memory and CPUs in half.

You didn't say whether you are using a Real Partition or a Logical Volume as your Disk. That is probably better than using a File.

JIM

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Holland" <jholland@vin-dit.org>
To: "Mark Metz" <mametz@aol.com>
Cc: novalug@calypso.tux.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 12:09:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Novalug] Win 7 64 painfully slow in KVM on Ubuntu 12.04

Try using the virtio drivers. They are available from Red Hat and others, what you do is tell Windows the disk and network card are these special pieces of hardware, inside KVM it streamlines IO between the VM and the host machine. It can make a big difference in performance. You have to change the VM settings in the host in virt-manager and install the drivers in Windows. (Install the windows drivers in the vm first)

the idea is that windows "driving" an emulated real piece of hardware and Linux emulating it is not efficient, this way the windows calls to the Virtio device are accessing more optimizing routines in the KVM system. Applies to disks and network.

John




On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 07:07:56AM -0500, Mark Metz wrote:
> All,
> 
> After an extensive head-banging-against-wall session configuring Macs for our
> work environment, I suggested I could get along equally well with Linux.  So, I
> got the green light to make my main work computer a Linux box.  I think the
> only thing I'll need Windows for now is FileMaker Pro, but it's a pretty
> important app for me.
> I thought as a first try I would use KVM and Virtual Machine Manager to install
> my Win 7 64 VM.  I've always used VirtualBox (It's easy.), but I found reports
> on the interwebs that KVM was better for performance.  That has been terrible
> wrong so far.  So before I blast away the KVM VM and go back to VirtualBox, I
> thought I would run things by the experts.
> 
> I am using an ASUS G51J laptop: i7 nehalem, 8GB 1333, two 500 GB SATA, nVidia
> GeForce GTS 360M.  I did the KVM command line checks to make sure my system
> could handle kernel virtualization.  There isn't a setting in my BIOS to turn
> Intel-VD on or off.  My host OS is Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit.  The guest OS is
> Win 7 64-bit.  I'm using the open source nVidia drivers currently.  I'm using
> VMM 0.9.1.  I don't know how to check versions of libvrt and other packages
> running in the background.  I gave the VM a 50 GB raw virtual drive, 4 GB of
> RAM, and 4 CPU cores.  The install of the guest OS was incredibly slow, the
> updates were incredibly slow, but now that it's up and running without the need
> for DVD drive I/O or Network traffic it's still painfully slow.
> 
> I'm going to try and install a guest of a Linux OS and see if that is any
> different in terms of performance.
> 
> I'm guessing there might be something amiss with my VMM settings, but if I
> can't get this figured out quickly I'll need to migrate back to VirtualBox so I
> can get my work done.
> 
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.  I'll monitor my personal email
> throughout the day so can report back any details requested.
> 
> Later,
> 
> Mark

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