Weird VM performance problem

[ocd]

I know VMs aren't officially supported, but I saw how diligently the Slysoft folks tackled previous issues, so I figured it was worth at least asking.

I've encountered a really weird performance problem. I assume it's related to my running in a VM, since I haven't seen any other reports about it.

Essentially, enabling AnyDVD HD causes BD read performance to get stuck below 2.8X (often much worse)...but only if I let the BD drive spin down after the initial boot & AnyDVD scan.

If I start benchmarking right after boot, ripping starts at 3.37X and increases as expected. And if I start another benchmark before the drive has spun down, it stays fast. I've tried that up to 5 times, and it consistently works fine...until the drive spins down.

Other weird details:
- rebooting the VM is sufficient to "fix" it -- I don't have to reboot or power-cycle the entire machine.
- disabling and re-enabling (or quitting and rerunning) AnyDVD HD doesn't fix it.
- disabling AnyDVD causes the read speed to be normal as long as AnyDVD is disabled.
- Windows XP SP3 is always stuck slow.
- when things are stuck slow, one CPU seems to be much more active (~60% according to Task Manager) than normal (~30%). The other CPU is always ~10%.

I'm currently testing Windows XP SP1 in VMware Player 4.0 running on Ubuntu 10.04. (Windows Server 2003 also exhibits the same behavior.) Most of my benchmarking is done using Opti Drive Control 1.51 (to eliminate write speed as an issue). I did verify that this happens when ripping to ISO as well, though.

Things I haven't yet tested:
- VMware Player 3.1.5 (latest of the 3.x series)
- VirtualBox
- VMware ESXi (bare metal hypervisor)
- Windows running natively

I've attached a log from when things are fast as well as two from when things are slow. There may be something useful in the traffic files (which are noticeably smaller in the slow versions), but I realize in retrospect the logs weren't as controlled a contrast as they could be (e.g. different reboots of the VM).

If these provide enough information, great. If not, I'm happy to do a run of sequential tests in a single boot to eliminate some of the variables. Or if I can answer any questions, please let me know!

 

[ocd]

More weird details

Other weird details:
- rebooting the VM is sufficient to "fix" it -- I don't have to reboot or power-cycle the entire machine.
...
- Windows XP SP3 is always stuck slow.

- Windows 7 SP1 is also always stuck slow.
- Ejecting and re-loading the disc doesn't fix it.

Again, if anybody has any ideas of what to try, test, etc., I'm all ears.

 

[Recycle]

I am taking a leap here but I think it more related to your VM software then the program itself. I think it is looking for a native O/S to run from but since there isn't one it has to load what it can and what it doesn't load or can't load it doesn't load. Maybe you should try that program on a native O/S program and then see if the problem doesn't persists that way you can diagnosis what the problem is. But I know running all the Slysoft program on W7 Ult doesn't give me problems that aren't related to bad media.

 

[ocd]

I am taking a leap here but I think it more related to your VM software then the program itself.

I agree, I think it has something to do with the VM.

But it's some interaction between AnyDVD and the VM, since if I turn AnyDVD off, I'm able to get normal speeds from the drive, at any time. So Windows + VM is happy. And, as you observed, AnyDVD + Windows is happy. It's just AnyDVD + Windows + VM that has problems.

But, yes, I do plan to test Windows natively to rule out any hardware issues. (Hardware issues seem unlikely given the normal read speeds in the VM witout AnyDVD.)

Other minor updates:
- Using AMD-V (vs. binary translation) for virtualization has no effect.
- Configuring the drive as an optical drive (IDE or SCSI, both of which report as VMware virtual devices) as opposed to a Generic SCSI device (which reports as the actual drive) doesn't change this behavior.

 

[theparadigm]

I agree, I think it has something to do with the VM.

But it's some interaction between AnyDVD and the VM, since if I turn AnyDVD off, I'm able to get normal speeds from the drive, at any time. So Windows + VM is happy. And, as you observed, AnyDVD + Windows is happy. It's just AnyDVD + Windows + VM that has problems.

But, yes, I do plan to test Windows natively to rule out any hardware issues. (Hardware issues seem unlikely given the normal read speeds in the VM witout AnyDVD.)

Other minor updates:
- Using AMD-V (vs. binary translation) for virtualization has no effect.
- Configuring the drive as an optical drive (IDE or SCSI, both of which report as VMware virtual devices) as opposed to a Generic SCSI device (which reports as the actual drive) doesn't change this behavior.

Any updates to this? Did you find the bottle neck or fix your speed issues?