New Windows 8.1 VM always pegs CPU at 100% under Proxmox (Windows 7 and 10 are fine)

[victorhooi]

Hi,

I am running Proxmox 5.4-6 on a SuperMicro 1029-WT machine. (Actually a 3-node HA cluster).

I have setup VMs using Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

After setup, I then went ahead to install Windows updates for each VM.

For some reason, the Windows 8.1 VM is pegging the CPU at 100%, and seems to stall indefinitely at the checking for updates page. (If I assign a single core to it, it uses 100% CPU - if I assign 4 cores to it, it uses 25% CPU...is that suspicious?)

I also tried turning on PCID and SPEC-CTRL - that didn't seem to do anything for the CPU spike, and it simply made the mouse cursor in NoVNC be offset - is that last bit expected?

I've tried re-installing Windows 8.1 from the ISO several times, same issue each time.

Any ideas on what's going on, or how I might diagnose this further?

Cheers,
Victor

 

[timonych]

Hi,

I've tried re-installing Windows 8.1 from the ISO several times, same issue each time.

Any ideas on what's going on, or how I might diagnose this further?

Cheers,
Victor

Hi!

I'll recommend You to install zabbix-agent on Win 8 and check it if there High CPU usage.
And after it check what Software geneterates such high utilization.

For me I haven't such problem but I'm using 2 Cores for Win 8.

 

[victorhooi]

From Task Manager, it is svchost.exe - and I suspect it's the update process.

I'm not sure what to do beyond that though.

 

[sb-jw]

Please post your VM Config here.

 

[victorhooi]

Of course - here is the config file from /etc/pve/qemu-server - we tried creating two Windows 8.1. instances, and they both exhibit the same symptoms. Only difference between them is the version of virtio drivers installed:

root@syd1:/etc/pve/qemu-server# cat 101.conf
agent: 1
bootdisk: scsi0
cores: 1
ide0: local:iso/virtio-win-0.1.164.iso,media=cdrom,size=362130K
memory: 4096
name: win8.1-base
net0: virtio=0E:EC:2A:1B:A2:25,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1
numa: 0
ostype: win8
scsi0: vm-storage:vm-101-disk-0,cache=unsafe,size=32G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=0d4d3939-3d64-4677-9e5f-4874221041ee
sockets: 1
vmgenid: 591dd345-306d-479e-a843-c94208dec537

[PENDING]
cpu: kvm64

root@syd1:/etc/pve/qemu-server# cat 103.conf
agent: 1
bootdisk: scsi0
cores: 4
cpu: kvm64
ide0: local:iso/virtio-win-0.1.171.iso,media=cdrom,size=363020K
ide2: local:iso/en-gb_windows_8.1_enterprise_with_update_x64_dvd_6054383.iso,media=cdrom
memory: 8000
name: win8.1-base-attempt-2
net0: virtio=BE:B3:CB:E6:C2:E5,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1
numa: 0
ostype: win8
scsi0: vm-storage:vm-103-disk-0,cache=unsafe,size=32G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=56d44ef5-689e-45b0-bc83-f92a5515ffd4
sockets: 1
vmgenid: e274df38-cfce-43f6-8373-6f8f4647b499