Win 10 in Proxmox - Performance

[kohle]

Hi Experts,

over the last weeks I could collect some experience Proxmox. On my HP Server Proxmox is configured and running fine.
The only issue I have is the performance in Win 10.
Copied files from one folder to another folder has poor data transfer rate ~8-25MB/s

I installed the “extra” driver in Windows according tutorial – but the Performance is still poor.

May I ask for some feedback if I have a wrong configured Windows VM. Please find attached the Config.



Thx for feedback!

 

[sherminator]

Hey kohle,

what kind of storage (hardware) is running under "VMStore"?

Greets
Stephan

 

[kohle]

hi Stephan,
the VM is direct running on the build in RAID1 from the HP Server.
(i hope this answers your question)

 

[Dominic]

What happens if you change CPU type to host and disk type from virtio to scsi?
You might have to directly change virtio0 to scsi0 in /etc/pve/qemu-server/<vmid>.conf.

You probably should also activate the SSD emulation option for that disk.

 

[kohle]

Hi, thx for Reply.

I have following possibilities:

What is the typical speed what can get archived ?

 

[sherminator]

the VM is direct running on the build in RAID1 from the HP Server.
(i hope this answers your question)

almost How many and which disks are below this RAID 1?

What is the typical speed what can get archived ?

I guess, Dominic meant the bus/device type of the vdisk, not the controller type. As far as I know it's not possible to change this via WebGUI, so Dominic suggested to change it directly inside the configuration file of the VM. (Just out of curiosity: Is it safe to do this? Should the VM be powered off?).

And beyond all this: In your first example you copied the content of the virtio win ISO image to your guest disk. What exactly to you expect? I just tried this inside our three node PVE/Ceph cluster running a bunch of enterprise SSDs - and I get "just" about 40-60 MB/s. Maybe because these are many small files? If you like to see big bandwidth numbers, take a 5 GB ISO image inside your VM and start copying around. In our environment this brings us 350-500 MB/s.
And a second thought: Having a RAID 1 with an ext4 filesystem and qcow2 vdisks is okay, but far away from "IO performance optimized".

Many greets
Stephan

 

[kohle]

hello,

I was repeating the test with an *.bin (10GB) file (test file). Please see attached the result:


this picture shows coping a bin file from c:\ to Desktop

Comment to the Hardware:
ML350 Gen10 TW Xeon 4208 1x16GB 4xLFF E208i-a 1x500W
for HDD we are using:
HPE 4TB SATA 6G 7.2K LFF 3.5 1yWty LP MDL HDD DS => RAID1

Concern: (only one VM is running)
- high fluctuation during copied process
- have seen von 50MB/s up to 500MB/s

 

[Pierre-Yves]

As all is "virtualized", maybe you can add another virtual HD using a different controller (default or SCSI single) and test the copy speed ...
Just to see if this is the VirtIO with this physiscal disks combination that is slow ...
Maybe you test with a Linux VM and see other results ?
Regards

 

[Dominic]

I guess, Dominic meant the bus/device type of the vdisk, not the controller type. As far as I know it's not possible to change this via WebGUI, so Dominic suggested to change it directly inside the configuration file of the VM. (Just out of curiosity: Is it safe to do this? Should the VM be powered off?).

Exactly. Changing the configuration file should not affect the running KVM process.

 

[sherminator]

for HDD we are using:
HPE 4TB SATA 6G 7.2K LFF 3.5 1yWty LP MDL HDD DS => RAID1

How many of these disks are part of this RAID 1?
Don't expect storage performance wonders from these disks, especially when it comes to "random small block" IO.

I was repeating the test with an *.bin (10GB) file (test file). Please see attached the result:

Is this a "real world" file or 10 GB of zeros or something like that?

- high fluctuation during copied process
- have seen von 50MB/s up to 500MB/s

Basically it's hard to benchmark such a complex environment, because there are so many layers. For example your qcow2 image can perform slower when it needs to grow fast. When you do this test a second time it's already large enough and maybe faster.
So far your IO performance results seems as expected to me.

 

[sherminator]

You probably should also activate the SSD emulation option for that disk.

Just to understand: What exactly is this SSD emulation? Is it always "better" to enable it, or what kind of tradeoff is to consider?

Thanks for clarification and greets
Stephan

 

[James Crook]

I thought setting that just sets the presented rotation speed to 0 so the guest flags it as an SSD in the OS.

Also try enabling "IO Thread" Tho you are only using one controller so prob not much help

IO Thread​

The option IO Thread can only be used when using a disk with the VirtIO controller, or with the SCSI controller, when the emulated controller type is VirtIO SCSI single. With this enabled, Qemu creates one I/O thread per storage controller, rather than a single thread for all I/O. This can increase performance when multiple disks are used and each disk has its own storage controller.

I like to enable "Write back (unsafe)" on my guests disks (all this is my own home server hardware)

 

[Anti-Ctrl]

I have a feeling here, that u might experience the same issue I have: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/windows-vm-really-bad-memory-performance.83509/

If you can do me a favor, just to check if we have the same Problem, then we can maybe takle that Problem together!
Download Aida64 and run the Memory Benchmark under "Benchmark". Check both, read and write and Post a Picture of the Result here.
Please also write down, which Memory Config you are using and if you use a Dual Socket Mainboard, even if you are only using one Processor.
Maybe finally someone from the Proxmox Staff can look into that Problem, as its clearly Software related!

 

[James Crook]

I have a feeling here, that u might experience the same issue I have: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/windows-vm-really-bad-memory-performance.83509/

If you can do me a favor, just to check if we have the same Problem, then we can maybe takle that Problem together!
Download Aida64 and run the Memory Benchmark under "Benchmark". Check both, read and write and Post a Picture of the Result here.
Please also write down, which Memory Config you are using and if you use a Dual Socket Mainboard, even if you are only using one Processor.
Maybe finally someone from the Proxmox Staff can look into that Problem, as its clearly Software related!

just posted about trying to pin the cpu cores, might help ?

 

[Anti-Ctrl]

just posted about trying to pin the cpu cores, might help ?

Yes, saw that. But in this thread we are here, to help You, not me
So maybe do the Test I asked for, if you can and want and Post the Pictures and Infos here. Would be awesome and maybe it will help us both out

 

[sherminator]

Yes, saw that. But in this thread we are here, to help You, not me

kohle is the thread starter, not James Crook.

 

[Anti-Ctrl]

kohle is the thread starter, not James Crook.

My bad. Sorry. Too many Threads I'm in with too many People, lol

 

[kohle]

I have a feeling here, that u might experience the same issue I have: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/windows-vm-really-bad-memory-performance.83509/

If you can do me a favor, just to check if we have the same Problem, then we can maybe takle that Problem together!
Download Aida64 and run the Memory Benchmark under "Benchmark". Check both, read and write and Post a Picture of the Result here.
Please also write down, which Memory Config you are using and if you use a Dual Socket Mainboard, even if you are only using one Processor.
Maybe finally someone from the Proxmox Staff can look into that Problem, as its clearly Software related!

hi pls. find attached the requested pic.
read:


write:

 

[kohle]

I am still debugging and was setting up a new VM.
suddenly i am getting a much better performance:

New VM (good Perf.)



What else do i need to compare - to get same perfomance ?
hmmm...

 

[Anti-Ctrl]

Hmm, your Memory Performance doesnt look half bad, would guess that around 1/4 of Bare metal Performance is there. Whats your physical Memory Setup ? 4 Dimms in Dual channel? Can you set the CPU Type to "host" and Test again?

For you Problem i may have a solution, but please first do the Benchmark with "Host" CPU Type again.
Check then in the Bios of your HP Server and set the Power Mode to "Let OS decide" or something like that. Dont remember the exact Term, but its something like that. Will fix your Issue most certainly.

EDIT: You can also set the Virtualization Optimization in the Bios, it will do the same thing, but tweak also some other stuff, if thats what fits your needs better.