[PVE-User] Windows sever 2016 vm with very high ram usage

Mon Mar 29 16:46:08 CEST 2021

On Monday, March 29th, 2021 at 16:30, Leandro Roggerone <leandro at tecnetmza.com.ar> wrote:

> Dear Arjen , nice data you provided , im trying it right now.
> 

> BTW , after installing virtIO drivers , memory usage looks ok on the
> 

> proxmox gui (very nice!).
> 

> Regarding CPU layout , I understood this:
> 

> I should use just one socket , so in my case would be 1socket x 6 cores ,
> 

> total 6 vCPUs.
> 

> If I notice that cpu usage goes high , lets suppose over 85% , I should add
> 

> a second socket and enable NUMA.

That CPU has 12 threads (right?), so you can try up to 12 vCPUs. And select 'host' or a CPU type that is close to your physical CPU instead of the kvm64 default. Maybe enabling NUMA helps even with less virtual cores, just try it and compare performance. If you enable NUMA, choose the same number of virtual sockets as real sockets (=2). Remember that the amount of vCPUs is cores multiplied by the number of sockets. Maybe you can try 6x1 or 3x2 or 12x1 or 6x2 and see which performs the best?

> I will change ide for scsi as you suggested.
> 

> No problem if I need to re install OS.

You can find the Windows drivers for VirtIO here:
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.185-2/

> Regards.
> 

> Leandro.
> 

> El lun, 29 mar 2021 a las 10:57, Arjen via pve-user (<
> 

> pve-user at lists.proxmox.com>) escribió:
> 

> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > 

> > From: Arjen leesteken at protonmail.ch
> > 

> > To: Proxmox VE user list pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > Cc:
> > 

> > Bcc:
> > 

> > Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:56:59 +0000
> > 

> > Subject: Re: [PVE-User] Windows sever 2016 vm with very high ram usage
> > 

> > On Monday, March 29th, 2021 at 15:37, Leandro Roggerone <
> > 

> > leandro at tecnetmza.com.ar> wrote:
> > 

> > > Hi guys , thanks for your words , have some feedback:
> > 

> > > Maybe Proxmox cannot look inside the VM for the actual memory usage
> > > 

> > > because
> > 

> > > the VirtIO balloon driver is not installed or active? Or maybe the other
> > 

> > > 90% is in use as Windows file cache?
> > 

> > > I think so ...
> > 

> > > Dont know about windows file cache ...
> > 

> > > Have you installed the VirtIO drivers for Windows? Are you assigning too
> > 

> > > many vCPUs or memory? Can you share the VM configuration file? Can you
> > > 

> > > tell
> > 

> > > us something about your Proxmox hardware and version?
> > 

> > > No , I have not ... now you mentioned im reading about VirtIO , I will
> > > 

> > > try
> > 

> > > to install and let you know how it goes
> > 

> > > Should install it no my pve box or directly inside windows vm ?
> > 

> > > I'm assigning max vCPUs abailables (24 , 4 sockets 6 cores) and 32gb for
> > 

> > > memory.
> > 

> > > (I really don't know about any criteria to assign vcpus)
> > 

> > > This is VM config file:
> > 

> > > root at pve:~# cat /etc/pve/nodes/pve/qemu-server/107.conf
> > 

> > > bootdisk: ide0
> > 

> > > cores: 6
> > 

> > > ide0: local-lvm:vm-107-disk-0,size=150G
> > 

> > > ide1: local-lvm:vm-107-disk-1,size=350G
> > 

> > > ide2:
> > 

> > local:iso/Windows_Server_2016_Datacenter_EVAL_en-us_14393_refresh.ISO,media=cdrom,size=6808810K
> > 

> > > memory: 32768
> > 

> > > name: KAIKENII
> > 

> > > net0: e1000=1A:F1:10:BF:92:0A,bridge=vmbr3,firewall=1
> > 

> > > numa: 0
> > 

> > > ostype: win10
> > 

> > > scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
> > 

> > > smbios1: uuid=daf8f767-59c7-4e87-b3be-75d4a8020c38
> > 

> > > sockets: 4
> > 

> > > vmgenid: a7634624-1230-4a3e-9e7c-255d32ad2030
> > 

> > > My PVE is:
> > 

> > > CPU(s) 24 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5680 @ 3.33GHz (2 Sockets)
> > 

> > > Kernel Version Linux 5.0.15-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 5.0.15-1 (Wed, 03 Jul 2019
> > 

> > > 10:51:57 +0200)
> > 

> > > PVE Manager Version pve-manager/6.0-4/2a719255
> > 

> > > Total Mem = 64GB.
> > 

> > > That's all.
> > 

> > > Thanks
> > 

> > You are using emulated IDE drives, which is very slow. Please install the
> > 

> > VirtIO SCSI driver for Windows inside the VM and attach the disk with
> > 

> > (vitual) scsi instead of ide. You might need to reinstall Windows to make
> > 

> > it boot. Use the VirtIO virtual floppy to install the VirtIO SCSI driver
> > 

> > when starting the Windows installation setup inside the VM.
> > 

> > Use as little virtual cores and as little memory as is needed (or just a
> > 

> > little more), this makes the VM run more smoothly. You systems has two
> > 

> > sockets, so you might want to enable NUMA in the VM configuration,
> > 

> > otherwise your VM memory access has to go to the other socket often, which
> > 

> > is slow. Using just the cores from one of your CPU's (or less) will perform
> > 

> > better than using all for the same reason of less communication between
> > 

> > physical sockets.
> > 

> > Currently, you have chosen all the slowest options to run this VM on your
> > 

> > kind of system. Each of the steps above will increase performance. The
> > 

> > VirtIO driver installation is the most work, but also gives the most
> > 

> > performance increase. Selecting 'host' instead of kvm64 will also improve
> > 

> > performance.
> > 

> > kind regards, Arjen
> > 

> > > El vie, 26 mar 2021 a las 11:40, Arjen via pve-user (<
> > 

> > > pve-user at lists.proxmox.com>) escribió:
> > 

> > > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > 

> > > > From: Arjen leesteken at protonmail.ch
> > 

> > > > To: Proxmox VE user list pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > > > Cc:
> > 

> > > > Bcc:
> > 

> > > > Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:39:13 +0000
> > 

> > > > Subject: Re: [PVE-User] Windows sever 2016 vm with very high ram usage
> > 

> > > > On Friday, March 26th, 2021 at 15:28, Leandro Roggerone <
> > 

> > > > leandro at tecnetmza.com.ar> wrote:
> > 

> > > > > Hi guys , Just wanted to share this with you.
> > 

> > > > > After creating a VM for a windows sever 2016 with 32 GB ram I can
> > 

> > > > > see continuos high memory usage (about 99-100%).
> > 

> > > > > I have no running task , since it is a fresh server and from task
> > > > > 

> > > > > manager
> > 

> > > > > can see a 10% of memory usage.
> > 

> > > > > Regarding those confusing differences, server performance is very
> > > > > 

> > > > > bad.
> > 

> > > > Maybe Proxmox cannot look inside the VM for the actual memory usage
> > 

> > > > because the VirtIO balloon driver is not installed or active? Or maybe
> > > > 

> > > > the
> > 

> > > > other 90% is in use as Windows file cache?
> > 

> > > > > User experience is very poor with a non fluent user interface.
> > 

> > > > > Is there something to do / check to improve this ?
> > 

> > > > Have you installed the VirtIO drivers for Windows? Are you assigning
> > > > 

> > > > too
> > 

> > > > many vCPUs or memory? Can you share the VM configuration file? Can you
> > > > 

> > > > tell
> > 

> > > > us something about your Proxmox hardware and version?
> > 

> > > > > Any advice would be welcome.
> > 

> > > > Maybe search the forum for similar Windows performance questions?
> > 

> > https://forum.proxmox.com/forums/proxmox-ve-installation-and-configuration.16/
> > 

> > > > > Thanks.
> > 

> > > > best of luck, Arjen
> > 

> > > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > 

> > > > From: Arjen via pve-user pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > > > To: Proxmox VE user list pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > > > Cc: Arjen leesteken at protonmail.ch
> > 

> > > > Bcc:
> > 

> > > > Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:39:13 +0000
> > 

> > > > Subject: Re: [PVE-User] Windows sever 2016 vm with very high ram usage
> > 

> > > > pve-user mailing list
> > 

> > > > pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > > > https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pve-user
> > 

> > > pve-user mailing list
> > 

> > > pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > > https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pve-user
> > 

> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > 

> > From: Arjen via pve-user pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > To: Proxmox VE user list pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > Cc: Arjen leesteken at protonmail.ch
> > 

> > Bcc:
> > 

> > Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:56:59 +0000
> > 

> > Subject: Re: [PVE-User] Windows sever 2016 vm with very high ram usage
> > 

> > pve-user mailing list
> > 

> > pve-user at lists.proxmox.com
> > 

> > https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pve-user
> 

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