Huge issue with Virtual Machines

[giantsnyy]

Let me start off by giving the specs of my iMac, and what's been done to it recently.  It's a Late 2013 21.5" 2.9GHz i5 w/ 8GB DDR3 & 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT750M, OS 10.11.1 - Purchased in Late 2013.  It was running ridiculously slow, bluetooth and USB devices were disappearing, and my WLAN would randomly disconnect... so I brought it into Apple (I'm still under AppleCare). The genius tech agreed there was a huge issue, so he replaced the logic board, hard drive, and WLAN/Bluetooth card.

This issue has existed before all of the hardware replacement, and I'm really not sure what to do, as I build VM's and test them before I deploy them for work.

If i start a VMware, VirtualBox or Parallels VM, the VMOS and the Host OS will run well for about 15-20 minutes.  After that 15-20 minute mark, things go absolutely haywire.  The host OS stops responding, opening an application such as Safari or terminal can take 35 minutes or more, and quitting VMWare does NOT solve the problem.  Even without the VM running, the OS will respond like this.  Restarting the machine does not fix the issue either.  I booted up a Linux VM (which I had built over a year ago) in VMware Fusion, to test a package change.  I let it sit, at the login prompt, and I did absolutely nothing with it, as I had to jump on a conference call.  I came back about half an hour later... Mac OS wouldn't do anything, and I attempted to restart.  I timed it... my iMac took 73 minutes to restart.  The system was still unbearably slow after the reboot.  Only after rebooting AGAIN and resetting the PRAM would my system function properly.

My Mac mini server doesn't do this.  Neither does my MacBook Air.  My wife's iMac DOES.  I can't believe that there's a hardware issue with both of our iMacs, especially considering that Apple replaced essentially everything in mine.  I should include that my Wife's iMac is a Late 2013 2.7GHz i5 - but this was purchased brand new in July of this year.

Also... here's the specs on the VM that I ran:

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, 73GB Virtual Disk Drive, 1024MB RAM assigned, 1 CPU Core.

Edited November 4, 2015 by giantsnyy

[Unrealistic]

Mechanical hard drive?

[giantsnyy]

Yeah.  The 1TB option that comes stock.

[Unrealistic]

That's probably your biggest bottle neck, as it's probably 5400 rpm drive.

Mac mini Server is probably raid/ slightly higher I/O, MacBook Air is flash.

 

[+virtorio MVC]

I used to run Windows VM's (multiple of them at the same time ) on an old MacBook Pro from 2008 with a 5400 rpm drive. It was slow, but not unusable slow. Something is definitely not working right here.

[protocol7]

Check the smart status on the hard drive and see if there's anything showing up. Could be a faulty drive or controller.

[giantsnyy]

Brand new drive, brand new logic board.

Also does it on my wife's brand new iMac.

Mac mini also has the 5400rpm drive... that doesn't do it.  Has lesser specs than my iMac does.

[DevTech]

If I recall, those are low end iMacs that use laptop components to be stylishly thin.

So super slow to start with and then super slow to run a VM.

Yet, the performance you describe is beyond slow and mostly kicks in after a time period. This points to overheating attempting to run stuff beyond the design target of the original crap hardware. I suspect the i7 model would run fine since Apple would have expected people to use the i7 for more things.

Apple uses a bunch of design trade-offs that is almost always the exact opposite of what I would do and so I don't own any Apple products but at the same time it is just as valid for those trade-offs to make more sense for other people.

In this case everything you describe points to a design trade-off where they silently keep increasing the throttle down on the computer until heat dissipation matches their design target. That way there is no annoying fan noise and customers can admire the thin iMac profile while waiting for the software to slowly complete. For the main customer base they depend on, this is completely the correct approach since CPU load will always be intermittent.

If my hypothesis is correct it might be hard to diagnose since it is "by design" - Maybe the unit can be turned on with the back cover removed? Or cold air can be blown into the intake vents?

The 5400rpm drive cannot be the cause of that kind of slow down by simple math. Unless both of your iMacs have developed horrible drive fragmentation from some sort of common use-case scenario.

 

 

[giantsnyy]

DevTech... so does my Mac mini.  My iMac is a 2.9GHz quad core i5, with 8GB DDR3.  My mini, is a 2.5Ghz dual core i5 with 4GB ddr3 and can run OS X server and one VM without issue, in an even smaller enclosure.

I actually neglected to mention one thing...

My computer came with 10.9 as it's initial OS.  My mini runs 10.9 server.  This VM issue started once I installed Yosemite.  Prior to that, the system ran without issue.

[DevTech]

DevTech... so does my Mac mini.  My iMac is a 2.9GHz quad core i5, with 8GB DDR3.  My mini, is a 2.5Ghz dual core i5 with 4GB ddr3 and can run OS X server and one VM without issue, in an even smaller enclosure.

I actually neglected to mention one thing...

My computer came with 10.9 as it's initial OS.  My mini runs 10.9 server.  This VM issue started once I installed Yosemite.  Prior to that, the system ran without issue.

"so does my Mac mini." - well do you hear any fan noise from any of the machines? If they generate a lot of noise (like they should) under load, then my idea is no good.

Ok well then - I think your mini comparison provided the data to identify the issue - it appears to be an Apple bug.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6646604

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/493294

You can work around it by opening Terminal, and running the following command:

   sudo nvram boot-args=debug=0x10

Then, restart your Mac.  Fusion should then perform normally.

 

[giantsnyy]

Tried that too... a long time ago.  Didn't work.  Apparently it only fixes older iMac models.

I mean... it does something.  Linux (as long as it's command-line only) & MP-RAS VM's are great now.  Windows... still brings my system to a halt.

[DevTech]

Tried that too... a long time ago.  Didn't work.  Apparently it only fixes older iMac models.

I mean... it does something.  Linux (as long as it's command-line only) & MP-RAS VM's are great now.  Windows... still brings my system to a halt.

 

If you skim through the discussion, it also applies to your model.

So you seem to have new data suggesting a graphics issue. Which version of Windows are you running?

Any version after XP uses DirectX Ver 9 as part of the basic window rendering and 3D virtualization usually requires special specific enables in each VM product. For example in Virtual Box you have to check mark a box to enable 3D during Guest device driver install.

Also in the basic settings under Video Card you will want to max out the Video RAM slider

 

[giantsnyy]

 

So you seem to have new data suggesting a graphics issue. Which version of Windows are you running?

Depends on what I need to test.  Never any client OS's... just server types.  Currently, it's mostly Windows Server 2008R2 and 2012R2, but I vary between those and 2003R2 and 2016 Tech Preview 3