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I'm running a Host OS of Windows 8.1 with VMWare Workstation v10 and a Guest OS of Ubuntu 13.

Ubuntu has plenty of resources available to it (8GB/32GB RAM allocation and 2/4 Cores of an Intel i7) so it's got plenty of headroom. Also, the entire network is 100% gigabit throughout so there's no possibility for a network bottleneck (I'm the only user currently).

I configured both the Host and Guess OS to share a directory over the network and asked a separate machine to access them and upload/download a 5GB file. The Windows share was able to get ~100MB/s read/write and Ubuntu only got a mere ~20MB/s read/write.

So what's up with that?

My troubleshooting included the share directory location for Ubuntu, initially was a virtual disk, then changed to a physical drive within the VM settings with no difference in performance. Also, the VM is configured to use a bridged connection (a separate IP on the main network is crucial) so I haven't attempted to try a NAT connection, however I don't think this is the cause.

Any ideas as to what's causing the bottleneck in speeds?

Thanks in advance!

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  • This is VMWorkstation limitation. You can't get the whole bandwidth for one specific VM. That is acceptable for developement and for production there is ESXi.
    – Kondybas
    Aug 31, 2014 at 7:58
  • So what software do you recommend to overcome this? Is there a different version of VMWare I should use? Aug 31, 2014 at 8:24
  • If you definitely need a fast network connection for VM you have to use VMWare ESXi baremetal hypervisor that is fully compatible with VMWorkstation and intended for production use. Also ESXi is absolutely free for commertial purposes as well as VMWare viClient management tool. The minor disadvantage of ESXi is its hardware requirements - not all NICs and HDAs are supported.
    – Kondybas
    Aug 31, 2014 at 8:32
  • Forgive my stupidity but I'm having trouble installing it/finding the right thing. I've been attempting to install this: vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor yet I don't understand why I'm being asked to create a boot medium/install on a separate drive; so I called it quits and figured I'm doing something horribly wrong. What exactly do I need to do? Aug 31, 2014 at 14:02
  • ESXi is the tiny linux that have the only application preinstalled - hypervisor. On install it creates really small bootable partition for itself. After installation you can access it from console to set the basic parameters. All the rest functionality is accessible remotely via viClient.
    – Kondybas
    Aug 31, 2014 at 14:14

1 Answer 1

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This is VMWorkstation limitation. You can't get the whole bandwidth for one specific VM. That is acceptable for developement and for production purposes ESXi should be used.

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