The default SQL Trace of my instances shows the following issue for native SQL logins (non-domain accounts):
Network error code 0xe8 occurred while establishing a connection; the connection has been closed. This may have been caused by client or server login timeout expiration. Time spent during login: total 18230 ms, enqueued 2 ms, network writes 5 ms, network reads 128 ms, establishing SSL 71 ms, negotiating SSPI 0 ms, validating login 18096 ms. [CLIENT: ]
I've done some digging and haven't been able to find what tolls to use or metrics to gather to better assign the login validation performance issue.
This is SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 on Windows 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 on VMware 4.1.0 with the latest VMware tools installed.