Ubuntu Server VM so sluggish its not usable at all

[mathematics28]

Hi Everyone,

So, I wanted to test how a simple VM would perform. Installed Ubuntu Server. 1 vCPU, 2 cores, two threads, 4GB ram. System has 64GB ram. Truenas is installed bare metal on SSD. in fact all drives are SSD. the 1 pool I have is all NVMe. The VM is basically useless. Barely responds to any input. Could this be because it wasn't meant to have GUI and I installed it to have a GUI? Let me know if I left out any pertinent info. Im pretty new to this. Thanks!

 

[sretalla]

What settings did you use for the NIC and disk(s)?

VirtIO is going to be the performant option, so if you didn't use that, consider doing it.

 

[mathematics28]

What seetings did you use for the NIC and disk(s)?

VirtIO is going to be the performant option, so if you didn't use that, consider doing it.

I chose AHCI and VirtIO

 

[sretalla]

Consider using VirtIO for the disk.

 

[mathematics28]

Consider using VirtIO for the disk.

Same thing. Barely responsive at all. Maybe I'll just have to build a Proxmox machine. I thought this would be able to run such a basic VM.

 

[sretalla]

Not sure you can blame SCALE... I have Linux (and Windows) VMs that perform just fine, but if you think it will help, by all means try Proxmox.

 

[mathematics28]

Not sure you can blame SCALE... I have Linux (and Windows) VMs that perform just fine, but if you think it will help, by all means try Proxmox.

What else could it be?

 

[sretalla]

How are you connecting to the VM to determine the poor performance?

Perhaps you can describe in full detail how you set the VM up and I'll try to replicate that (or spot the problem directly) and see if mine performs as poorly.

 

[mathematics28]

How are you connecting to the VM to determine the poor performance?

Perhaps you can describe in full detail how you set the VM up and I'll try to replicate that (or spot the problem directly) and see if mine performs as poorly.

Connecting via Microsoft RDP (hope it's not the reason. was not an issue when VM was on Proxmox)

Guest OS: Linux

Actually, I'm going to try to install non server Ubuntu and see if I run into the same performance issue. Be right back.

 

[sfatula]

Not sure you can blame SCALE... I have Linux (and Windows) VMs that perform just fine, but if you think it will help, by all means try Proxmox.

I agree, and I have Windows/ ubuntu, Home Assistant, and even a Mac VM. They all run fine.

As far as clients, I find spice to be the fastest connection to my VMs. Faster than VNC, RDP.

 

[mathematics28]

How are you connecting to the VM to determine the poor performance?

Perhaps you can describe in full detail how you set the VM up and I'll try to replicate that (or spot the problem directly) and see if mine performs as poorly.

It may be my connection at work. I don't usually have any issues here but uit seems there's something sign on. I will check when I get home to see if it's the server of if its just my connection at work.

 

[MrGuvernment]

For one, I would be using VNC for linux, not SSH over RDP if possible, more overhead and bloat and always found VNC quicker.

Do you go over a VPN to connect t your home system from work? How are you getting into your home network?

Hopefully it is just your work system / connection, as others have noted I do not believe this is a SCALE issue.

 

[mathematics28]

For one, I would be using VNC for linux, not SSH over RDP if possible, more overhead and bloat and always found VNC quicker.

Do you go over a VPN to connect t your home system from work? How are you getting into your home network?

Hopefully it is just your work system / connection, as others have noted I do not believe this is a SCALE issue.

I'll check out VNC. Was just so used to RDP for windows.

I use Tailscale to get to the home network (subnet routing for this purpose at the moment).

May just be an unfortunate series of events giving me bad performance. After install, I didn't have time to test it at home. Had to get to sleep and then came to work this morning to try it over RDP like how I access my windows VM which is on my Synology and never gives me any performance issues. I don't use my windows VM for much. Basically for Teams, and Outlook and an occasional file transfer on the work network (often times I will be away from my work desk and use my MacBook to RDP into my desk through my windows VM). that sounds stupid, I know. At work I have the work intranet as well as my own t-mobile 5g home internet router so I can watch my shows and such while I work and not have that traffic on the work network.

But until this morning I never had any slowness or lag on the 5G network so I just assumed it was fine and that it had to do with the VM install. So, I really shouldn't say I have a performance issue until im back on the home network in a few hours.

 

[mathematics28]

For one, I would be using VNC for linux, not SSH over RDP if possible, more overhead and bloat and always found VNC quicker.

Do you go over a VPN to connect t your home system from work? How are you getting into your home network?

Hopefully it is just your work system / connection, as others have noted I do not believe this is a SCALE issue.

So being the pain in the ass that I am, I couldn't wait to get home to test it so I deleted the VM and created a new one with Ubuntu desktop instead. That night, it was working fine from home. So I can't tell if it was the GUI on Ubuntu server causing the issues or my connection at work.