Weird behavior in VM with SSD as datastore.

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
I've had two situations now come up that look to be SSD related. Curious if anyone has ever heard of this issue before.

Two almost identical Windows 8.1 Pro VMs, one on an SSD (Samsung 840 Pro 256GB), the other on a plain old WD 750GB hard drive.

Certain applications will have problems writing small files to the SSD. Two cases so far, one with iTunes, cannot update the library file, creates a .tmp file every time you manipulate the playlists or close iTunes. It won't close, and hangs on "saving library" or similar message. Windows explorer then hangs when trying to delete the TMP file (after iTunes has closed.) Moving the entire library / iTunes folder to a plain hard drive that is on a passed-thru controller works fine. No issue whatsoever. Only with the SSD. No problems with the Windows 8.1 VM on the plain HD.

And now, Acronis 2015 will not install. Months later, same issue. It hangs during install. If you browse to the last set of files it is manipulating during install (in this case, the start menu entries), you find a couple of TMP files with incomplete names, appearing to have hung trying to create them. Cancelling the install, and doing anything with the TMP files (right clicking, or attempting to delete) results in windows explorer hanging badly, forcing a reboot of the system to bail out of the condition. The Windows 8.1 VM on the plain drive? No issue installing whatsoever.

Both situations appear to be an issue with access to the "C:" drive which would be the VM's virtual disk on the SSD datastore. Write latency or some kind of write caching?

EDIT to add: ESXi 5.5 update 2, hardware version 8 VMs
 
Last edited:

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Here's a screenshot of the files in mid-install, when it hangs. Similar to what's created when iTunes tries to write library files on exit or changes.

 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Thick, eager zeroed.

I'm actually at a loss now because, with Windows 10 Enterprise Preview out, just loaded up a VM on the same SSD datastore, side by side with the original (Win8) and was able to install Acronis there with no issue. :confused:
 

Dev_Mgr

Active Member
Sep 20, 2014
135
48
28
Texas
Are you using the SSD as passthrough, or did you format it as VMFS and are using vmdk's (and is it thin, lazy thick or eager thick)?
 

Dev_Mgr

Active Member
Sep 20, 2014
135
48
28
Texas
He posted that he's using ESXi 5.5. Unless he forced the format to go VMFS 3 (for compatibility with an ESX/ESXi 3.x or 4.x host), the block size is 1MB as it's the only option with VMFS 5.x.
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Default format for 5.5. No passthrough.

A second VM on the same datastore does not appear to be having the same issue. I'm not sure it's a datastore issue afterall, though something does appear to be causing an issue with writes.