Slow NAT networking on opensolaris 2008.11 64bit host

I have a similar performance difference on my system between NAT and host interface with 2.1.0. Using SFTP, I transferred a file from OpenSolaris? 2008.11 host to an XP SP3 guest. Using NAT, throughput was about 7Mb/s (for clarity, I DO mean megabits). Using Host Interface networking, throughput was about 70Mb/s. For both, the guest is configured with the 100Mb AMD PCnet-FASTIII adapter. In both situations, the guest thought it had a 100Mb link and had no complaints. Same 50MB files used for each test, deleting between the tests. No antivirus on guest.

I just performed the same test with the same files, but using an OpenSolaris? 2008.11 guest to the same host. Results are virtually identical to my previous post. NAT is about 1/10 the speed, and the numbers were about the same.

Thank you for reporting. I'll back as soon as I'll able reproduce or will need more information.

Problem still exists in 2.1.2

bqbauer, could you please describe your environment little bit. What I'm interested is server and client do you use? In tests you're describing the hdd is also involved to minimize influence of other Vbox subsystems could you please redirect sftp client out put to /dev/null (if you're client is in cygwin)? And could you please attach your log file to get more information about hardware environment have you got.

Just to echo the OP, I see a big rate difference copying to a regular host vs. copying to a vbox guest over NAT:

chas% scp big_file chas@atlantic:/dev/null big_file 19% 24MB 3.3MB/s 00:30 ETA

chas% scp -P 8022 big_file chas@code:/dev/null big_file 10% 13MB 719.8KB/s 02:37 ETA

big_file is a arbitrary 100MB file. Atlantic is an x2100 box running OpenSolaris? 2008.11. Code is an OS 2008.11 vbox v2.1.0 guest on Atlantic, accessible via NAT. In general, the speed difference is 5x; I also manage to see burst of 5MB/s to atlantic, whereas 900K is the best I see to code.

I haven't yet switched code over to use host-based networking, so I can't comment on the difference there (yet?).

I don't know jack about the internals of vbox, but #1335 seems like the same (or closely related) issue. The original comment there isn't heartening. :-|

Was there any improvement with VirtualBox 2.2.0 (better check 2.2.2)?

It appears improved, but still no better than 1/2 the speed using NAT. I will make every attempt to provide better data this week.

I apologize for not getting back to this sooner.

The data below and attached log files are from VB 2.2.4 on a 64-bit OpenSolaris? 2008.11 host. My host environments (so far tested on two hosts):

System 1:

Intel Q6600 quad core CPU with 8GB memory running OpenSolaris? 2008.11. Host has a ZFS root mirror with two fast Seagate 7200.12 500GB drives. Intel X38 chipset with ICH9 SATA controllers in native non-RAID mode. Ethernet is an Intel e1000g, chipset 82572.

System 2:

Intel i7-920 CPU with 12GB memory running OpenSolaris? 2008.11. Similar drive configuration, Intel X58 chipset and Intel e1000g ethernet, chipset 82567.

Information below is from system #1, although #2 returns similar results.

For the files transferred, I'm using the OpenSolaris? 2008.11 ISO file (688MB) and Solaris x86 Adobe Reader v9.1 installer (47MB).

In an XP 32-bit guest with 1GB memory and NAT, the 47MB file transfers at about 7Mb/s using command line FTP. It is the same if I direct output to the null device ("nul:" in the Windows command line) or to the virtual hard drive. The 688MB file transfer slows to less than 3Mb/s by the time it finishes.

An OpenSolaris? guest with NAT is a little faster transferring the 49MB file at around 8.5Mb/s.

With bridged networking, the performance on the XP guest using FTP on either file varies between 300-400Mb/s. These transfer rates are for output directed to the null device. When the output is to the virtual hard drive, the transfer rates range from about 250-300Mb/s.

The transfer rates for bridged networking in an OpenSolaris? guest are about double that of the XP guest (500-600Mb/s) for both files.

I'm attaching log files for all of these tests.

Thank you, for update. I will investigate the issue.

I don't know that this can be called "fixed", but NAT performance on 2009.06 hosts has increased significantly, probably because of Crossbow? My guests using NAT now get consistently 150-200Mb/s with any host, about half what they get with bridged networking. This is about 20x faster than under a 2008.11 host, all tested with VB 2.2.4.

Tested the second host system I previously described. Both systems show this 20x NAT improvement when running 2009.06. Booted a backup disk of 2008.11, and the slowness of NAT returned.

What's interesting is SSH is about 20% slower using bridged networking than NAT; Bridged is about 50Mb/s, NAT about 65Mb/s. I don't know if this is anything of concern.

duplicate #3400

Nice to be fixed with 2.2.4 and 2009.06, but see ticket 4343 where NAT is now broken. Don't know if the two issues should be cross-referenced.