Speeding up VMware Server console connections
This post does not have much to do with OpenSUSE, but it could be useful for people trying out OpenSUSE in a virtual machine using the free VMware Server virtualization product.
For some reason, console connections to running virtual machines can be really slow on VMware Server. For example, I have experienced that doing a simple ‘ls’ or ‘cat’ in console (no X server) would require 100% CPU utilization on the host for several seconds. I could literally see each line scroll by.
Part of the reason for the low performance is that SSL is enabled by default for console connections. By disabling SSL, I got much better performance, although still not to the level of VMware Workstation. Here is how to do it:
- Select Host > Settings
- In the dialog select the Connections tab
- Uncheck “Use SSL for Console communications”
- Click OK
Note: by disabling SSL, you are lowering security, so please consider the implications before using this tip.
3 comments September 12th, 2006