Slow network between host (Windows 7) and guest (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS)

Question

I'm using VirtualBox on my Windows 7 (64-bit) laptop, in order to manage 3 Ubuntu 10.04 VMs for web development. One is 32-bit, the two others are 64-bit.

For the past two days, when I try to reach my guest-hosted website from the host OS, I'm experiencing slow network speeds. When I look at my Firebug > Network tab I see that the main files require between and 5 and 10 sec to load. I got this message after logging in:

system information disabled due to load higher than 1.0.

I see this message more as a symptom rather than my real problem.

The network problem has reached all three Ubuntu guest OSs.

Here's my config:

HOST

• Config:
  • Windows 7
  • 8GB RAM
  • SSD harddrive (6 months)
  • VirtualBox 4.0.10
    • Host-only adapters configured in virtualbox > file > preferences > network :
      • ip: 192.168.20.1
      • netmask: 255.255.255.0
      • DHCP active:
        • Server address: 192.168.20.100
        • Server Mask: 255.255.255.0
        • Lower address bound: 192.168.20.101
        • Upper address bound: 192.168.20.200
• Network :
  • My wired connection is configured with the virtualbox bridged networking driver active in my card advanced properties
  • IP: 192.168.0.2
  • Gateway: 192.168.0.254
  • DNS from Free (French ISP) :
    • IP: 212.27.40.241
    • IP: 212.27.40.240

My windows hosts config file contains redirections to the bridged card like this:

192.168.0.XXX (vm ip)       vmName www.domaine-on-this-vm.com

When I reach my guest hosted website from the host and I look at my Firebug > Network tab, I see that the guest takes between 0 and 10 s to respond.

GUEST (1 @ 32-bit and 2 @ 64-bit, so I don't think number of bits matters)

• 1 processor
• 512 ram
• acceleration:
  • vt-x/amd-v = ok
  • nested paging = ok
  • pae/nx = ok
• Network :
  • adapter 1 = bridged network (intel pro/1000 mt desktop)
    • IP: 192.168.0.xxx (vm ip staticaly fixed in /etc/network/interfaces (see below)
  • adapter 1 = bridged network (intel pro/1000 mt desktop)
    • IP: 192.168.20.xxx (vm ip fixed via dhcp in /etc/network/interfaces (see below)
  • File /etc/network/interfaces

    • # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
      # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
      
      # The loopback network interface
      auto lo
      iface lo inet loopback
      
      # The primary network interface
      auto eth0
      iface eth0 inet static
      address 192.168.0.21
      netmask 255.255.255.0
      gateway 192.168.0.254
      auto eth1
      iface eth1 inet dhcp

  • File /etc/hosts:
    • 127.0.0.1 vmName www.domaine-on-this-vm.com
• Software installed:
  • apache2
  • php5
  • samba
  • openssh
  • compass (on ruby, css framework development)
  • svn

Everything was doing fine during 5 months with those configs/software before the bug begun.

Facing this, I've tried to:

• raise the amount of RAM and the number of processors
• re-install a fresher version of virtualbox and an older one
• create a new VM with the same .vdi
• change the adapter type from Intel pro/1000 desktop to anothers
• tried different network interfaces config file alternatives (no dhcp / dhcp)
• tried to nslookup my ISP provider's DNS automaticaly filled in the /etc/resolv.conf file (and it's OK)

...but with no effects.

One more symptom is that during my debug process, I've rebooted my VMs a lot, and I got a disk issue message durinng boot: "your disk haven't been checked for last 24 boots, check forced" or something like that, then it tells me a short message that I can't read, and only then I got the login field.

I'm really new to all Linux things (and not english fluent...). I can't see if it's a network issue or a disk issue, please let me know which commands might help me to dig into this?

Answer 1

I've found out my problem: My laptop battery management plan.

Since I've had to work on a train last week end, I've tried some network configurations to be able to access my VM without network (no host-only at this moment) and this is why I was looking in that direction.

In the end, it was just because I've turned on the "economic mode" on my laptop battery.