Windows 10 crashing in VM

[P0PC47]

Hello all,

I am very new to the whole VM in TrueNAS thing. I've had FreeNAS and TrueNAS for a long time, but never once used the VM section.
My problem is when I start the VM, I have noVNC open, I see the TianoCORE logo and the VM boots, then anywhere from 5-45 minutes later, it either lets me use the mouse with no input or freezes. No hard crash, no BSOD. Either the mouse stops moving all together or it stops registering clicks and moves around. Another thing I noticed is when it does freeze and let me use the mouse the time is incorrect and doesn't change. Its like the only thing being sent to noVNC is a mouse overlay over a picture of what I was previously working on.

I've tried removing attached devices and I get the same response if not worse.

To be honest I'm pretty lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

The builtin VNC is pretty limited and I would not recommend using it past initial installation. Can't you use RDP instead?

 

[elvisimprsntr]

On CORE, you need to use the VirtIO NIC, download the stable VirtIO Windows ISO, and install the drivers

virtio-win-pkg-scripts/README.md at master · virtio-win/virtio-win-pkg-scripts

Scripts for packaging virtio-win drivers. Contribute to virtio-win/virtio-win-pkg-scripts development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Evertb1]

A couple of years ago I had a need for several Windows VM's on my then FreeNAS lab server. The results in FreeNAS were less then satisfying. And to my best knowledge, TrueNAS is still not the best equipped appliance for the hypervisor role. After a lot of researching (and with a lot of help from some members of this forum) I decided to go for ESXi as hypervisor. Building a Windows VM is a breeze on ESXi. Problem of course is that you need hardware with sufficient resources to pull it off the right way. Plus you need a motherboard and CPU that are not to old for decent support of PCIe passthrough. But I am very satisfied with the results and someday soon I will consolidate my FreeNAS file server and my lab server in one new machine.

PS: The CPU on my lab server is from the Ivy Bridge generation and as far as I know that is borderline for decent passthrough. I don't think it's advisable to go with an even older platform.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

@Patrick M. Hausen

Agreed, once you have Windows running, enable RDP and use one of many RDP clients to access Windows guest. The Microsoft RDP clients are decent.

@Evertb1

Had same issues as reported by @Curt1s2aurus, but once I switched to VirtIO NIC and drivers, Windows guest is acceptable for occasional use.

 

[Evertb1]

Windows guest is acceptable for occasional use

Yes. I think that's the point. I needed those VM's for developing and testing. So, so performance and less then stable behavior was not what I wanted or needed.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

So, so performance and less then stable behavior was not what I wanted or needed.

We run Windows 10 and Server 2016 in production without any reliability issues. Using virtio is mandatory for that. So the situation has improved.

 

[P0PC47]

On CORE, you need to use the VirtIO NIC, download the stable VirtIO Windows ISO, and install the drivers

I will try this when I get home. I used a dedicated Ethernet port instead of the virtual one. Hopefully it gets better fps on the Microsoft rdp too. I never thought about trying that.

 

[Evertb1]

So the situation has improved.

That's good to know. I have become used to ESXi so I don't see an immediate need to switch again but it is always good to have alternatives.