VMware Server 2 - slow response

Foreword:
Few days ago I received a task to make a virtual testing environment. So after searching our warehouse I found one HP business PC on which I installed Windows 2008 R2 x64 server. On this platform I later added VMware Server 2.0. Both installs went thru without any problems. I also converted few physical servers on to this newly created virtual host.

The problem:
When I started to use these virtual machines in my test lab I noticed extremely slow response time. It was almost impossible to work on them over RDP. Copying files between hosts and virtual machines was also extremely slow (aprox. 30KB/Sec).

Solution:
1. I disabled Large Send Offload (IPv4) and Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4) in Advance setting of host's Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet card. I also disabled TCP/UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4) and TCP/UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6).

It didn't help so ...

2. I disabled IP v6 on host and virtual client.
Under Network Connections, select the network adapter, and then click Properties. In the properties window, click to clear the check box for Internet Protocol Version 6(IPv6).

Using Registry Editor, locate the following registry key:
HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters

Right-click the Parameters key, click New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. For the key, add the following values:
Name: DisabledComponents
Data: 0xFFFFFFFF

Reboot and problem solved :)

Links:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1191782
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc671176(EXCHG.80).aspx

The Beginnings

First of all I'd like to say that the content of this blog will in 90% cases contain solutions to the problems that I encounter while I work as an IT engineer. 10% of the blog's content will be... Well I really don't have any idea right now :)

So I hope some of these solutions, that I'll present, will come handy. This will be my little contribution to make our work a little bit easier.

Have fun,
Luka Obersnu