System Not Useable During Backup

[robyapchanyk]

Hi there,

So I found out about this app and figured it would be perfect for me, even bought a license before trying it out! 

I have since uninstalled Vimalin, but I wanted to at least post about the issue I had for reference and (possible) troubleshooting.

System/VM specifics:

• Intel i9-9900K
  
• 64GB RAM
  
• Dual Samsung EVO 970 500GB NVMe in RAID 0 config for 1TB volume total - this is the boot drive and where the VM resides
  
• VMWare Workstation Pro 16.2.3
  
• Host is Windows 11 Pro (x64)
  
• Guest VM is Windows 10 Pro (x64), disk size ~ 275GB, 24GB RAM allocated to VM
  

Okay, so I configured everything (I won't get into the UI/UX, but that could really use improvements) and let the scheduled job run. It got to creating snapshot and the whole system becomes either partially or completely unusable (in waves). Mouse stutters, windows (host applications) unresponsive, VM completely frozen. After 25 minutes, Vimalin indicated the snapshot was done and it moved onto copying the files. Once that step was reached, things were fine while it copied the snapshot to the backup target - I was able to use the host and VM.

I even shut everything down and rebooted host and VM, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but the same thing occurred when I kicked off the new backup. Also note that the Event Viewer showed no suspect entries during the time the snapshot was being created and the system useability dropped dramatically.

The goal for me was to have this run daily, but also be able to use the VM/host during the backup - I expected some resource utilization/contention, but being unable to use the host/VM during the backup defeats the purpose, as I could shutdown the VM and copy the VM folder faster than this process and would still be able to use the host.

Anyway, just wanted to give you my feedback and issues.

[wila]

Hi Robyabchanyk,

Sounds like the problem is when VMware Workstation is making the snapshot in the background.
In VMware Workstation you can configure the priority that VMware Workstation will use when making snapshots.
Under the menu "Edit" -> "Preferences" -> "Priority" you can configure for VMware to take the snapshots in the background.

Can you try that and see if it helps?

Your host certainly should be powerful enough to be able to use Vimalin for backups and continue to work.

PS: If unable to resolve then I'll be happy to refund the payment.
I really don't want to take your money if the product isn't working for you.

--
Wil

[robyapchanyk]

Those options (take/restore snapshots in the background) were already checked in Preferences - I forgot to mention I did verify that as well during my troubleshooting.

[wila]

Those options (take/restore snapshots in the background) were already checked in Preferences - I forgot to mention I did verify that as well during my troubleshooting.

OK, I figured to ask.

Can you email me the vmware.log files of the VM that has this problem?
There are a few other things I would like to verify.
Send it to support@vimalin.com

thanks!
--
Wil

[robyapchanyk]

Wil has resolved this issue by examining the VMWare log files and pointing out that Hyper-V was enabled (though I thought I disabled that feature in Windows completely).

The backups now run smoothly.

Thanks!