VLAN for a VM for better internet speed?

Question:

I have a Windows 10 Virtual Machine running on a Synology DS 1517+ this NAS has 4 LAN ports.

When I use this VM with windows remote desktop and browse the internet, I notice that the performance is quite weak. Running a Speedtest from that browser in the VM confirmed that the download speed is only a fraction of what is available while the upload speed is pretty close.

Since everything is running over the same port on the VM hardware, I am wondering if I could resolve the matter by creating a VLAN on my Peplink Balance One and use that for the virtual machine by assigning the VLAN IP address to the Windows 10 network adapter.

I gave it a brief try, but it failed to connect to the WAN.

This is my first time experimenting with a VLAN and before I spend to much time in solving my problem, I am wondering if this is the best way to approach this problem.

Reason for best possible internet access from this virtual machine is that I have some cases where a SaaS-only works in a Microsoft Explorer under MS Windows. Currently, I am installing Fusion on all the individual computers. My goal is to create a couple of VM’s that can be shared and centrally managed…

Thanks in advance for your help!

Rogier

Just to confirm the VLAN 10 defined for you VM Window 10 is “Access Port” or “Tag/Trunk port” ? Do you try before to define Balance One LAN port to “port access” or VLAN 10" to test on the connection ? If VM PC port is “access port” then Balance LAN port connected to the VM PC need to in “Port Type : Access”, else if VM PC port is tag/trunk then you need to make sure Balance LAN port connected to the VM PC is in “Port Type : Trunk”.

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Guess the question really is where is the speed bottleneck?
On the DS 1517+ you can view the resource monitor to show CPU/ RAM DISK and Network utilisation I would start there. the 1517 has gigabit ethernet so there would need to be a LOT going on network wise for you to be saturating the connectivity at the DS1517 level.

Whats more likely is that you have limited internet bandwidth - particularly on the upload and that it the likely place where you could be saturating the available speed.

You could perhaps look to add QoS to traffic from the windows 10 vm at your internet gateway…

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Hi Martin,

Usually I run Speedof.me on MacOS and Windows 10 VM under VMware fusion. On this machine the Speedtest.net is much faster. Don’t quite now who to believe dough. And why is there such a difference…

What I did notice in the resource monitor that while running these “tests” in the browser the processors max out at 55 - 85%. I know the DS-1517 isnt a hi en pc but I am surprised to see how litte I can throw at this VM. There is nothing else running other then this VM.

All connections, router and switch are Gigabit. The ISP is 100/10

How many cores have you assigned the VM? Is the VM network bridged to the DS ethernet or are you using NAT between the VM and the DS?

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All 4 cores and 8GB of memory

Not sure how to answer about the NAT but that is something I have been wandering about because te behavior reminds me about double NAT.

Its connected directly to thr router (Peplink Balance One) witch is running DHCP and NAT just like any other old router.

I suspect you’re stifling the host by assigning the vm all four cores (i think the 1517+ only has four in total right?)
If you only have 8GB of ram installed on the DS then reduce on the vm too.

I haven’t used virtualisation on a Synology NAS before, but in other hypervisors you can assign a VM a virtual NIC connected to a virtual switch that provides NAT and DHCP in a private subnet all within the host OS.

That virtual switch will need RAM and CPU resource on the NAS to function, so if you’re stealing all the NAS cpu and ram for the VM then that could be the bottleneck.

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Hi Martin

The DS1517+ is maxed out with 16GB Memory and dual SSD’s.

Indeed cutting down from 4 to 2 processors made some improvement the assigned memoy was and remained 4GB.

Thanks!