Virtual machine and voicemail delays [SOLVED]

[mbellot]

Greetings,

I've been using 3CX in a virtual machine (VPC2004) to get a better understanding of its inner workings, but I have run into one major problem... Voicemail.

On a almost completely unloaded (two extensions registered, both on the local network) when calling from one extension to the other there is a 10-15 second delay between the call "pick-up" (by voicemail) and the actual start of the recorded message asking the caller to leave a message.

Also, when retrieving voicemail from the system I have similar delays between every single prompt (password, press "*", etc).

I've tried 3CX in both XP and Win2K VMs (16GB virtual drive and 1GB RAM) with similar results.

The host computer is a 2.4GHz P4 with 3GB of RAM. I would expect that would be sufficient for such a small test configuration, so I'm guessing there is something that needs tweaking to make the VM and 3CX play nice together.

Other than voicemail I am thoroughly impressed with 3CX and the quality of calls (mostly SIP to SIP or extension to extension so far).

Any thoughts to get things running would be greatly appreciated.


EDIT:

Just a follow-up. I managed to get it working pretty well by tweaking my Virtual PC options.

From the console, go to the menu bar File -> Options, under performance I selected "All running Virtual Machines get equal CPU time" and "Give processes on the host operating system priority", "Run Virtual PC at maximum speed" also works OK (its the first setting thats critical).

I am now getting ~ 1-2 second delays on most voice prompts ("Enter PIN", "You have...", etc) and more importantly when a call is transferred to VM the message prompt starts very quickly.

I'm sure its not workable for larger configurations, but for a home application with just a couple extensions its "good enough" for further testing.

 

[mbellot]

Re: Virtual machine and voicemail delays

Matt,

Thanks for the reply, but I'm having a hard time swallowing it.

Normally (idle) the VM CPU usage idles between 3-9%, maybe as high as 10-15% on an active call.

Only when voicemail is accessed (for record or playback) does CPU usage peg out at 100% for 10+ seconds. That kind of spike leads me to believe there is something squirrelly going on only at those times. I've run plenty of other programs to know there is a 5-10% performance hit inside a virtual environment, so if a 3GHz system is recommended then a 2.4GHz system should be acceptable (if not ideal) with little or no issues for a minimalist configuration. Hogging 100% of CPU resources for more than 10 seconds isn't a 2.4GHz vs. 3GHz system difference.

Add that to the fact that I know someone who is successfully running 3CX on a 650MHz P3 (direct, not in a virtual machine) with ~ 15 extensions and he is experiencing no lag with his voicemail, despite being seriously below the specs you list and it definitely seems like an issue with virtualization.

Also, FWIW, the entire system never seems to use more than a bit over 256MB even with a RAM setting as high as 2GB.

 

[mbellot]

bump for solution posted in original post.