virtual machines

Comparing Filesystem Performance in Virtual Machines

2 months ago

Filesystem performance is a key bottleneck in VM-based development environments.
Small file sequential read: NFS outperforms all, VMware shared folders far exceed VirtualBox, which is very slow.
Large file random read: VMware shared folders dominate VirtualBox (peaks at 7 GB/s vs under 100 MB/s); NFS still good.
Small file sequential write: NFS performs poorly due to network overhead; native filesystems and virtual machines outperform host; VirtualBox shared folders beat VMware.
Large file random write: Similar pattern to small writes; NFS terrible; hypervisors cheat with buffering, outperforming host.
Overall: VMware is better for read-heavy tasks, VirtualBox slightly better for writes; NFS recommended for reads; hypervisors lie about synced writes; move database files out of shared folders for better performance.