Using the SparseVhd option causes High CPU, RAM, and Disk usage

[marsfan]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.2861]

WSL Version

2.0.9.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.133.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2

Distro Version

No response

Other Software

Docker Desktop v4.26.0

Repro Steps

1. Add the following to .wslconfig

[experimental]
sparseVhd=true

2. Enable sparse VHD for all existing distros with wsl --manage {DISTRO} --set-sparse true
3. Attempt to create a large Docker container. (I'm using the make lint command from this project: https://github.com/marsfan/esp32_envionment_monitor/)

Expected Behavior

System CPU, RAM, and Disk Activity is not all running at 100%

Actual Behavior

During the process of creating the Docker container, my CPU usage is at 100%, as is my RAM usage, and my Disk usage on a SSD.

Furthermore, after the creation of the container, they all remain at 100% for a while, and the Modified part of the memory composition shown in task manager is a significant portion of my total RAM (I had it reach up to 10GB out of 16GB).

This only happens if I have sparse containers enabled. I have no knowledge of how WSL or sparse VHD files work, but I'm guessing its queuing up the changes to the VHD files in RAM, and then it takes a while to write everything to disk.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[DylanMerigaud]

You saved my ass, disabled the option for now, THANKS !

[mdstephenserdc]

also happened to me, thanks for this

[yangyang233333]

same

[MatMercer]

You saved my ass, disabled the option for now, THANKS !

And I didn't even enabled it to begin with, after researching for possible existing bugs lol.

[marsfan]

@OneBlue You assigned this to someone back in January, but it seems that account was deleted. Is there anyone else you could assign this to in order to look into it?