Defender For Endpoint consuming a lot of CPU

Question

Hi,
we are testing Azure Virtual Desktop with to vm host pool and we are noticing that Defender For Endpoint (old ATP) are consuming a lot of cpu usage all the time, around 50%. This makes our VDI's very slow to even do basic task like opening powershell or Excel because cpu is spking 100% all the time.

and even when not a single user are connected to host it is still under 60% cpu usage (spike is when i connected to host).

host details (Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops) and the VM sku is Standard D2s v3 (2 vcpus, 8 GiB memory)

What are they ways so start to investigate the issue? What to look / do first?

Answer 1

Hi @Bombbe

Thank you for asking this question on the **Microsoft Q&A Platform. **

When the first boot is usually the antimalware solutions require more resources,

Did you leave the host active for a while?

Also, you are running with the minimum hardware requirement (Cores)

Cores: 2 minimum, 4 preferred Memory: 1 GB minimum, 4 preferred

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/minimum-requirements?view=o365-worldwide

So, I would recommend you use a VM SKU with more resources os run your test without windows defender

Hope this helps,
Carlos Solís Salazar

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Answer 2

@Bombbe
You can follow our page here to diagnose the issue. I have sent you a private message so we can work with you directly to resolve this.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/troubleshoot-performance-issues?view=o365-worldwide