Quad Core VM for free (maybe)

[jfb9301]

I think I found a way to run a quad cored VM without VMWare Workstation. But I need someone to try it out under 64 Bit.

Use Sun VirtualBox. I can't remember how many CPUs it can handle, but I think it can run 16 or 32 or more.

It will run VMware virtual machine Hard drives.

it does have one limitation that I can't test through right now

the CPU it virtualizes is limited by the bits of the OS. Since all I have installed are 32 bit OSs I can't virtualize a 64 bit machine. (my 64bit Vista Ultimate OEM with Win 7 ultimate coupon will arrive in a week). Folding in SMP (even on notfred's) requires 64 bit.

why a notfred will run SMP on a VMware under a 32 bit OS, I have no idea. I'm not even sure I want to know.

VirtualBox is not recognized as a VM by notfred. This changes a few things. Notfred assumes it is an installed OS rather than a virtual one. It will not disable time synch, the time of your VM WILL actually be acurate (amazing, a fix to one of my biggest gripes about notfred)

A quad of notfred on virtual box under a 32 bit OS results in notfred loading 4 standard clients.

Install looks painless to me. Install VirtualBox, create a new machine, when virtual box wants to create a new HDD, point it to your notfred folding.vmdk file. and save. Edit the properties of the machine to disable crap you don't need for the VM (floppy, cdrom, USB), set your network to bridged, and edit the CPU cores to 4 and run.

 

[jimbowdang]

I tried VirtualBox right after 3.0 came out when they added SMP support. I didn't try a Notfreds with it though, I just made a new VM. The SMP worked fine as long as you were using a 64 bit OS, but I had a lot of trouble with stability. I was never able to complete a single WU without throwing some kind of error in the client. I don't remember what the errors were but it was just easier to go back to VMware. Maybe they have updated it since then to be more stable.

 

[Zero82z]

I tried VBox 3 when it came out, and although it seemed to work, it absolutely crippled performance for my host OS and gave me reduced PPD. After that, I went back to VMWare.

 

[alan2308]

That's interesting that the Windows version performs so poorly. I use VirtualBox 2.1.4_OSE on Ubuntu 9.04 x64 and I have no complaints at all running LinSMP or BOINC on this machine. The host OS (Linux) and the 3 VM's (XP, Server 2k3, Solaris 9) all run smooth as silk.

 

[capreppy]

I also had tried VirtualBox and took it off within hours. Performance was terrible

 

[Gigabyte]

I've been using it for over a month and it has been great with Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) and Notfreds. You just have to leave it alone once its going and resist the urge to play around with it.

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1004051#1004051

 

[jfb9301]

That's good news for me,

My 64 bit OS should be here next week and I can get everything moved over and pick up a few PPD while I'm at it.

or at least I can try it and see if it works for not.

I intend to try with and w/o WinAFC. and compare PPD to win SMP, and 2x notfred smp 2 core. when I get some details I'll post them. cause even if it is a few PPD short of VMware workstation, free is significantly cheaper.

 

[Vaulter98c]

please do, let us know how this goes, cuz I just moved my quad to another rig and was really not wanting to run 2 vm's (that means I need more ram in that box, and it will become more unstable than 1 vm)

 

[jfb9301]

ok, I've got no data on stability but

Everything has to be run manual
Manual start VM
Manual change priority (WinAFC will not recognize the exe)

if you don't lower the priority of the virtualbox.exe to something less than normal, desktop performance is abysmal. once you lower priority, everthing is smooth sailing.

PPD is roughly 6800 which checks with chart for me, as 2 2xCPU VMs in vmware churns out 2x3400 or so.

the "Manual" is a deal breaker for me. I need my stuff to auto start and under vmware-workstation I can even set the priority so I don't even need to hastle with winafc.