VM Workstation 8 ---- How do you like it?

T

techtips

Gawd
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Jan 3, 2011
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Hey everybody, I just got the notification yesturday that VM Workstation 8 has been released...so I downloaded and installed it and it may just be me but it doesn't feel as snappy as VM Workstation 7.1 was.
My Dell laptop has a T9500 dual core processor with 8 gigs of ram and with 7.1 it ran perfectly.

Anybody notice a difference in it? I've tried to look up the system specs on the VMware website for workstation 8 but the page was down so I can't see if they increased the system specs from 7.1 to 8.
 
IIRC, we didn't, but I can tell you taht on fast hardware it works brilliantly. Don't know about older stuff - haven't replaced 6.5 on my old box (it's one goal is to run 2 vms, 24/7(.
 
Yea i've read good things also, I downgraded back to 7.1 but I might give it another go later today.
 
It's great - especially because it is compatibile with ESXi 5 and i can move VMs between ESXi and workstation :)
 
sybreeder said:
It's great - especially because it is compatibile with ESXi 5 and i can move VMs between ESXi and workstation :)
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I had an issue with that. It would spit out "unable to resolve host" when I connected vCenter to it and tried to transfer a VM.

Connecting straight to the ESXi host would also spit out an error but the transfer worked.
 
Child of Wonder said:
I had an issue with that. It would spit out "unable to resolve host" when I connected vCenter to it and tried to transfer a VM.

Connecting straight to the ESXi host would also spit out an error but the transfer worked.
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DNS working?
 
techtips said:
Hey everybody, I just got the notification yesturday that VM Workstation 8 has been released...so I downloaded and installed it and it may just be me but it doesn't feel as snappy as VM Workstation 7.1 was.
My Dell laptop has a T9500 dual core processor with 8 gigs of ram and with 7.1 it ran perfectly.

Anybody notice a difference in it? I've tried to look up the system specs on the VMware website for workstation 8 but the page was down so I can't see if they increased the system specs from 7.1 to 8.
Click to expand...

You're not alone. Windows XP used to run without a hitch in 7.1 on my notebook. With Workstation 8, I've noticed some really bad tearing when moving windows around, slightly slower guest boot times, and CPU usage jumps high when opening any program. It's not bad enough to make everything completely unusable, but I'm already anticipating a point-1 release.
 
Child of Wonder said:
I had an issue with that. It would spit out "unable to resolve host" when I connected vCenter to it and tried to transfer a VM.

Connecting straight to the ESXi host would also spit out an error but the transfer worked.
Click to expand...

I'm connecting to vCenter without any problem from the first start. VM migration also went great.
For me it's great way to quick install OS on VM on my main machine and move onto ESXi server that has E350 APU
 
From what I have noticed today with Workstation 8, it does seem to stress my dual core much more then it did with 7.1 but I'm sure they are still working on it to fine tune it. I'll load up about two clients, my SQL sever, two Domain Controllers and one lone server it seems to lag, each with about 768mb dedicated.

I guess if some people test ver8 on a better system, they won't notice much difference but I can feel it on my older Dell M1530.

Regardless, I hope they release a patch soon to help correct some of these problems people have experienced.
 
Not liking the upgrade so far.

I was running OSX Lion 10.7.1 in workstation 7.1.4 and everything ran really great and smooth. Since upgrading to 8, the GUI is all laggy now.

I am talking to some people though and they might be able to come up with a solution because multiple people are having this exact same problem.

Other than that it's alright I guess but this is my main use.
 
SirMaster said:
Not liking the upgrade so far.

I was running OSX Lion 10.7.1 in workstation 7.1.4 and everything ran really great and smooth. Since upgrading to 8, the GUI is all laggy now.

I am talking to some people though and they might be able to come up with a solution because multiple people are having this exact same problem.

Other than that it's alright I guess but this is my main use.
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you do realize that's not supported, right?
 
lopoetve said:
Are CPU's in your host oses going higher than they were?
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On the host system I use System Control A1 to keep an eye out on my cores and memory use.

Loading up the 5-6 VM's I did last night stressed the pc, at moments I thought I had no other option then to shut it off since it was unresponsive. Thankfully after about 4-5 min it came back. I just find that there is some kind of issue with Version 8, will they fix it? I hope but I still have it on right now hoping they will come out with a patch soon.
 
lopoetve said:
you do realize that's not supported, right?
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Not supported?

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http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/03/lion-to-allow-two-virtualized-instances-of-mac-os-x-per-machine/
 
read the eula farther - it's (or so i've been told) only on apple hardware that's allowed. It shouldnt' be there on workstation.

Let me go double check.

edit:
Now Lion's new EULA is set to change all that, as reported by MacRumors. 10.7 users will be permitted to run one or two virtual Mac instances on each physical Mac,
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Are you running windows on a Mac? (note: fusion obviously allows this, but fusion != workstation). If you're not on apple hardware, it should not be a selectable option.
 
I am not on Mac hardware personally so yeah it's not "legally" supported in my case.

But I mean, it should be "technically" supported as I could have Windows installed with Bootcamp and would want to use Lion in Workstation since Apple EULA now supports 2 virtualized instances on Mac hardware.

Either way, I see no reason for a regression in performance and maybe it has impacts on other guest operating systems as well.
 
SirMaster said:
I am not on Mac hardware personally so yeah it's not "legally" supported in my case.

But I mean, it should be "technically" supported as I could have Windows installed with Bootcamp and would want to use Lion in Workstation since Apple EULA now supports 2 virtualized instances on Mac hardware.

Either way, I see no reason for a regression in performance and maybe it has impacts on other guest operating systems as well.
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Correct, but from my understanding, it's not supposed to give you an option unless you're on apple HW. Interesting. I'll have to check on that.

Lemme do some performance testing. I'll get back to you on that part.
 
lopoetve said:
Correct, but from my understanding, it's not supposed to give you an option unless you're on apple HW. Interesting. I'll have to check on that.

Lemme do some performance testing. I'll get back to you on that part.
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I know vSphere checks for Apple hardware...didn't know Workstation did too.
 
I have OSX installed in Workstation 8. It takes a work around and other black magic. And Lion doesn't run smoothly. It would be nice if it did, but it looks like Apple EULA and $$$ get in the way.
 
For those with poor graphics performance in Workstation 8, a workaround has been discovered.

After booting your VM:

1) Switch to Console view (View-> Console View)
2) Turn on VM thumbnails (F8)
3) Turn off VM thumbnails (F8 again)
4) Switch back to your view of choice and enjoy
 
I really like it...its much cleaner than the previous releases.

I am not sure if it was in the other releases of workstation, but I like how I can open my esxi machines from Workstation 8!!
 
SirMaster said:
For those with poor graphics performance in Workstation 8, a workaround has been discovered.

After booting your VM:

1) Switch to Console view (View-> Console View)
2) Turn on VM thumbnails (F8)
3) Turn off VM thumbnails (F8 again)
4) Switch back to your view of choice and enjoy
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've noticed a slight increase in performance in my XP guest after doing this. Is this a permanent fix or is this something I'll need to do every time I start Workstation 8?
 
Bump. Tested it out myself and yeah, it ain't a permanent fix. Hopefully this will be patched.
 
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