The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    VMware Fusion

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Supermiguel, Mar 16, 2010.

  1. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I have a 13" macbook pro 4gb of ram, 2.26Ghz.

    So im trying to upgrade my MCSA/MCSE to 2008, so i would need to run few VM's, at least 3 2008, and few clients.. You guys think ill be fine using my laptop or i should buy a desktop with around 8gb of ram?
     
  2. unnamed01

    unnamed01 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    194
    Messages:
    982
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    As in running 3 VM's simultaneously? I think you'd be better off with a desktop for that. But you can try!
     
  3. DJRiful

    DJRiful Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    23
    Messages:
    289
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I'll recommend Parallel Desktop 5.0
     
  4. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    will it run multiple server 2003/2008?? with only 4gb of ram?
     
  5. pjshots

    pjshots Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    23
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I use Fusion with Server 2008 and an xp client, works fine with 4GB, your hard drive may chug a bit though; just don't give them more ram than you can get away with.... 768MB for Server 2008, 512MB W7/Vista, 512mb XP. Obv, if you're doing loads on the server, can up that to 1GB easily or a bit more.
     
  6. crazycanuk

    crazycanuk Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,354
    Messages:
    2,705
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    56
    running 3 instances of S-2008 ... go find a desktop

    more like 6 to 10 Vm's at once.

    Primary server, RDP server and a file server plus atleast 3-5 clients. If you want to go nuts 5 servers and 15 clients


    and good luck to you on upgrading, I just finished a few months ago ( I got delayed as staff seem to take training priority )
     
  7. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    so def buy a system?
     
  8. crazycanuk

    crazycanuk Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,354
    Messages:
    2,705
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    56
    IMO, a desktop or a real high end Clevo or AW machine.. and go with ATLEAST 8 GB of RAM if you dont plan on spanning projects over multiple machines.
     
  9. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    just ordered a system with a E5300 cpu, 6gb of ram, 750gb of HD.. Ill probably order 2x4gb out of new egg so ill have 12gb on it
     
  10. crazycanuk

    crazycanuk Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,354
    Messages:
    2,705
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    56
    should do you nicely, and good luck to you, its a crapload of work but very rewarding
     
  11. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    thanks :) =)
     
  12. GTx08

    GTx08 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    53
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    i too recommend parallel desktop.
     
  13. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

    Reputations:
    3,047
    Messages:
    8,636
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    206
    so we're talkin' like 6 operating systems with a unix host...

    depending on how severely you want them to chug, i'd say it's time to get a desktop.

    you have 2 cores, split between a host OS and 6 clients... so if everything worked 100%, you have 800mhz core solo processors on all your operating systems...

    of course, there is overhead in the virtualization- so it might act more like 400 mhz core solos running each OS. plus, you have one hard drive managing interaction between all the operating systems... and 500 MB of ram / OS...

    they will be hanging up a lot. windows server 2k8r2 wants 1.4ghz by itself and 512 MB of memory, minimum. i smell trouble.

    for this type of application, it's time to invest in a quad core CPU at least, possibly 2 quad cores.

    at least 8 GB of memory

    multiple hard drives, keep only 1 or 2 virtual OS files on each HDD.

    that is the only way to get 6+ OSes running at the same time without everything coming to a halt. When I ran 3 OSes in vmware (4 total including OS X) - there was no mistaking it. That is with 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo and 4 GB of memory. a 2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo isn't going to make enough of a difference to save you. go quad or 8 core.

    good luck