VMware V Parallels now?

[ayeying]

Fusion includes a copy of (McAfee?) AV. I don't know whether Parallels has anything.

Parallels have Kaspersky

 

[j2048b]

ok question:

i am gettin 2 mini's:

1-1.83 ghz

and

1-1.66 ghz

both with 2 gigs of memory and 80gig hdd

both will be used as servers of some type but one with vmware fusion v.3 and the other with parrallels (just for testing purposes)

should i allocate 1 gig of memory to each instance of the virtual machines on each mini?

All i will be using windows on those for is possibly playon server, and a few other small things for the wife, as she is not a MAC addict yet

so is i gig going to be enough to allocate? I will have to see how much i can put in each as far as memory goes!

 

[NJRonbo]

Someone may correct me on this, but
if I was planning to run Windows on my
Mac via a virtual machine I would load it
up with RAM.

In fact, that is what I am doing.

2GB should be the minimum anyone wanting
to run a virtual machine should have on their
Mac. This way you allocate 1GB to the virtual
machine and keep 1GB for OS X. Mind you, the
only time you are splitting the ram is when you
are running the virtual machine.

When I ran XP via PARALLELS I allocated only
1GB of ram to it. However, VISTA is another
animal and I would highly doubt it would run
very well with the same amount of memory
unless it was for basic tasks.

I would recommend 4GB for your Mac so you
can allocate 2GB to both systems. Not sure
if the minis come in 4GB configurations or if
it is really a good idea to put that kind of
memory in a lower-end Mac system.

And yes, you need an antivirus if you plan
to run Windows.

Again, all this is off the top of my head
based on experience using the virutal machine.

 

[dyn]

There should be a folder called "Windows Applications" in the Applications folder (Might have to double check this, I have both Parallels and Fusion installed so I'm not sure which gives it that feature right now). If there's no folder, then it's located at:

/Users/[Insert Name Here]/Documents/Virtual Machines/[Insert VM Name Here].vmwarevm/

or for Boot Camp:

/Users/[Insert Name Here]/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/%2Fdev%2Fdisk0/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm/

(Right click, show package contents)

If you don't fancy the "show package contents" part than fire up the applications from the vm, go into Unity mode (Parallels calls this Coherence mode) and the apps will be placed on the dock just like any other OS X application. That also means you can rightclick and tell it to keep it in the dock This is actually something that Fusion does better as it is more MacOS X-like.

Btw: its Parallels giving you that feature regarding the Windows apps dir in the Applications folders. Fusion does have something similar but it puts it elsewhere and only when you are using the option for "default applications" (see the Fusion and the vm preferences).

 

[Zeos]

I have VMF3 and Win 7 on my MBP, and I installed Parallels 4 and Win 7 on my wife's MBP. Prior to this I had VMF2 and Win XP on my MBP. After playing with both side-by-side, I have to give the definite edge to Parallels this time around. Much faster overall performance and more of a seemless integration with the OS X desktop.

 

[ayeying]

ok question:

i am gettin 2 mini's:

1-1.83 ghz

and

1-1.66 ghz

both with 2 gigs of memory and 80gig hdd

both will be used as servers of some type but one with vmware fusion v.3 and the other with parrallels (just for testing purposes)

should i allocate 1 gig of memory to each instance of the virtual machines on each mini?

All i will be using windows on those for is possibly playon server, and a few other small things for the wife, as she is not a MAC addict yet

so is i gig going to be enough to allocate? I will have to see how much i can put in each as far as memory goes!

More ram would be better. And it depends on what OS you're using. For XP, 512MB is fine. For Vista or Windows 7, at least 768MB or higher.

Someone may correct me on this, but
if I was planning to run Windows on my
Mac via a virtual machine I would load it
up with RAM.

In fact, that is what I am doing.

2GB should be the minimum anyone wanting
to run a virtual machine should have on their
Mac. This way you allocate 1GB to the virtual
machine and keep 1GB for OS X. Mind you, the
only time you are splitting the ram is when you
are running the virtual machine.

When I ran XP via PARALLELS I allocated only
1GB of ram to it. However, VISTA is another
animal and I would highly doubt it would run
very well with the same amount of memory
unless it was for basic tasks.

I would recommend 4GB for your Mac so you
can allocate 2GB to both systems. Not sure
if the minis come in 4GB configurations or if
it is really a good idea to put that kind of
memory in a lower-end Mac system.

And yes, you need an antivirus if you plan
to run Windows.

Again, all this is off the top of my head
based on experience using the virutal machine.

Actually, more ram allocated to the virtual machine doesn't entirely mean better performance. There's an actual limit to how much memory you should allocate.

For example, when I allocate 3GB of ram for Windows XP on a 6GB iMac, the performance actually suffered from when I allocated 1GB or even 2GB.

For Vista, you'd need at least 1GB, 1.5GB to run it somewhat smooth, 2GB for smooth. Windows 7 should follow the Vista recommendations also.

 

[sputacus]

I'm currently using Fusion 2.0.6 (the latest pre 3.0 release) and it is running great.

Then I tried upgrading to 3.0 last night. Though 3.0 performs noticeably faster than 2.0.6, I found that VMware tools would not install - got an Windows "error 1325." And it didn't allow me to redirect "My Documents" to the shared folder I have been using in ver 2.0.x. It would not recognized the network drive I created in 2.0.x; deleting and re-creating the network drive didn't work.

So I rolled back to 2.0.6...
_______

UPDATE: Original attempt at Fusion 3.0 upgrade must have been corrupted as my 2nd attempt is working great on a cloned scratch drive - noticeably faster than 2.0.6.

 

[dyn]

Actually, more ram allocated to the virtual machine doesn't entirely mean better performance. There's an actual limit to how much memory you should allocate.

For example, when I allocate 3GB of ram for Windows XP on a 6GB iMac, the performance actually suffered from when I allocated 1GB or even 2GB.

Assigning memory to a vm is something you can only do when the system has enough memory to do so. If you assign 3 GB of memory to the XP vm it is possible and it doesn't mean it will degrade the performance (for some it actually increases performance). but only if you have that much memory to spare. If you have 4 GB than it's not a good idea to assign 3 of those to the vm. It will leave OS X with less then 1 GB of memory and it won't like it. In the end this causes degraded performance on all accounts (OS X, the vm's, etc.). Aside from that assigning just 1 GB of memory is mostly enough for a vm (although this depends on what software you're using).

For Vista, you'd need at least 1GB, 1.5GB to run it somewhat smooth, 2GB for smooth. Windows 7 should follow the Vista recommendations also.

A lot of people on the VMware forum as well as elsewhere have good experiences with Vista and 7 only using 1 GB of memory. Assigning 2 GB doesn't mean it will be smoother, it might be too much for most people as they are limited by 4 GB of memory (and I'm guessing they run other apps that like to use some memory as well ).

If you have the memory than you can assign it, if not than be careful as to not assign too much since that causes the (overall) performance to degrade. As one could say "use it wisely".

Edit: useful guide from VMware: Choosing the Right Virtual Machine Settings.