VMware Communities > VMTN > Desktop Products > VMware Fusion > Discussions
Up to Discussions in VMware Fusion

This Question is Answered

1 "correct" answer available (10 pts) 2 "helpful" answers available (6 pts)
1 2 Previous Next
17 Replies Last post: Nov 20, 2008 5:52 PM by mileserickson
Reply

Pausing the VM...

Jul 8, 2007 7:09 AM

Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
Hi, in Parallels one can pause the VM. This is useful as it reduces the CPU use down to ~1-2% (of one processor). On a laptop this conserves valuable battery life, allowing one to work for the maximum amount of time by curbing VM CPU use when not necessary. Is there a way to pause the VM in Fusion, and if not is this planned for a future release?
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 7:35 AM
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
Is there a way to pause the VM in Fusion?

Yes, you can use the Pause button (left side of the toolbar) or the menu item Virtual Machine > Suspend Guest
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 8:33 AM
in response to: etung
Click to view simplicity's profile Novice simplicity 32 posts since
Jun 23, 2007
Hello etung,

Pause and suspend are not the same thing, at least not on parallels. Pause on parallels simply halts the guest while keeping all the ram in memory. It is very quick. Suspend actually writes the memory out to the file system and is much slower.

Why would you want to use pause over suspend? Well I used to use it when Vista was chewing away my CPU for no apparent reason. I would pause it, continue what I was doing in OSX and go back to it when I was ready... I don't know if that is a valid use case, maybe others could give a better reason.

Take care,
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 8:45 AM
in response to: simplicity
Click to view Pat Lee's profile Master Pat Lee 1,090 posts since
Jan 3, 2007 VMware
Assuming you have no crummy, lousy software that spins for no apparent reason when installed on PC, I can leave my VMs running in the background and they only take 4-6% CPU idle. I have down this with Vista Ultimate in a Boot Camp partition, XP in a Boot Camp partition, or XP running out of virtual disk. It is very low impact when idle.

Pat
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 10:46 AM
in response to: etung
Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
But I can't safely suspend a bootcamp VM right? In parallels I can't suspend a bootcamp VM but can pause it.
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 10:51 AM
in response to: Pat Lee
Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
When working off a battery, saving as many CPU cycles as possible is important. When I have several apps open in XP, I see ~12% constant CPU for the vmware-vmx service. I can keep closing all open apps (saving files) which drops CPU down, but simply pausing the VM would be much better...
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 12:21 PM
in response to: Pat Lee
Click to view rhind's profile Enthusiast rhind 105 posts since
Jun 17, 2007
Hi Pat, I also see 4-6% idle time for my XP SP2 VM both in single window and unity mode.

But if I have Visual Studio 2005 open, then idle usage in unity goes up to 10-15%, but only in unity mode. In single window mode with Visual Studio 2005 open, idle usage stays at 4-6%. Is this something that could be looked at for an optimistation in a future release?

(Not all apps cause this, as explorer windows don't put the idle usage up at all when in unity mode).

Cheers

Russell
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 12:23 PM
Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
Actually, if I use "Standby" in windows I get basically the same effect (slightly more CPU used when windows standbys/restores but seems quite trivial); ~1% CPU in the host without having to close or modify programs. I still think a VM pause mode would be better, but windows standby is good enough for the moment...
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 12:36 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view pfoxhoven's profile Novice pfoxhoven 24 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
Suspend Guest is greyed out for me in any mode -- Do I have to do something to enable it?
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 1:37 PM
in response to: pfoxhoven
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
Suspend Guest is greyed out for me in any mode

If you're using a Boot Camp virtual machine, this is expected and intentional. If you were to boot Windows natively while the guest was suspended (or snapshotted), this could cause corruption.

Do I have to do something to enable it?

For a Boot Camp virtual machine, you can enable suspend by editing the vmx file, but because of the implications of doing so I leave the exact steps as an exercise to the reader.
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 3:06 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
If you're using a Boot Camp virtual machine, this is
expected and intentional. If you were to boot Windows
natively while the guest was suspended (or
snapshotted), this could cause corruption.

Is this the only problem with suspending a bootcamp VM? I was worried about enabling suspend, but I never boot natively anymore so the chances are non-existant.

By the way etung, thank you for your help - this forum is *so* different to Parallels one!!! ;-)
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 4:36 PM
in response to: iandol
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
If you're using a Boot Camp virtual machine, this is
expected and intentional. If you were to boot Windows
natively while the guest was suspended (or
snapshotted), this could cause corruption.

Is this the only problem with suspending a bootcamp
VM? I was worried about enabling suspend, but I never
boot natively anymore so the chances are
non-existant.


As far as I know this is the only issue.

By the way etung, thank you for your help - this
forum is *so* different to Parallels one!!! ;-)

No problem, glad to help :)
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 4:40 PM
in response to: iandol
Click to view Pat Lee's profile Master Pat Lee 1,090 posts since
Jan 3, 2007 VMware
If you're using a Boot Camp virtual machine, this
is
expected and intentional. If you were to boot
Windows
natively while the guest was suspended (or
snapshotted), this could cause corruption.

Is this the only problem with suspending a bootcamp
VM? I was worried about enabling suspend, but I never
boot natively anymore so the chances are
non-existant.


So, I currently use Windows Hibernate function in a Boot Camp VM when I want it and it has worked great for me without having to enable Suspend/Resume.

NOTE: You will still have the same issue if you reboot the VM into native Boot Camp mode with out of date hardware/memory to cause data loss if you hibernate. You can only hibernate if you plan on staying in the VM. If you want to go to Boot Camp, resume the hibernated VM and then shut it down.

Pat
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 8, 2007 6:10 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view pfoxhoven's profile Novice pfoxhoven 24 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
Thanks etung!
Reply Re: Pausing the VM... Jul 9, 2007 4:41 AM
in response to: iandol
Click to view iandol's profile Novice iandol 14 posts since
Jul 8, 2007
Actually, if I use "Standby" in windows I get
basically the same effect

OK I retract that, sometimes standby fails to recover. Neither mouse nor keyboard input can wake up the VM, and so it has to be reset, losing any work unsaved etc. I don't know if that is a VMWare or XP issue.

Pat, do you ever have issues with hibernate not restarting?
1 2 Previous Next
Actions
Up to Discussions in VMware Fusion