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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

Add Shared VMs back

Add Shared VMs back.

If this is not back, than why upgrade to V16 and pay for upgrade license?

-- Dejan
11 Replies
scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Moderator: Thread moved to the Workstation Pro area since v16 is now released.


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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

If this is a feature you need, we suggest not upgrading to v16.

Unfortunately, telemetry tells us it's not widely used, and it's a very expensive feature to maintain, so it won't be returning in its current form.

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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mfelker
Expert
Expert

Good question.   I am going to get my money back.  FWIW I installed a licensed copy of e.x.p build-16540321.    I now use QEMU/KVM on Fedora Rawhide with kernel 5.9rc5.   No way is VMware going to install on this.   I really don't know why they killed Workstation Server - probably some deal with M$. They pretty much killed it for Fusion even.

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pwolf
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Excuse me, but do you think, that your telemetry data are reprensentative to all users. I know many people, who turn  telemetry off or block it at the perimeter.

Besides of this question, the next question is, will the remote console function for ESXi hosts and vcenter servers be removed next?

The server feature was one of the features, that brought me to Vmware Workstation.

Of course many people - including me - run VMs to be accessed remotey, which were before run on Vmware Workstation server, now on server-hardware under ESXi, which is great for production machines - but not so great for test machines, which shall be tested by different persons.

dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

I always turn off Telemetry.

I paid for V15 Pro and Shared VMs is not working there anymore (V15.5.5 or V15.5.6). Are you planning to fix it or we need to get our money back?

Error "Unable to Connect to MKS" after upgrade to VMware Workstation 15.5.5

Using Shared VMs will make lots of small development teams away from VMWare, because they will re-examine whole solution and since VMWare didn't fix the problem, they might think if VMWare is a good company to use, since you are removing features and not fixing problems.

Most of the features of V16 can be found in other Free virtualization tools, so nothing is keeping us with VMWare.

-- Dejan
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mfelker
Expert
Expert

That's exactly what I did.   Will be installing 15.5.6 with Workstation Server on the newest Windows insider build.   Did not like the fact that VMware actually deactivated the Workstation 15 license I had.   Please let us know when you add back comparable technology.   You may have saved some money but you had to reduce the price of WS 16 so I guess the bean counters were working overtime, which probably cost you money as well.   As far as Linux is concerned I'm quite happy using QEMU/KVM virtualization on Fedora Rawhide with kernel 5.9 which you won't natively suplport for months if ever.

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ksc
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Besides of this question, the next question is, will the remote console function for ESXi hosts and vcenter servers be removed next?

The remote console to vSphere (ESXi / vCenter) has no plans for removal. It's very different functionality, and remote console to vSphere is much more widely used. In fact, we know a significant fraction of vSphere VMs began their life when a vSphere admin used Workstation to set up the VM on vSphere. Workstation's remote console is an important vSphere feature too!

As an alternative, consider running ESXi in a VM or dedicated hardware and using that instead of the shared VMs feature. Everything that Shared VMs can do is also possible with the free ESXi Hypervisor license.

The shared VMs functionality is very old (a remnant of GSX, which became Server 1.0/2.0), and predates the ability to run ESXi in a VM at all. The simple answer is ESXi technology has matured to the point where this last GSX remnant is obsolete.

I know many people, who turn  telemetry off or block it at the perimeter.

Indeed. But those of us who turn off telemetry, do so knowing it means giving up any votes for what features are actually used. Removing features is always painful :-/.

dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

As an alternative, consider running ESXi in a VM or dedicated hardware and using that instead of the shared VMs feature. Everything that Shared VMs can do is also possible with the free ESXi Hypervisor license.

Smiley Happy

So, VMWare should add ESXi style shared VMs to Workstation.

Instead of Virtualizing Virtualization...Linux Kernel->Workstation->ESXi

-- Dejan
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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

If this is a feature you need, we suggest not upgrading to v16.

BTW, when are you going to fix this feature on V15.5?

This is not working for months!

-- Dejan
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wv_sp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Completely agree with pwolf, I know that you always can setup an ESXi enviroment with vm's inside then connect to ESXi to manage that vm's, but in standard pc like mine is more fast when that vm's are running into vmware workstation pro as shared vm's.

I really think that supress shared vm's feature is not completely a good idea. Then I join to the idea to get the shared vm's feature back into vmware workstation pro again sooner than later. I really love this feature into lan networks, because for connection behind the internet I prefer to use vnc because it has better ciphered connection. But if shared vm's feature came back to vmware workstation pro and the developers did equal quality with ciphered connections like vnc get, then I always would use this featured also for connections behind the internet. The reason is very simple. This is because when you connect fom vmware workstation pro to a shared vm's into other vmware workstation pro, you always have the option that vnc hasn't, it is in the vmware workstation pro menu bar you have the option "View", then inside press "Exclusive mode", to exit from this option press "Ctlr + Alt". This is a wonderful feature that user wouldn't want lost never. 🙂

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wv_sp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Very Long Life To Shared Virtual Machines into VMWare Workstation Pro.

🙂

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