The hardware for the Host system consists of an Intel Xeon Quad Core CPU x3360 @ 2.83GHz, 1TB HDD, and 8GB of memory, of which I anticipate to upgrade to 16GB very soon.
The operating system for the Host system is Windows Vista Business Edition 64bit
I am running VMWare Workstation 6.0.4 (build-93057) with the intention of building a lab environment consisting of thirty VM Guests. If it is of interest, the VM's are not doing anything other than being started, then sitting in a running state. The VM's consist of Windows 2000, XP, 2003, as well as Redhat Linux 9 and RHEL4, all of which are 32bit.
In regards to starting up the VM Guests, I have discovered that I am unable to start the 25th instance. In other words, as soon as the 24th VM Guest is started, any attempt to start a 25th will be met with the following pop-up (verbatim):
"Cannot power on virtual machine: Too many virtual machines."
Note when I run Perfmon on the Host it reflects 50-51% Used Physical Memory, so it certainly isn't a memory issue and I know it's not a lack of HDD space issue either.
My goal is to start all thirty VM Guests. Why am I unable to start more than twenty-four VM Guests
I am aware of the availability of VMWare Workstation 6.5.2 (build-156735), but before I embark upon downloading, installing and upgrading all of the VM Guests, only to discover the issue remains the same in 6.5.2, I thought it prudent to ask if VMWare Workstation limited to twenty-four VM Guests?
It's a limitation of the underlying Windows Host OS, Not the particular version of Workstation. I read that Linux hosts have a max. of 64 VMs.
Both of these are due to particular host resources - at least on Windows hosts, each VM takes up 2 of the resources (I forget exactly what they are, but there are only so many of them to go around).
An afterthought in case anyone should ask of the Memory related preferences...
The VMWare preferences reflects a maximum of 7369MB available for use, of which I have allowed.
For "Additional Memory", it is configured to "Allow some virtual machine memory to be swapped", though I suspect I can set this to "Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM"
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Wow! Thank you for the prompt reply! If this is true and not that I have any current reason to doubt you, but I would be inclined to think this would be noted in VMWare documentation, i.e. using Windows as the Host o/s limits you to 24 VM's and Linux to 64... Do you know if this holds true to all VMWare products on Windows? I guess it would, but I thought it would be wise to ask.
crazy suggestion to workaround that limit ...
put 10 of your VMs into a directory that you share via network.
Then create use a XP-VM which has installed VMware Workstation a second time. With this VM you can then run VM 24, 25,26 and so on from the network-share.
Of course this will not perform very well - but you said your VMs are quite lazy anyway.
By the way - this is of course crazy and nuts - but possible if you have a box with VT-capable CPU
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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay
Thank you for the article...
Of this information I was aware. Hence the reason why I had the Host system built with high-end components, figuring I would not have any issue running the number of VM's I was expecting.
From the other poster who replied, I am quite curious to understand what about the use of Windows on the Host is preventing any additional VM Guests from running?
"Then create use a XP-VM which has installed VMware Workstation a second time"
That's a thought, but I believe and correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't VMWare detect and prevent itself from being installed within a VM Guest? And even if it were possible, I suspect it require me to have to buy another license for VMWare, which after buying six already, I am not looking forward to increasing it to twelve...
Yes - you need special parameters to cheat the "am I inside a VM" check at startup.
You do not need a license for the second Workstation - just run the VMs in vmplayer if you like.
For the VM you need this special paramneters for WS 6.0.4
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"
monitor_control.vt32 = "true"
Personally I use this very often - the nested VMs are slow - but it is sufficient for tests
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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay
Hello. Please see the following page for information on running nested VM's. As far as licences you could always download a trial version to test your setup. If you already have 6 licences this solution would only require 2. Good luck to you.
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970
Cheers
Kevin
hi to all!
i have the same trouble:
i have to run 75-80 VMs, but i can run only 64 VMs and when 65 VM is run, workstation and vmplayer say next "Cannot power on virtual machine: Too many virtual machines".
if to use vmrun it says "error: unable to power on all virtual machines in the team. Ensure that the physical and software resources on this machine can support this many powered on virtual machines".
but i have enough physical resources (5gb from 24gb is free).
host OS is windows 7. WS 8.0.2
how do run more VMs?it is real?