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dkelloway
Contributor
Contributor

Is VMWare Workstation 6.0.4 (build-93057) limited to running 24 VM Guests at a time?

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?

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

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).

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dkelloway
Contributor
Contributor

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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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--This article may be helpful:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=80&sliceId...

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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dkelloway
Contributor
Contributor

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.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

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

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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dkelloway
Contributor
Contributor

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?

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dkelloway
Contributor
Contributor

"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...

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

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

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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K-MaC
Expert
Expert

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

Cheers Kevin
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T3RAN
Contributor
Contributor

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?

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