Maximum number of VM Workstation is as follows:
1) Do you want the VMs to run as fast as possible. I do, so I set the VMs to run in memory. In addition, I disable memory trimming for the same reason. I especially do not want long delays when I switch between VMs.
2) For the same reason, and for security reasons, I am not using a page file. In addition, the computer I am using has 4GB ram, and PAE has had limited success, so I effectively get 3.5GB.
3) Most of the VMs now have 520MB ram allocated. 256MB is insufficient to run Win XP + firefox + Java. (Yup, we are not even talking about going to a web page; not my idea of progress). Likewise Office 2007 cannot run reliably in 256MB. I also turn off page files within the VMs. This is to control the size of snapshots and also prevent random long delays when switching applications.
So, given the above, how many VMs?
Well, a lot less than you would expect, 4 in this case.
Here is why;
First VM is split into 2 programs, one than provides all the menus for VM (vmware.exe) and one that runs the guest (vmware-vms.exe). Just providing the window and menus takes 124MB to 175MB. The actual guest then needs about 1.5 x the ram allocaed to the guest. I generally run each guest in a seperate session; again, partly for security, and party for ease of switching between applications:
520 MB guest requires 805 MB in the host
400 MB guest requires 673 MB in the hos
352 MB requires 515 MB
256 MB requires 405 MB
This suprised me, I was not expecting VM ware to allocate much more than the guest requires. I have to say I'm disapointed. Also, the excessive memory requirements of modern programs seems a step in the wrong direction.
