Recommendations for a VM system configuration

[rschindler]

All,

I have to assume there are a number of folks out there who are sales engineers like myself who use VM for proofs and demonstrations. I have an issue though that I'm looking for help on. I have a XP laptop that I normally run the VM's on and it works fine when I need to show a client our features. My problem is during the development time. I need more speed and more memory and the limitations on XP are killing me. Its just taking too long to do things.

Therefore, I was considering getting a box, putting 8GB on it, Linux and doing my development on that box. When I needed a VM image I would then just pull it over to my laptop. Here are the questions I have:

--Would there be any issues in moving a VM from Linux to Windows XP? I'm assuming not but want to make sure before I personnally invest.

--Anyone have any recommendations on what hardware to run? I read there are some differences between Intel, AMD...

--Is anyone else doing something similar that can provide any lessons learned?

TIA.

[Kevin_Gao]

Hi,

VM's are VM's...no difference what you're using to run them (VM player or workstation). Worst case scenario is you have to run VM Converter (free) on it first but it's hardly a show-stopper.

Processor is up to you. You're just running it on a single box without vmotion and etc so you don't have to worry about compatibility / etc. Just go for performance (heard the new Intel's are fast but pricey...AMD's always decent bang/buck too).

Since you're planning to put more than 8Gb of ram on your laptop...make sure your OS you select can address more than 4GB (so it should be 64bit OS most likely). Also I wouldn't recommend you running more than 3 VM's at a time due to I/O performance. Even if you have plenty of RAM and CPU power, the ultimate weakness of laptops is their slow hard drives. The I/O could take a beating if you're running intensive apps like Oracle VM.

Hope this helps you!

[rschindler]

Thanks for the response. I am actually going to get another box to load up with 8GB since my laptop needs to stay XP. I figured the 8GB box could run Linux - again to keep cost down - and then I would move any VM images I work on over to my laptop as needed for a client. I just wanted to make sure that moving the vm from a 64 bit environment to a 32 bit environment wouldn't cause any issues, which it doesn't sound like it will.

R.

[Kevin_Gao]

Aye you won't have any issues moving VM's between those 2 environments.

What product are you using anyways? Is it VM Player or VM Workstation or Server?

[rschindler]

I expect to use workstation. Although player is free I need some of the features of Workstation. I've also never used Server so as far as I know right now it doesn't make sense. It also becomes a cost issue. I want to do this on the cheap since its out of my pocket but I'm sick and tired of trying to work off of this xp laptop. The slow speeds are killing my productivity.