New laptop

Hundikoer

Member
Join Date
Jul 2003
Location
Tallinn
Posts
271
Dear All,

After being several years rather distant from industrial automation, I am lucky to establish this activity area in our company.
Mostly plan to use RA (500, 500 and RSView ME) but likely need to install Siemens TIA as well. We have the licences already and occasionally it could be needed.

Tried to search from the foorum but no success, so maybe you could direct me with that:
Is there a need for VMWare (I have noticed some recomendations earlier but have limited understnding whta it is and why) and how RA and Siemens could be installed in the same laptop (with Win7)?

Many thanks
Lauri
 
Hello Lauri,

I have all of them running on the same laptop and do not use VMWare and do not have any issues... I have a LOT of customers that do and are very happy with using VMWare, I think you will be fine either way

I did make a back up copy of the hard drive after I got everything loaded, if I have any major issues I can reload the hard drive, I am also on a network and all of my doc's are save to the network, if you are not on a network you can get a external hard drive and do the same and you can keep the back up of the hard drive there as well

Enjoy your new PC!
 
I use VMware for everything. Not to discount the post above (I'd love to knwo how you did it!), but I've had endless trouble with one OEM's software fighting another OEM's software for ports or resources, or needing Windows to be configured one way for one package, and another way for the next. So now I have a macbook and run VMWare, and have a different VM for every OEM (I'm up to 11, although 3 of them are for Rockwell - WIndows 7, XP SP3 and XP SP2). The added bonus is that once you install the software for each VM, you can take a snapshot, so if you ever have software issues, you can do a "clean install" in 5 minutes by rolling back to the snapshot just after it was installed. For the sake of $130 spent on VMWare and a couple of copies of Windows, it's been money well spent.
 
Hundikoer said:
...I have noticed some recomendations earlier but have limited understnding whta it is and why...

Virtualization will give you the ability to install and run one or more virtual Operating Systems (OS) separate to the Host OS (Win 7), such as Win XP. In the virtual OS you can install and run software that is either not supported in the Host OS, or is required at a different version. It's also useful for segregating software incompatibilities under the Host OS, or keeping customer configurations as standalone setups. You just load the virtual session for that customer when on-site and all is configured for their setup.

While you need a licensed copy of the virtual OS, Win XP tends to be the most widely used with VMWare. Since XP has "gone out to pasture", I've found it much easier to re-activate old XP licenses from redundant PCs over the phone with Microsoft. I just tell them it's for a VM and they let it slide.

Hundikoer said:
...Mostly plan to use RA (500, 500 and RSView ME) but likely need to install Siemens TIA as well...

Whether you'll need virtualization or not will depend a lot on which versions of the above software, and others, you intend to use. If installing all the latest versions, then there is a "good chance" you will be ok under Windows 7 as they will be supported. However, if your company needs to support legacy equipment, then as you go back in software versions, support under Win 7 will taper off back towards XP, and even Service Packs within XP. Some software definitely will not work under Win 7. Then there are certain issues within Win 7, such as 32-bit v 64-bit OS.

So, without knowing what versions you require, it would be hard to predict whether you'll end up needing VMWare or not?

It's a pidgeon shoot really. You can be lucky, or plagued!

Regards,
George
 
Many thanks to all sharing their experiences and comments.
I'd (try to) avoid XP, make a image before starting each installation and will use VMware only if face annoying issues (not necessarily "features"...).

Once more - Many thanks!

Regards,
Lauri
 

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