OT: What do run your VM on?

Bob O

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May 2003
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I'm accumulating multiple VM and space on my host is always an issue. What do you run your VM on? Host only or are you running them from and external device?


Thanks,
Bob O.
 
I keep my less frequently used VMs on a USB3.0 external hard drive. Open them directly from there. Seems fine.

I keep my main programming VM on my laptops SSD just for convenience. I only have space for one though, thanks to lovely IT department who think everything should live in a cloud these days and no one needs more than 1.44MB of free space...
 
Since I am my own IT department all of my desktops have a 1Terra primary hard drive, and either a 1 or 2 Terra second hard drive. My primary laptop has a 750GIG hard drive and I carry a USB 2 Terra.

The last shop I worked in the IT guru there thought 80GIG's was plenty and never bought any drive larger. I had my USB 2 Terra there also.

I do keep a copy of my running VM's on the USB hard drive so if there is a problem in it I just copy the archive back, instant System Restore.
 
I use VirtualBox to run sometimes an old Siemens Simatic software on a virtual XP, the rest of programming tools i use run on win 10 without major problems except an Android emulator i use for development that also runs on VirtualBox.
 
I use VMware work station on a Asus gaming laptop with 24G ram, 1 Tb of solid state drive with most of my main machines on it. Then it has a 1.5Tb spinning drive for everything else. I backup everything on a Toshiba USB 3.0 3Tb external drive.


Forgot to mention the Asus has fast boot technology, I press power on and 6 seconds later I am logging in. Then 2 seconds to get desktop, launch VMWare and un-pause machine and 8 seconds later I have my main Windows 7 32 bit machine up and running. On the flip side my partner has a Dell Inspiron that takes 10 minutes to get to a login screen, then another 15 minutes to get a usable desktop.
 
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All of our programming laptops have a 250GB SSD for OS/System and a 500GB SSD for virtual machines.

Any less frequently used VMs are copied to an external USB HDD and copied back to the SSD when needed.

I wouldn't run anything off an external HDD, the performance is much slower and once you've gone SSD you can never go back.

SSDs are so cheap now and nearly all laptops can take a 2nd drive, pick up a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB for $130 USD and chuck it in yourself. Hell you can get a 1TB version for $240. What is your time worth? It will pay for itself in a short time compared to waiting for your VM's to load all the time running them off an external HDD.
 
I use a macbook pro with a 1TB SSD. Expensive? Yes. Worth the cost? 100%.
I too have a Mac Book Pro. Mine is a couple of years old. I do not like the new Mac Book Pros because they don't have USB and HDMI ports. I think I got the last of the good ones.

What I really like is the aluminum case and battery life. I don't bother to take the power supply with me when I got to trade shows or to see customers. The Mac book Pro will run all day and still have about 50% battery left.

My MBP is a I5 with a 13 inch screen. I know I could get more but the battery life would suffer. I have also heard the newer MBP suffer from overheating and slow down.

I don't think I will be buying another MBP. I like the one I have but not the new ones.
 
Dell Precision M6800 with 24GB and 1TB SSD primary drive with another 2TB SSD as second drive. All my VMs are on the second drive.
I also use "Acronis True Image" for daily incremental backups and full backup once a week to the second drive.
I also have 4TB USB drive for backups and copies of installation software...... plus about 500GB+ in the cloud that i use as a mailbox and library.
 
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All,
Thanks for the replies!
I have a Dell Precision M4800 with a 500G HD. After Goggling, it appears the computer doesn’t support a 2nd internal HD so it looks like I’ll be moving my VMs from my external USB storage device to the host as needed.


I would ask for a new computer but our IT person has refused to provide a base image/Disk to create VMs for the last couple of years because they don’t understand the need even after multiple staff members have explained it to them.


Oh well, Happy 4th!

Thanks,
Bob O.
 
All,
I would ask for a new computer but our IT person has refused to provide a base image/Disk to create VMs for the last couple of years because they don’t understand the need even after multiple staff members have explained it to them.


Just load up all your programming software onto your host, then submit all sorts of tickets to IT because you have problems ;)
 
I have a HP Z-book with 1 TB SSD and 32 GB RAM. All my software runs in a VM.
I run legacy software in VMs on an external USB3 harddrive. Runs slower than the internal SSD, but is OK for the occasional use.
 
I would ask for a new computer but our IT person has refused to provide a base image/Disk to create VMs for the last couple of years because they don’t understand the need even after multiple staff members have explained it to them.

I remember seeing a Rockwell technician starting up VMware and having at least 4 VM's and I commented on how lucky he is that IT lets him have that capability...

He commented that it was indeed nice, but it took a few invoices not being paid by the customers because the technicians arrived without the software (mainly legacy or the right revision of IE or Java) needed to carry out the task for someone to reign in on IT and let them know their place.
 
My major upset is about VM is windows licensing..why should I have to buy a Windows license for every VM I make???
I do not understand why I cannot use my desktop license for the VM.
I can sort of understand if the VM is being moved to other pcs, but I only run them on my pc.
 

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