VMWare

Jim G.

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Join Date
Nov 2007
Location
Georgia
Posts
187
I am buying a new laptop for our department. We still have software running on an old IBM XP computer. If this computer crashes, we would be in a bad situation. My plan is to install a virtual XP environment on the new laptop and transfer the older software to this new computer. I have never used any virtual machine software before. From reading this forum, VMware appears to be a popular choice. My question is, what is involved in getting VMware for my new computer. I know there are free versions and version which have a licensing cost involved. What would be the best option for setting my computer up? I have budget for the license if needed. Thanks
 
I use VMWare Workstation, because it has the features I know I need (snapshots, Virtual network editing) and I'm familiar with setting it up.

There are two hard parts:

The first is doing a Physical-to-Virtual conversion of your old XP computer. I use VMWare's standalone converter utility to do this, and have about 50/50 success. Some of it depends on hard drive type, and some on network interface cards.

If you already have Windows XP installation media to create a VM from scratch, that's much easier. XP will install itself happily in the virtual computer that VMWare creates.

But the second problem is thorny; getting Windows XP to activate. Whether you do a P2V or a fresh installation, the OS knows it's on new hardware and requires activation.

Microsoft really did stop supporting Windows XP. You really can't buy new licenses for it anymore.

I got very lucky a few months ago and was able to reactivate a Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation on a virtual machine by calling in to the Microsoft auto-attendant activation line. It was painstaking (and I was doing it over a remote connection in the middle of a typhoon) but it worked.

Start by making a clone of your XP computer's hard drive using whatever hard drive imaging software you prefer (I use Acronis). Then with that safely stored away, work on your VM.

Other folks might prefer VirtualBox or other VM solutions, but I'm most comfortable with VMWare.
 
Thanks Ken for the information.
VMware workstation...free download or purchase license?

I have some Logix5 and Logix 500 to move. I say XP environment because that is what they are on now. Would they transfer to Windows 7 as well?
 
I am with Ken on VMWare Workstation. I am using Workstation 14 Pro, the paid version. If you are interested in doing a clean XP install, Windows 7 comes with a license for what they call XPMode, it activates itself with no troubles. It is an XP virtual machine provided by Windows. I have installed it, and have converted it to run on VMWare. the hard part about this was finding the correct version of VMWare Standalone Converter (Version 5). I run Logix 5, 500, and 5000 up to v 20 on the XP machine.

I ran for a while using the free version of VMWare, and had no problems with it. I upgraded it because I wanted the snapshot ability.

Don't let the idea of virtual machines intimidate you, there are plenty of forums full of users that have had the same troubles you will likely run into initially. It becomes much easier the more you do it. (y)
 
Thanks Ken for the information.
VMware workstation...free download or purchase license?

I have some Logix5 and Logix 500 to move. I say XP environment because that is what they are on now. Would they transfer to Windows 7 as well?

Workstation isn't free so you'll pay for that one. There used to be 'Player' that was "free", pending your definition of commercial use. Definitely move to Windows 7.
 
I use workstation player. It's easy and painless. If you're using it commersially, you should pay for the license.

If your host runs windows 7, MS relased xp mode for download and legally to use win xp without buying any license (which isn't possible anyway). Sadly that's not the case with win 10, no xp mode for free.
 
ive just setup VMware workstation pro 14 on my new p71 and its been my first dealing with setting up a VM and its not too bad. As Ken said i just setup some virtual networks and i was online with an ML1400 in no time at all. I just need to get an m.2 ssd in there now because the HDD's i ordered with the machine are painfully slow setup in raid 1
 
ive just setup VMware workstation pro 14 on my new p71 and its been my first dealing with setting up a VM and its not too bad. As Ken said i just setup some virtual networks and i was online with an ML1400 in no time at all. I just need to get an m.2 ssd in there now because the HDD's i ordered with the machine are painfully slow setup in raid 1

+1 for SSD (spinning rust is painfully slow) and install 16GB ram (or more) so your host and VM can each have enough. Make sure that you buy the biggest SSD you fit in to run your VM from. Use an external disk for backups of your VMs

Nick
 
...
I have some Logix5 and Logix 500 to move. I say XP environment because that is what they are on now. Would they transfer to Windows 7 as well?

I'm not sure about Logix5, but RSLogix 500 works fine in Windows 7.
Have you gone to the RSLogix compatibility page?
I think it depends on your version whether it works or not.

I'm sure that there are really good reasons to do VMware, but if you are just tweaking existing systems with Allen Bradley software you may not need it?
 
I'm not sure about Logix5, but RSLogix 500 works fine in Windows 7.
Have you gone to the RSLogix compatibility page?
I think it depends on your version whether it works or not.

I'm sure that there are really good reasons to do VMware, but if you are just tweaking existing systems with Allen Bradley software you may not need it?

RSLogix 5 runs perfectly on Windows 7, assuming you have the hardware to support communications.
 
So far, the only software that I have had issues with running on Windows 7 is Panelbuilder32. It will run under Windows 7, but it won't use the newest version of RSLinx that installed with Studio5000 V31. When i called tech support about it, their only response was "Panelbuilder32 is not supported on Windows 7" so i just made a WindowsXP virtual machine for that software.


I don't use any version of RSlogix5000 under V17 though.
 

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