DamianInRochester
Lifetime Supporting Member
When I first began using virtual machines, it was the XP mode built into Windows 7. It was a pain to backup and was not as portable. You also did not have the benefit of all the higher level features like snap shots and such.
I eventually migrated to VMWare Workstation. I was delighted to find that I could migrate my Windows XP VM to that. My first experience with VMWare was nothing but positive outside of network config issues.
Alas, I found that hard way that when I got my new windows 8 machine that I could not transport my XP mode VM and run in it. So I took my lumps, bought new Windows licenses (this time Win 7) and started a few more new VMs. Things got ugly. Crashes, hangups, slow operation, etc became the norm. This on equipment always with fast CPU, fast SSDs, tons or RAM, etc.
Eventually I migrated to a new Windows 10 machine, and went to migrate my VMs to that. Lo and behold Workstation would not run my VMs on the new computer. Some arcane license issue again. So I once again had to recreate all of my VMs and purchase new licenses. This time I went with Win 10 licenses. Things seemed fine for a while eventually the VMs start blue screening. Then they started freezing. Sometimes they would even blue screen my entire computer.
So I ended up getting a new computer. Even better specs than before. I went to migrate the VMs over to this new machine and sure enough, there were issues. At least this time it would run the VM on the new machine, only now for some reason a third party piece of software used for Rockwell's activation would not work properly and thus none of my Rockwell software will run. There was a technote note on the supposed solution for it, but it did not work.
One of the biggest reasons I went down the virtualization path was for the supposed portability. To this point, it has completely failed me at every step. I have had it with VMWare and I am looking for something simpler and more robust.
Looking for suggestions on what the rest of you feel is the best option. I need something that will handle both Rockwell and Siemens installs and not cause me trouble. Something where when I decide to move the VM, I don't have to worry whether the software will either decide for itself whether I am allowed to run it or not, or somehow change something to screw up the applications running withing the VM simply from being moved from one machine to another.
I eventually migrated to VMWare Workstation. I was delighted to find that I could migrate my Windows XP VM to that. My first experience with VMWare was nothing but positive outside of network config issues.
Alas, I found that hard way that when I got my new windows 8 machine that I could not transport my XP mode VM and run in it. So I took my lumps, bought new Windows licenses (this time Win 7) and started a few more new VMs. Things got ugly. Crashes, hangups, slow operation, etc became the norm. This on equipment always with fast CPU, fast SSDs, tons or RAM, etc.
Eventually I migrated to a new Windows 10 machine, and went to migrate my VMs to that. Lo and behold Workstation would not run my VMs on the new computer. Some arcane license issue again. So I once again had to recreate all of my VMs and purchase new licenses. This time I went with Win 10 licenses. Things seemed fine for a while eventually the VMs start blue screening. Then they started freezing. Sometimes they would even blue screen my entire computer.
So I ended up getting a new computer. Even better specs than before. I went to migrate the VMs over to this new machine and sure enough, there were issues. At least this time it would run the VM on the new machine, only now for some reason a third party piece of software used for Rockwell's activation would not work properly and thus none of my Rockwell software will run. There was a technote note on the supposed solution for it, but it did not work.
One of the biggest reasons I went down the virtualization path was for the supposed portability. To this point, it has completely failed me at every step. I have had it with VMWare and I am looking for something simpler and more robust.
Looking for suggestions on what the rest of you feel is the best option. I need something that will handle both Rockwell and Siemens installs and not cause me trouble. Something where when I decide to move the VM, I don't have to worry whether the software will either decide for itself whether I am allowed to run it or not, or somehow change something to screw up the applications running withing the VM simply from being moved from one machine to another.