Post your VM Host/Guest setup specs here!

JZerb

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Join Date
Oct 2016
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there has been alot of talk recently ive seen about Virtual Machines on here so i figured it would be nice to have a thread that people can post up there Host and Guest machine setups that way others can benefit from those who have been using these much longer and may have some good insight on certain settings.

Host Machine
Lenovo P71
Windows 10
I7-7700HQ
16gb RAM
500gb HDD x2 RAID 1
500gb m.2 SSD

Guest Machine (installed on the 500gb SSD)
Windows 7 Pro x64
Number of porcessors 1
Number of cores 4
6gb RAM
250gb

performance is OK, but coming from a much older Thinkpad W520 with an mSata ssd for the main drive certain things seem much slower on this VM setup. For example first opening FTVS and then creating an .MER seem pretty sluggish in comparison to my much older machine.
 
VM convert

Hated VMs with a passion until I got my new laptop, now I think they are useful.

Host Machine:
Dell Precision 7520
Windows 10 Pro (not a fan of any windows after 7)
Intel Core i7 7820HQ CPU @ 2.9GHz
32GB RAM
64bit system
500GB SSD
1TB HDD

Guest Machine:
varies, I have one for Rockwell one for Siemens at a minimum.
IT will make up a fresh VM with all the software and files loaded for some of the bigger jobs.

we use VMware Workstation.

for anyone considering using a VM I recommend buying the BEST computer you can and having a SSD is basically a requirement. otherwise it will run slow. keep your VM on the SSD.

sometimes I have issues with the network adapter when trying to do BootP or Wireshark but other than that the VM is easy and it keeps everything segregated.

if you do work with more than one system it will be valuable. you can keep a VM for just one job and everything will be on it. no interference between programs.
 
Host Machine (Work Laptop):
Dell Precision 3520
Windows 10 Pro - I like it!
Intel Core i7 7820HQ CPU @ 2.9GHz
32GB RAM
64bit system
1TB SDD

Guest Machines
- Primarily Rockwell on Windows 7


My Homelab VM Server (picked up off craigslist for cheap!)
Dell R720
Dual E5-2690 CPUs @ 2.9GHz 32 logical processing cores!!
192GB Ram (I've got another 192GB laying around...)
6 - 300GB SSDs
6 - 300GB 15K SAS drives
4- Empty drive bays that will soon house a couple more SSDs and SAS drives when I take my previous R710 offline.
Running VMWare ESXi v6.5

Guest Machines
- Pretty much spin up whatever I may need!
- Always On: PLEX, Windows Ignition Server, Various Linux Ignition Servers, SQL Server, My SQL Server, Softlogix.
- Lying in wait: Wonderware, and various older projects that I might reference but don't need taking up space on my laptop.
 
Dell Inspiron 7559
i7-6700HQ quad core 2.6 ghz processor
512 m.12 SSD for OS
1TB SSD for storage/VM hosts
Nvidia 660m grapics
16GB DDR3 ram

Host machines: 6-8GB ram depending
Quad core CPU
Up to 120GB dynamic disk space (saves space, and once you have used them for a while you are good)

Machine is great and battery will last all day under normal workload, and 5-7 hours under of a heavy workload. Charges completely in about 2 hours. With the storage and RAM upgrade, I spent about $1400 total two years ago and its still going strong.
 
i just started using VMware once i got my new laptop which wasnt downgradable to Windows 7. i like the idea of having a backup of the entire machine on a separate hard drive in case i screw up the machine im using. the vm, although its all located on my ssd, is still a bit sluggish though with only Rockwell software installed on it. so im going to get some more RAM and also swap out the main HDD's for SSD's
 
My host is an Asus:
- Republic of Gamers G750
- 24G ram upgraded to 32G
- Dual 512G solid state drives for 1Tb total.
- 1.5G spinning drive.
- VMWare Workstation 12.5


I have VM's for:
- DOS 6.1
- Windows 3.11
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows 10
- Server NT 4.0

- Server 2005
- Server 2008
- Server 2012
- Server 2016
- Linux Server


I would like to create a Windows CE machine but I cant seem to find an image anywhere.



All VM's are linked via a virtual network so they can communicate.



I have successfully run 10 VM's at once on 3 screens. Laptop screen, VGA port screen and HDMI port screen.


FYI Battery only lasts about an hour and it weighs 10.5 lbs not including the power supply which is another 6 lbs. But it is built very tough. If you pick it up by the sides you can't flex it. The last Dell I had bent the front frame from it just sitting in computer bag.
 
does everyone keep a VM specifically JUST for Rockwell Software? I mean not even have Microsoft Office or any say Adobe programs on that specific VM, just create another VM for anything not Rockwell.
 
I have VM's for:

- DOS 6.1
- Windows 3.11
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows 10
- Server NT 4.0
- Server 2005
- Server 2008
- Server 2012
- Server 2016
- Linux Server

Wow... priceless
 
I don't "officially" write software any more but I have a Dell i5 with 16GB Ram and a 512GB SSD as a host machine. This isn't an ideal spec but at least it is usable with the SSD.

I keep one VM on the SSD at a time and use a USB3 external disk as backup.

Siemens and Rockwell (and others) are on separate VM's so they can't interfere with each other.

Most of my VM's are Window 7 but I do have an old NT one that is used for Siemens S5 work.

Nick
 
My host is an Asus:
- Republic of Gamers G750
- 24G ram upgraded to 32G
- Dual 512G solid state drives for 1Tb total.
- 1.5G spinning drive.
- VMWare Workstation 12.5


I have VM's for:
- DOS 6.1
- Windows 3.11
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows 10
- Server NT 4.0

- Server 2005
- Server 2008
- Server 2012
- Server 2016
- Linux Server

I would like to create a Windows CE machine but I cant seem to find an image anywhere.

All VM's are linked via a virtual network so they can communicate.
.


Wow!
 
Ours is centralised in the IT rack but usually have a few local on my desktop in VMWare Workstation just for basic testing:

Dell R720
VMWare ESXi (which integrates perfectly with VMWare Workstation)
2 x Intel Xeon
12 CPU Cores
24 Logical processors
164 GB RAM
4TB of storage in RAID10
8 x NIC
15 VM's of various production and development machines but that can go up to to 20+ depending on what we are doing
 
Incidentally,

Does anyone know how to set up the networking in VMWare so that Simatic Shell sees a VPN connected remote network as local? Trying to figure out a way of updating WinCC SCADA screens over an e Won. It may save me a trip to California.

Nick
 
Incidentally,

Does anyone know how to set up the networking in VMWare so that Simatic Shell sees a VPN connected remote network as local? Trying to figure out a way of updating WinCC SCADA screens over an e Won. It may save me a trip to California.

Nick

I would VPN from your host machine. Then on the VM set the networking to "NAT", which should share the VPN network from the host to the VM.
 
does everyone keep a VM specifically JUST for Rockwell Software? I mean not even have Microsoft Office or any say Adobe programs on that specific VM, just create another VM for anything not Rockwell.


I generally keep the latest Studio 500 version on my host just for convenience since I'm always on it, and doing things with Excel to read/write data and generate files for projects.

I'll use a Rockwell VM that has all older versions of Studio/Logix as well as RSLogix5, 500 and Networx and such. But I'll keep excel and adobe reader on the VM as well.
 
I generally keep the latest Studio 500 version on my host just for convenience since I'm always on it, and doing things with Excel to read/write data and generate files for projects.

I'll use a Rockwell VM that has all older versions of Studio/Logix as well as RSLogix5, 500 and Networx and such. But I'll keep excel and adobe reader on the VM as well.

good to know. i put Adobe reader on my guest machines and so far so good. im skeptical to add Autocad Electrical and my Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator programs to the same VM with the Rockwell stuffs though.
 

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