New PLC Workstation VMware Help!

[Jmeadows7676]

I'm currently trying to setup a VMWare Workstation VM for Rockwell PLC's
I would like to have RSLogix 5 v10, RSLogix 500 v12, RSLogix 5000 v16.05/20.05, Studio 5000 v30.02/32.02 and AssetCentre tied to our Network Directory Server/AssetCentre Server.

With the Software listed above the results have less than appealing. RSLogix 5000 v20 load time is about 3 minutes with the FTAdmin console looking at the Network directory and 1 minute when setup as local directory. Maybe I'm expecting too much??? It feels sluggish and seems to have lag while moving around in any of the Logix programs. Also, all the Rockwell programs take a while to open. The RSLogix 5000 was the only one I timed. I also have tried different core count and ram settings with little to no change.

Here is my current Host Machine Specs:
-Dell Precision M7750
-Windows 10 PRO
-I9-10885H 8 core CPU
-64g ram@2933Mhz
-Quadro RTX 4000 s/8g ram
-3840x2160 display
-(1) NVME Class 50 m.2 1tb Drive for Host OS and Files
-(1) NVME Samsung evo 970 m.2 Pro 1tb for VMs


My Rockwell VM is a Win 10 x64 fully updated
- 1 socket 4 core (I guessed at this. Didn’t really know what to set it to but I have tried different core counts. Didn’t seem to help)
- 8g of ram
- 120g Single file virtual Hard drive
- 2 network adaptors 1 set to HOST for license Manager and the other Bridged.

I have defragged the Virtual Hard drive and set windows for performance thinking that would help.

Does anyone that runs VMWare Workstation see a problem with what I have or what I'm wanting to do? Should i expect the same performance from a vm that I get from a physical machine?

 

[Ken Moore]

I would set it up for 4 sockets of 1 core.
RSLogix 5000 and Studio 5000 load slowly on my machine running native.

 

[MikeyN]

I am running a similar setup in Workstation 14 pro, though my host is not as beefy as yours.

Host: Dell Precision 3620
Intel Core i7-6700 (4 core)
32 GB Ram
nVidia Video Card, but I can't remember the version.
old display, 1GB SSD and 8 TB HDD 7200 RPM.

Windows 10 Guest:
8 GB memory
1 processor, 2 cores per processor - 2 total processors
100 GB Hard drive (multiple files)
Bridged Network Adapter
NAT Network adapter

Check your display tab, I have "Use host setting for monitors" (default) selected. The smoking gun for me was making sure that "Accelerate 3D Graphics" was not selected. I don't remember where on the VM Ware forums I read that, but it provided a huge boost in performance for me. YMMV.

 

[JordanCClark]

If it wasn't for Automation software, I'd have ditched Windows years ago.

Host:
Dell G7 7588
POP-OS (Ubuntu derivative) w/ Gnome desktop
Intel I7-8750H 12-core
32Gb RAM
1TB NVME
1TB SSD
NVidia GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile

Win10 Guest (KVM Hypervisor)
4 Sockets, 1 core
16Gb RAM
250Gb Storage (On NVME)
USB Wireless adapter (dedicated to the VM. It's a nano dongle, so it's unobtrusive)

Obervations:
Upon boot, loading an RSLogix program was pretty close to 3 minutes. Keep in mind that, even though you can log in, it doesn't mean that everything has finished running through the startup process. After going to my otherwise unproductive meetings, The same program loaded in 30-ish seconds.

Advice-- for what it's worth:
8Gb is the minimum recommended RAM for later versions of RSLogix/Studio 5000. Consider keeping the guest at 16Gb.

Don't forget to try unchecking the three IE settings shown in this thread:

EDIT: As I was writing this, I realized I had forgotten to do that on my own VM, and the load times went to 30sec and 20sec, respectively. YMMV

It's been a while since I've used VMWare Workstation, but KVM has an option to start a VM on host boot up. Something like that may help your overall startup time on the VM. Personally, I'm usually doing things like checking emails and the forums before real work begins.

 

[VAN]

My Rockwell VM is a Win 10 x64 fully updated
- 1 socket 4 core (I guessed at this. Didn’t really know what to set it to but I have tried different core counts. Didn’t seem to help)
- 8g of ram
- 120g Single file virtual Hard drive
- 2 network adaptors 1 set to HOST for license Manager and the other Bridged.

Open task manager, go to performance tab and click on CPU.

It'll show you sockets, cores and logical processors.

For example
1 socket, 4 cores, 8 logical processors. I prefer to use 2 cores and say each core has 2 processors.

edit - are your vms on a SSD? Is the host on a SSD? The programs booting up slow is usually an issue with the license or the license server not seeing the license. (at least for me that has always been the bottleneck)

 

[Jmeadows7676]

Open task manager, go to performance tab and click on CPU.

It'll show you sockets, cores and logical processors.

For example
1 socket, 4 cores, 8 logical processors. I prefer to use 2 cores and say each core has 2 processors.

edit - are your vms on a SSD? Is the host on a SSD? The programs booting up slow is usually an issue with the license or the license server not seeing the license. (at least for me that has always been the bottleneck)

Yea, they are on M.2 SSD's. I have one for Host OS and Files and a separate M.2 for VM virtual drives.

You are recommending 2 sockets with 2 cores?
I will try

 

[VAN]

Yea, they are on M.2 SSD's. I have one for Host OS and Files and a separate M.2 for VM virtual drives.

You are recommending 2 sockets with 2 cores?
I will try

Um, that is a normal option for me but you need to see what your hardware has.