VM question

[The_Ogre]

I have windows 7 32-bit installed. My PC has 4 gigs of RAM, taking into account the memory limit for a 32-bit OS, if I add another 4 gigs just for VM's will the VM's be using that?

I suspect the answer is no, but I'm just checking for my sanity.

 

[HavocXphere]

no

 

[unskinnybob]

no

^ This ^

 

[Pada]

VM's will also run faster if the host OS is 64-bit and most importantly, Hardware Virtualization should be enabled in the BIOS (called Intel VT if you have an Intel PC).

Unfortunately you can't simply upgrade from Win7 32-bit to Win7 64-bit, so you'll have to format and reinstall.

 

[DanH]

Format and install x64 Win7, then you can use the extra memory. This is fine for running a VM you open, use and close again, such as a linux/winXP VM.

If you want to use your PC while you have VMs running services in the background rather look for a cheapo server/hp N40L/pc on gumtree, carbonite, etc depending on the hardware requirements of your VMs. Then install ESXi/XEN on it and run it headless. You can then access your VMs from any PC on the same network.

 

[Pada]

DON'T get an HP Microserver to run VM's! The HP Microserver is terribly slow!

 

[yeti]

DON'T get an HP Microserver to run VM's! The HP Microserver is terribly slow!

I run several headless VMs 24/7 - so it really depends on the workload and use cases your expecting to use the VMs for.

 

[ponder]

Can't you enable PAE in Win7 32-bit?

Another option, http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html?lang=EN

 

[abandonallhope]

I run several headless VMs 24/7 - so it really depends on the workload and use cases your expecting to use the VMs for.

What spec are your HP microservers then ?

 

[Pada]

yeti:
I'm also running a VM on my N36L with 8GB of RAM, which works great since it is a low-demand MikroTik RouterOS.

The HP Microservers are low power consumption CPU's, so they're not powerful at all. They're still useful if you just want to run multiple applications and things that aren't CPU resource intensive.

 

[yeti]

What spec are your HP microservers then ?

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html?dnr=1

yeti:
I'm also running a VM on my N36L with 8GB of RAM, which works great since it is a low-demand MikroTik RouterOS.

The HP Microservers are low power consumption CPU's, so they're not powerful at all. They're still useful if you just want to run multiple applications and things that aren't CPU resource intensive.

Well this in essence was my point, I too run non-CPU intensive VMs (tFTP/PXE, NAS & a download server (service?)) off one box. If only it had hardware passthrough