Multiple VMs

J

Joe Bloggs

Member
Apologies if I've missed something obvious, but I can't see how I can create / run additional VMs once one is already up and running.

Any ideas ?
 
Joe Bloggs said:
Apologies if I've missed something obvious, but I can't see how I can create / run additional VMs once one is already up and running.

Any ideas ?
Click to expand...
You can't. You have to stop the currently running VM first. Then click New VM.
 
Incorrect -- You can run multiple VMs at the same time. Just choose "New Window" from the "File" menu after opening the first VM, and you can create and run 2, 3 or more at once (subject to available RAM of course)
 
Hi joem,

xochi got there before me ..... I just discovered "New Window" ... couldn't they pick a better name ? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the prompt reply anyway !
 
Yeah, it's very non-obvious how to do this. I really miss the "VPC List" window that virutal PC had which showed all your VMs and let you start/stop/configure them from a single window. Parallels should add this.

FYI -- I've noticed that sometimes the "New Window" command is greyed out if your VM is in certain states (such as pausing). This means you can't shut down one VM and start another simultaneously. Poor UI design.
 
I drop each of my actual VM files (the .pvs files in the ~/Library/Parallels/ VM folders) onto the documents area of the dock. This creates an icon with a useful name that you can click to launch that VM. Unfortunately you can't tell which of these is running, and if you click one that's already running it seems to upset Parallels.

There *ought* to be a list of available VMs in the Parallels menu system indicating which are running, and the list VMs should be included in a single Parallels icon menu in the Dock's Applications area. Parallels should not create a separate anonymous icon in the Dock's Applications area for every running VM.
 
Also, is it just me, or do you find starting additional machines is a bit slow ? (RAM is not an issue for me).

The other thing that I find a pain is that you Parallels doen't handle usage of the CD-ROM well, you have to disconnect it from one "machine" in order to use it in another.
 
Joe Bloggs said:
The other thing that I find a pain is that you Parallels doen't handle usage of the CD-ROM well, you have to disconnect it from one "machine" in order to use it in another.
Click to expand...

Hey Joe, if you have a CD-ROM that you would like accessible by multiple VM's at the same time, there are two possible things you can do.

First, if access speed is not crucial, you can mount the disk on one VM and make it a network share that can then be accessed by all of the other VM's (and the host). I have actually found this works a little faster than mounting the CD on the Mac and sharing it out to multiple VM's from the MAc side, but I have no idea why this would be (it actually seems backwards, and probably results from faulty testing methods on my part)

Second, you could make a read-only image of the CD which would sit somewhere on your hard drive, and then you should be able to connect that image to multiple VM's letting them access it at the same time. I haven't actually tried this myself, because for my purposes the first method has worked fine (read-speed was not an issue), but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Also, I have found that my VM's start up much slower if another VM is already running than they would if there was no other VM running, if that's whay you were asking about in your last post. I just figured that was the price of doing business, I never even tried messing with the RAM settings, but then again, I only very occasionally run multiple VM's at once. If you discover some good tips for running multiple VM's simultaneously, definitely share with the group :)
 
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