VMware and Parallels together

J

James Bond 007

Hunter
Can VMware Workstation and Parallels Workstation for Windows coexist on the same PC? Have anyone tried?

I have been using VMware Workstation 5.5.1 for some time. I am going to get an Intel MacBook later in the year. If Parallels can work in conjunction with VMware I may consider getting the Windows version of Parallels to prepare some VMs for use with my future MacBook (for which I shall get the Mac version of Parallels).

Can anyone confirm whether these 2 work peacefully together? Of course if Parallels can convert my VMware VMs then it is best but I am aware that such a functionality is not yet available in Parallels.

Pierce_Brosnan.jpg
 
I have done both

I personally have VMWare 4.5, Virtual PC for Windows 2004, and Parallels Workstation 2.1 installed. Parallels VMs are fully transportable between the version for windows and the version for Mac. I have run several VMs running 2 linux guests in VMWare RedHat 9.0 and Mandriva Linux 6.0, Windows XP, Windows NT running in VMWare, Windows 3.1 running in Parallels they see the windows shares of the other machines just fine. You can see a Mac share but It must be made a share in MacOS X for it to be seen on the network. The caveat to all this You need around 2 -4 GB of RAM to prevent slowdowns. I back my VM images on to either a CD for the small OS's like Windows 3.1 and a DVD for huge OS's like Windows XP. Those are baseline images with a plain jane install of windows or linux with no added applications installed.

Gerald
 
1 thing to watch out for....

is if VT support is in the underlying hardware and software. i have seen problems with coexistence of multiple applications that try to make use of the VT feature in the CPU.

e.g. VS2005R2SP1 has the ability to address VT-x if its present...when you run it on a system with VMWare server (which will use VT-x to support X64 GUESTS) you can get some lock up crashes

parallels is VT aware and recent versions of VMWare are as well. on hardware that supports the feature, each could try to utilize it and cause conflict. i havent tried running parallels and vmware server beta, or the workstation 5.5x versions which can utilize VT-x (in a limited manner), on the same VT capable system simultaneously, but i would expect similar problems to what i saw with VS2005R2SP1 and VMWare running simultaneosly

---
VT is a very new technology, and i have no idea if its even possible/advisable for two applications to try to "share" it under 1 OS. it wouldnt suprise me at all that since its so low level that two apps trying to access it will normally cause conflicts.


boogie
 
VT-x

On choosing which VM gets the VT-x resource, choose the most hardware intensive one and let the others remain software driven. Then the main limits would be your memory and the memory stack of the host OS.

Gerald
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top