VMWare Workstation runs painfully slow

[Arkitech]

I recently installed VMWare workstation and attempted to install Centos on a VM. Basically everything on my system starting lagging and freezing, the host as well as the vm were terribly slow. I'm not really experienced with VMWare so I'm assuming I just need to learn how to fine tune it for better performance.

Here are my host system specs:

q6600 (stock speed 2.4ghz)
2 gb mem

Any advice on how to improve performance? Are there any problems running VMware workstation on Vista? Should I look into other virtual machine software packages for better performance?

Thanks for any tips

 

[her209]

Have you enabled Virtualization Support in the BIOS?

I'm able to run VMWare Server 1.0 with concurrent VMs running on the following system without any lagging or freezing

Dell Optiplex 755
E6750
8GB RAM
Windows XP x64
80GB SATA drive

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I have run it under XP and Server 2003 and have not experienced any slow-down issues (unless I run a lot of VMs) but I've never created a Centos VM.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: her209
Have you enabled Virtualization Support in the BIOS?

I'm able to run VMWare Server 1.0 with concurrent VMs running on the following system without any lagging or freezing

Dell Optiplex 755
E6750
8GB RAM
Windows XP x64
80GB SATA drive

Is that in the host machine bios or would that be in the VM bios?

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
I have run it under XP and Server 2003 and have not experienced any slow-down issues (unless I run a lot of VMs) but I've never created a Centos VM.

hmm, so it sounds like the problem is likely a config issue on my system.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

Yes, also another thing to be concerned about is your RAM. More than anything else, VMs use a lot of RAM. I would upgrade to at least 4GB if you only run 1-2 small VMs at a time. If you want to run more then I would go up to 8GB.

 

[JackBurton]

First off, you only have 2GB of memory. Allocate a maximum of 1 GB to the VM machine. Anything more and your host machine is most likely going to take a beating. If you can install 4GB on your machine, you'd be better off. That way you can allocate 1-2GB of memory to your VM and your host can make do with the rest.

Secondly, make sure you install VMWare Tools on your OS running in VM. This will make HUGE difference.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Arkitech

Originally posted by: her209
Have you enabled Virtualization Support in the BIOS?

I'm able to run VMWare Server 1.0 with concurrent VMs running on the following system without any lagging or freezing

Dell Optiplex 755
E6750
8GB RAM
Windows XP x64
80GB SATA drive

Is that in the host machine bios or would that be in the VM bios?

Host machine BIOS

This will allow you to run 64-bit OSes in your VMs even if your host OS is 32-bit.

 

[nordloewelabs]

i have not tried VMWare Workstation yet, but i played with the Server edition for a while. i found it very slow on my Athlon XP 3000 1.5Gb RAM. on the other hand, the free VirtualBox runs very well on this particular machine. as a matter of fact, it runs smooth on my jurassic P3 700Mhz 640Mb RAM as well.

is the Server edition particularly heavier than Workstation?

 

[Czar]

More ram

and a dedicated disk for the vm

that would solve your problems

 

[Czar]

VMware workstation is always using the latest and greatest vm technology from VMware. VMware server is usualy one step behind and offers alot more server focused interface.

 

[MrChad]

The issue is almost certainly RAM.

 

[Tarrant64]

Another issue that can come up is how many processors you have assigned to the VM. I have had instances of XP where if I assign a single core it runs better than with a dual-core. I've had mixed results with various operating systems (for me this is for both VMWare ESXi and Workstation - latest build).