Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit as guest on VMWare Server 2

Hi,

I'm having a lot of crashes testing Windows 7 on VMWare Server 2.02. I've used the Vista 64bit hardware settings, which should theoretically work for 7.

I have 25 desktops in my company and I don't dare installing Windows 7 on them until it works flawlessly in a VM.

Anybody else having the same problems?

John

Hi there
What's crashing

What's your HOST OS - if its VISTA - all bets are off.

vmware server R 2 with Windows 7 X-64 guests works fine. Very stable combination.

make sure your VM's have enough RAM - even for testing.

You can even test a 64 bit Guest in a 32 bit host if you want -- I've tested W7 X-64 guests on an XP machine - note in this case however if the HOST is XP the max RAM it will see is 4GB so you wont be able to use more than around 3GB IN TOTAL for all concurrent running VM's.

I would surmise its probelme in your HOST environment that is causing W7 guest VM's to fail.

Try and be a bit more specific about what's failing and see if you can post some extracts from the vmware log.

Cheers
jimbo

Cheers
jimbo

I'm using Server 2003 64 bit has a host. It's been in use for almost a year and runs flawlessly with many different guest OS's including Server 2003, Server 2008, XP and Win2000.

Only Windows 7 gives me any trouble.

I have 16GB of Ram on the Host, and have allocated 2GB to the guest. I'm not sure where to look in the vmware logs to find anything useful. The Guest just locks up and requires a reboot. After the reboot the Win7 guest runs fine for a while and then crashes. I'm ususually using Visual Studio 2010 when it happens.

Of course, VS2010 is a beta, but I would think that a new, shiny OS like Win7 would be able to let bad apps fail gracefully without bringing the whole OS down, right?

John

Hi there
on Windows 7 I would give the VM more VIDEO RAM than the default especially running some of these things like Visual Studio.

I can't remember the parameter but it's in the Sticky section of the Virtualisation Forum under my user id.

Note also that you need Vmware PLAYER or workstation 7 to enable full Aero / 3D effects on a W7 virtual machine using vmware.

VMWARE server -- good product but until updated you can only use "basic" W7 video effects.

Trying to enable fancy features on W7 with vmware server might cause the guest to hang.

Cheers
jimbo45

What exactly is "Aero" and how do I know if it's on?

My guess is that "Aero" has something to do with those fuzzy, semitransparent title bars on windows. Is there more to it than that?

In any case it sounds like something created by "mac envy" that nobody really needs. How do I know if it's on/turn it off?

In regards to Aero, Jimbo has said that you need to increase the graphics Vram in order for it to work correctly. Maybe that's what causing the crash?

Aero is enabled by default, but a Google search shows you how to turn it off.