VMWare Workstation doesn't even need a dual-core CPU. But it can take advantage of a CPU with a hypervisor if it has one. Obviously, the more cores, the more the hypervisor can do. I am not 100% certan that if you have Workstation on a quad-core CPU, you can run your host OS and 3 VMs and have each run on its own core. I'm not sure it works that way. But I'd hope so. I know ESXI works that way. I'll bet a dual-core Intel CPU would run a host OS and one VM faster than a quad-core AMD CPU. But its anybody's guess what would happen if you started up a second VM. I might be willing to live with it slowing down though the rare occasions where I start up more than one VM. This is a home PC. I could end up doing almost anything on it. I do the usual sskype, email, web browsing. But I've done some parallelized coding. And then I still have some fantasies bout teaching myself something about Windows networking by creating several Windows virtual machines and networking them. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 12:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation I'm an intel man myself. I like the I7 which I use in my Macs and on the server side we have some decent Xeon quad core stuff going on in some dell boxes. Is the virtual machines / VMware the heaviest source of load, what else will you be doing with the box? On Nov 15, 2012, at 12:39 PM, John G. Heim wrote:

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

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Even VMware Player can be configured to use one or more CPUs for a virtual machine (but not more than 4) and I don't think Workstation has this limitation. --Octavian ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Granados" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 9:44 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

I'm not sure about workstation, fusion definitely has controls for allocating work to cores. You can set per VM how many cores and how much memory to use. Whether the knobs do anything is another story, they seem to near as I can tell.

Anyway, put me down for +1 on an I7.. That's what I'd use.

On Nov 15, 2012, at 2:11 PM, John G. Heim wrote:

...

VMWare Workstation doesn't even need a dual-core CPU. But it can take advantage of a CPU with a hypervisor if it has one. Obviously, the more cores, the more the hypervisor can do. I am not 100% certan that if you have Workstation on a quad-core CPU, you can run your host OS and 3 VMs and have each run on its own core. I'm not sure it works that way. But I'd hope so. I know ESXI works that way.

I'll bet a dual-core Intel CPU would run a host OS and one VM faster than a quad-core AMD CPU. But its anybody's guess what would happen if you started up a second VM. I might be willing to live with it slowing down though the rare occasions where I start up more than one VM.

This is a home PC. I could end up doing almost anything on it. I do the usual sskype, email, web browsing. But I've done some parallelized coding. And then I still have some fantasies bout teaching myself something about Windows networking by creating several Windows virtual machines and networking them.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 12:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

I'm an intel man myself. I like the I7 which I use in my Macs and on the server side we have some decent Xeon quad core stuff going on in some dell boxes.

Is the virtual machines / VMware the heaviest source of load, what else will you be doing with the box?

On Nov 15, 2012, at 12:39 PM, John G. Heim wrote:

...

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

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If the processor does hyperthreading, VMware can allocate each virtual core. For example, I have an I7 and VMware sees 8 cores. I am not sure if VMware Player/Workstation are able to allocate a core only for the virtual machine. The allocated cores might be used by the host OS also. But... I am not sure. But there are other virtualising applications (made by VMware or others) which are used to create VPSs and they can allocate cores and memory only to be used by the specified virtual machines, so it should be possible. --Octavian ----- Original Message ----- From: "John G. Heim" To: "'Blind sysadmins list'" Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 10:38 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

Are you sure that if you start up a virtual machine with 2 virtual cores that it actually runs on 2 physical cores? I'm not sure how VMWare would manage that since I'd assume it would be up to the host operating system. Maybe there is some standard way for the host OS to let a piece of software specify that it be allocated to a certain number of physical cores. Get what I'm saying? How does VMWare workstation tell the linux kernel to letthe a virtual machine have two physical cores all to itself?

Plus, there is this concept of hyperthreading which allows a single core to act like 2 cores. So if you have a quad-core machine, it can act like an 8 core machine. But even that might not be the limit because every computer in the world can run an indefinite number of processes at once and a virtual machine is just another process. In other words,you can have multiple processors per machine, multiple cores per processor, multiple threads per core, and multiple processes per thread. So I don't know how many virtual cores you can have.

I've been told that you can run VMWare Workstation on a single-core machine. My source for that is not very reliable though. I gave away my machine with VMWare Workstation. I wish I had it right now. I'd just try starting up VMs with more cores than I actually have and see what happens.

From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:44 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

I'm not sure about workstation, fusion definitely has controls for allocating work to cores. You can set per VM how many cores and how much memory to use. Whether the knobs do anything is another story, they seem to near as I can tell.

Anyway, put me down for +1 on an I7.. That's what I'd use.

On Nov 15, 2012, at 2:11 PM, John G. Heim wrote:

...

VMWare Workstation doesn't even need a dual-core CPU. But it can take advantage of a CPU with a hypervisor if it has one. Obviously, the more cores, the more the hypervisor can do. I am not 100% certan that if you have Workstation on a quad-core CPU, you can run your host OS and 3 VMs and have each run on its own core. I'm not sure it works that way. But I'd hope so. I know ESXI works that way.

I'll bet a dual-core Intel CPU would run a host OS and one VM faster than a quad-core AMD CPU. But its anybody's guess what would happen if you started up a second VM. I might be willing to live with it slowing down though the rare occasions where I start up more than one VM.

This is a home PC. I could end up doing almost anything on it. I do the usual sskype, email, web browsing. But I've done some parallelized coding. And then I still have some fantasies bout teaching myself something about Windows networking by creating several Windows virtual machines and networking them.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 12:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

I'm an intel man myself. I like the I7 which I use in my Macs and on the server side we have some decent Xeon quad core stuff going on in some dell boxes.

Is the virtual machines / VMware the heaviest source of load, what else will you be doing with the box?

On Nov 15, 2012, at 12:39 PM, John G. Heim wrote:

...

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

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Be creative and look on places like ebay for hardware. I've bought things like Net App filers and really big cisco iron for my home lab.:) (I used to have a pair of 6513 switches for a coffee table) Ebay and craigslist are usually good places to find equipment on the cheap. My old employer used to give away their old iron, I got a pile of Dell R710 servers for the cost of lunch. I would definitely go the route of learning a unix environment. Your Mac terminal is a quick place to get used to the basic commands. I like CentOS Linux myself but you can download a flavor called Vinux that has screen reader functionality built right in, it's also available in VM image. Having a large powerful box for quick prototyping is nice. It's handy to be able to spin up virtual machines instead of actual hardware for simple basic prototyping or experimentation. There are network simulation tools that also do a similar thing and require a lot of CPU to run the router code instances. How's that? Thanks Scott On Nov 16, 2012, at 7:37 AM, Vincent van Itallie wrote:

Out of curiosity::

Why do you run those vm's all at the same time? Is it because of training practices which you need to follow?

I am having a semilar question.

At the moment i am training to renew my microsoft certifications because my employer request this.

And i am not sure which strategy I should follow. I have a macbook air with 8 gig of ram bt a SSD hart drive. I am thinking of buying / building a huge machine with enough capacity to run vmware or Hyper-V to get my lap up and running. I am thinking to chose for vmware so I can also do linux stuff because of future employment and offcorse more knowledge.

Anyone a advice for me?

Thanks in advance,

Vincent. from

Op 15 nov. 2012, om 18:39 heeft John G. Heim het volgende geschreven:

...

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

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Hi, You said you use centos I am working on setting up a small hosting business but the issue is setting up centos how are you doing it when it comes to an install? -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Friday, November 16, 2012 7:18 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation Be creative and look on places like ebay for hardware. I've bought things like Net App filers and really big cisco iron for my home lab.:) (I used to have a pair of 6513 switches for a coffee table) Ebay and craigslist are usually good places to find equipment on the cheap. My old employer used to give away their old iron, I got a pile of Dell R710 servers for the cost of lunch. I would definitely go the route of learning a unix environment. Your Mac terminal is a quick place to get used to the basic commands. I like CentOS Linux myself but you can download a flavor called Vinux that has screen reader functionality built right in, it's also available in VM image. Having a large powerful box for quick prototyping is nice. It's handy to be able to spin up virtual machines instead of actual hardware for simple basic prototyping or experimentation. There are network simulation tools that also do a similar thing and require a lot of CPU to run the router code instances. How's that? Thanks Scott On Nov 16, 2012, at 7:37 AM, Vincent van Itallie wrote:

Out of curiosity::

Why do you run those vm's all at the same time? Is it because of training practices which you need to follow?

I am having a semilar question.

At the moment i am training to renew my microsoft certifications because my employer request this.

And i am not sure which strategy I should follow. I have a macbook air with 8 gig of ram bt a SSD hart drive. I am thinking of buying / building a huge machine with enough capacity to run vmware or Hyper-V to get my lap up and running. I am thinking to chose for vmware so I can also do linux stuff because of future employment and offcorse more knowledge.

Anyone a advice for me?

Thanks in advance,

Vincent. from

Op 15 nov. 2012, om 18:39 heeft John G. Heim het volgende geschreven:

...

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Hello, I also use CentOS as well as other distros, if I were doing a hosting business CentOS is what I'd use. I've done ssh-based installs, as well as unattended kickstart installs. Hth Dave. On 11/16/12, MIKE wrote:

Hi,

You said you use centos I am working on setting up a small hosting business but the issue is setting up centos how are you doing it when it comes to an install?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: Friday, November 16, 2012 7:18 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] cpu recommendation

Be creative and look on places like ebay for hardware. I've bought things like Net App filers and really big cisco iron for my home lab.:) (I used to have a pair of 6513 switches for a coffee table) Ebay and craigslist are usually good places to find equipment on the cheap. My old employer used to give away their old iron, I got a pile of Dell R710 servers for the cost of lunch. I would definitely go the route of learning a unix environment. Your Mac terminal is a quick place to get used to the basic commands. I like CentOS Linux myself but you can download a flavor called Vinux that has screen reader functionality built right in, it's also available in VM image.

Having a large powerful box for quick prototyping is nice. It's handy to be able to spin up virtual machines instead of actual hardware for simple basic prototyping or experimentation. There are network simulation tools that also do a similar thing and require a lot of CPU to run the router code instances.

How's that?

Thanks Scott

On Nov 16, 2012, at 7:37 AM, Vincent van Itallie wrote:

...

Out of curiosity::

Why do you run those vm's all at the same time? Is it because of training practices which you need to follow?

I am having a semilar question.

At the moment i am training to renew my microsoft certifications because my employer request this.

And i am not sure which strategy I should follow. I have a macbook air with 8 gig of ram bt a SSD hart drive. I am thinking of buying / building a huge machine with enough capacity to run vmware or Hyper-V to get my lap up and running. I am thinking to chose for vmware so I can also do linux stuff because of future employment and offcorse more knowledge.

Anyone a advice for me?

Thanks in advance,

Vincent. from

Op 15 nov. 2012, om 18:39 heeft John G. Heim het volgende geschreven:

...

I need to buy a new mobo, CPU, and RAM before December 31. Any recommendations on a CPU? I intend to run linux with Windows running in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Sometimes I run 2 or 3 vms at once so I'd prefer a qua-core CPU.

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