abferm Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 Hello I have Virtual Box running on an XP host and have a couple questions. 1) My VMs run slow, and I was wondering if there is any way to create virtual RAM for use with Virtual Box. 2) I hate starting a VM just to access a couple files, so I was wondering if there is a free, easy to use tool out there for mounting VDI files on XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 How much RAM does your computer have? You can specify how much RAM a VM can use in the VMs settings. Accessing virtual disks without a VM: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=4748 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abferm Posted June 24, 2010 Author Share Posted June 24, 2010 How much RAM does your computer have? You can specify how much RAM a VM can use in the VMs settings. Accessing virtual disks without a VM: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=4748 My computer has 2GB of RAM shared with the integrated video card. I haven't really messed with the RAM settings on the VMs, and I can do that, but I would like to have a way to create some sort of virtual RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 Well, computer do use virtual RAM, it's quite an old concept. It basically consist of swapping memory contents to the hard disk then back to memory when it is needed. This is incredibly slow and most virtual machine software will not allow the VMs memory to be swapped out for this very reason (well, it can't disallow it, but if it detects your system is out of memory, it won't let you start a new virtual machine). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 (edited) I think you need to find out whether your current computer specs, can allow you to increase the physical ram. Secondly to give you an idea, My current computer has 8gb of ram and I am always running x2 VMs, each one of them with at least 1.5/2 gigs of ram. So if you want to allow more memory to be allocated to the VMs, you will need to upgram you computer's ram. Hope this helps Regards, Infiltrator Edited June 24, 2010 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ascorbic Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 Hello I have Virtual Box running on an XP host and have a couple questions. 1) My VMs run slow, and I was wondering if there is any way to create virtual RAM for use with Virtual Box. 2) I hate starting a VM just to access a couple files, so I was wondering if there is a free, easy to use tool out there for mounting VDI files on XP. You need much more ram. What type of CPU do you have? Some CPUs support an extended instruction set for virtualization, those CPUs are much faster. Here is a way to think about it, how fast is your computer normally? Now cut that in half when you load up your virtual machine because it is sharing your resources. Is that about the speed your VM is running at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 Here is a way to think about it, how fast is your computer normally? Now cut that in half when you load up your virtual machine because it is sharing your resources. Is that about the speed your VM is running at? That's not quite right. The host has priority, if the host wants to use all the CPU, it will and the VM will go extremely slow. If the guest wants to use the CPU while the host is also using it, the guest will, more or less, have to wait for the host to finish. If the host is not doing any thing, the guest will run at, more or less, full speed. Dule core processor is essential for running virtual machines (even one, the more cores the better really). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 (edited) I've tried running 4+ VMs on a dual core system and it brings the VMs to a standstill practically. Host OS is bogged down, but still usable. But yah, more RAM and a upgraded CPU would probably work wonders. Sidenote: I am able to run one VM on my 1.66Ghz Atom netbook with 2GB of RAM. The VM has 512MB of RAM allocated and runs "ok" a bit sluggish since it's a single core Atom, but it runs (and I am surprised it runs). Edited June 25, 2010 by Charles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ascorbic Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 That's not quite right. The host has priority, if the host wants to use all the CPU, it will and the VM will go extremely slow. If the guest wants to use the CPU while the host is also using it, the guest will, more or less, have to wait for the host to finish. If the host is not doing any thing, the guest will run at, more or less, full speed. Dule core processor is essential for running virtual machines (even one, the more cores the better really). You are correct, but for someone who is new to virtualization I don't think my explanation is a bad way to get a grasp on how fast your VMs could potentially run in their best case scenerio. Which is to say your VM will never run as fast or faster than your host machine, but it will always run slower than your host. If he is on a machine where memory is shared with the video card, I doubt he has a beefy CPU. In that case I wouldn't expect a VM to run at more than half the hosts power and that is probably the best case for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abferm Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 I've been looking into more RAM and maybe a quad-core processor down the line. I have a dual core so I think RAM is my main problem. I've only tried running one VM at a time. Could anyone help with the question about mounting the vdi files as drives on the host. WinMount will do it, but I was looking for something free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 (edited) I've been looking into more RAM and maybe a quad-core processor down the line. I have a dual core so I think RAM is my main problem. I've only tried running one VM at a time. Could anyone help with the question about mounting the vdi files as drives on the host. WinMount will do it, but I was looking for something free. If you are trying to recond VM sessions, you can use VMware WorkStation to do that for you, but the only problem is that VMware products are not freeware. Edited June 28, 2010 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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