VMware have released the latest edition of their desktop based virtualization software, VMware Workstation 8.  With Workstation 8, VMware claims support for more than 600 operating systems, from MS-DOS to Windows 7 and can make use of up to 64GB of host RAM.   This latest release also boasts over 50 new features which include:

• Remote Connections – VMware Workstation 8 provides a seamless way to establish remote connections to hosts running in Workstation, VMware vSphere, and VMware vCenter™.
• "Share" VMs – New in Workstation 8, users can share VMs so they can be accessed by teammates providing a quick way to test applications in a more production-like environment.
• Upload to vSphere –Workstation 8 enables users to drag and drop a VM from a user’s desktop to VMware vSphere. This feature allows users to deploy a complete application environment from a PC to a server for further testing, demoing, and analysis.
• New User Interface –The VMware Workstation 8 user interface has been revamped with simplified menus, live thumbnails, improved preferences screens, and a new virtual machine library with enhanced searching. Users can now search and access a large library of virtual machines that can reside on your desktop, a server, or on another PC running VMware Workstation.
• Improved Virtual Machine Capabilities – With support for HD audio with 7.1 surround sound, USB 3 and Bluetooth devices, Workstation 8 delivers new levels of virtual machine performance.  In addition, improvements to virtual SMP, 3D graphics performance and new support for 64-GB RAM allows users to run the most demanding applications in a virtual machine.

For me the uploading of a VM to VMware vSphere by simply dragging and dropping it and the remote connections to hosts running workstation and VMware vCenter have got to be the most exciting of the new features.  This level of VM management will no doubt prove to be a big hit amongst existing VMware vSphere administrators and will no doubt offer a whole new world of opportunities to those wanting to provide portable demos or operate in a development or vSphere lab environment where transferring VMs is a common requirement.

Here are the details on availability and pricing from VMware:

Availability and Pricing
VMware Workstation 8 is immediately available for purchase for $199. Upgrades from VMware Workstation 6.x and 7.x are available for $99. VMware Customers who have purchased VMware Workstation 8 between Aug. 1, 2011 and Sept. 30, 2011 are eligible for a complimentary electronic upgrade to VMware Workstation 8. For more details on VMware’s complimentary electronic upgrade program please go here.

Sound fun?  Why not download a free trial here.

More information and VMware’s official announcement can be found here (Workstation 8.0).

This is an issue which will likely have been affecting those of you, like myself, who upgraded their Windows 7 PC to Service Pack 1 and also run VMs under VMware Workstation 7.1.3 from the same PC.  The introduction of the ‘Dynamic Memory’ (a new memory management ‘enhancement’ which allow for higher VM densities within Hyper-V – see here and here for more details ) feature in the recent Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) release appears to have affected how Windows  (Win7 and W2K8 R2) handles it’s memory.  After installing this service pack on your VMware Workstation host PC you may likely experience memory allocation issues and poor performance when trying to run your VMs. Symptoms observed so far range from very slow performance of the VMs (W2K3, W2K8, Win 7 mix) through to the occasional BSOD, also a common error you may receive mentions failed memory allocation. 

This memory issue, which definitely appears to have been introduced with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1, is clearly affecting the wider VMware Workstation Community, as can be seen in this VMware forum thread here.  There isn’t an official patch fix at the time of writing this post though there is a setting which can be applied to your VMware Workstation install which from my testing so far seems to alleviate the issue.  If you are also affected with this memory problem then you may also want to consider adding the following parameter:

Edit the ‘config.ini’ file which can be found here: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware  Workstation\config.ini

Add the following line to the config file:  vmmon.disableHostParameters = "TRUE"

After adding this line to the ‘config.ini’ then reboot your host PC for this setting to take affect.  You can’t beat a good ole reboot after changing settings such as this. 

As mentioned this is not really a permanent fix (at least I hope it’s not) and I’m guessing we can expect to see a VMware Workstation patch which addresses this issue released sometime soon.