Advice for More Stability Running Frame in a VM

[Guest]

Hi,

I am running Frame in a Win 7 Parallels VM. I have had several Parallels crashes, one of which corrupted my VM. I had to spend 2 hours with Parallels tech support to sort out the problem.

Then, during a time-crunch deadline, I started experiencing mulitple Parallels crashes (spinning beach balls, freezes, etc, then weird failure to launch errors) in the middle of updating a 300 page .book file. I decided to try VMWare instead on trial. But it's kind of slow and a bit buggy, and not really any more stable.

So, I am willing to go back to Parallels, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for more stability. For example, would moving my VM to an external FireWire drive improve stability?

I am running a brand new 8-core Mac Mini, OS X 10.8.4, 8 GB RAM (with about 3 GB of Ram dedicated to the VM).

Basically, has anyone done any optimizations to their host or VM that has improved stability of the Frame in a VM?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What OS are you using within the VM? Only 3GBs in there may be crimping FM – BTW, what version of FM?

[Guest]

OS X 10.8.4, FM 11.0.2

[Guest]

Ooops, the OS in the VM is Windows 7 Professional sp1.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, in that case 3GB isn’t going to cut it – I’d invest in more RAM (assuming it’s the 64 bit version of Win7)

[Guest]

Yes, because I look at the RAM in the Windows System Control Panel, and it says it only has 2 GB of Ram availble.

Do you think that Spotlight indexing could cause not enough RAM to be available to the VM?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Quite possibly – any processes running outside (or for that matter, inside) the VM will impact memory use.

[Van Kurtz]

For what it is worth, I run Windows 7 in VMware Fusion. My MacBook Pro is over two years old. It has been awhile since I have run FrameMaker, and it was FrameMaker 7.1. But I cannot recall crashes of the VM, or Windows. On the other hand, I do not use Windows a lot, definitely not day to day.

Van

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I have definitely had my share of FM crashes on PCs over the years, of the dreaded "Internal Error" variety. That's kind of a given with FM to an extent...but the ones happening on VMs have been different, and definitely seem related to the VM (or the host even). I just can't tell if it just comes with the territory, or if there's something I can actually do about it.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

I believe I've never run TCS on a "normal" machine...I've had issues with installers and peripherals, but every issue I've had with *running* the software was the same as if I were on a dedicated Win box. That is, Windows takes lots of resources, so more RAM, more disk, more processor power dedicated to the VM (I use Fusion, but have used Bootcamp and Parallels as well) fixes the issue.

-Matt

Matt R. Sullivan
co-author Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 11

[Guest]

It's an 8-core machine, but Frame can't really make use of more than one processor (nor can Illustrator, which is my next most used Win application), so increasing the number of processors to the VM wouldn't really make a difference, right? Or would it...

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Nope, but more RAM does

[Guest]

I have read some posts elsewhere that swore by putting the VM on a secondary drive. I did that, and my Mini seems a lot less hot to the touch today...but I don't know if that has anything to do with anything.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Overheating can definitely cause RAM issues

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

I suspect you'd see a difference with multiple processors enabled, but as Jeff mentioned, RAM is a general cure-all

[peter_minneapolis]

Just because your Mac Mini is brand new doesn't rule out some kind of hardware problem. With external cables and peripherals it would be easy to suspect a bad connection, and straightforward to test with substituting known good components.

If your mini is completely self-contained except for keyboard, monitor, printer, and network cable, if the externals test OK, it's still possible there's an issue inside the case. Perhaps installed RAM boards aren't seated perfectly, have corroded connectors, or one or more are defective. Have you run diagnostics? It's new enough to have free tech support at an Apple store or third-party vendor, so don't overlook a diagnosis.

With 8GB Mini RAM, you could devote more to Parallels, to see if that helps. Depending on the FM task, you may need more RAM for Parallels than the Mini's 8GB allows, so consider adding more RAM.

I've used VMware Fusion and Parallels 6, 7, and now 8, on a 2008 MacBook Pro that's got its maximum 6GB RAM. No matter how I divide my 6GB between Parallels with its Windows XP SP3, and the Mac, sometimes everything is slow - working in an application on either or both OSs, or switching between applications or OSs - sometimes things are smooth. I don't use Parallels often enough to have a good idea what the bottleneck comes from.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

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Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

[Guest]

Peter,

Thanks. Are the diagnostics you're talking about Apple H/W Test?

[peter_minneapolis]

Apple's H/W test is as good as any to start a diagnosis. If it reveals defective RAM, try removing/reseating the RAM chips.

And/or confer with techs at your closest Apple store.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

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Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

[MichaelKazlow]

I use Frame 10 under Parallels using 2 GB of RAM dedicated to the virtual machine with no issues under OS X.8.4 running 32-bit Windows 7. If you are running Win 7 64-bit, I'd recommend using at least 4 GB of RAM. It could be a hardware issue as mentioned. What version of Parallels? Is your Win 7 a new install or an upgrade from a previous OS? I have run Parallels about 6 years, never had any issues with a corrupt machine. Have you tried creating a new VM or have you been going back to a backup of your VM. I generally keeps about 6 backups of my virtual machine on a backup drive, so I can go back far enough if I have to, but fortunately I haven't really had to because of a VM problem.

[peter_minneapolis]

MichaelKazlow wrote:

I use Frame 10 under Parallels using 2 GB of RAM dedicated to the virtual machine with no issues under OS X.8.4 running 32-bit Windows 7. If you are running Win 7 64-bit, I'd recommend using at least 4 GB of RAM. It could be a hardware issue as mentioned. What version of Parallels? Is your Win 7 a new install or an upgrade from a previous OS? I have run Parallels about 6 years, never had any issues with a corrupt machine. Have you tried creating a new VM or have you been going back to a backup of your VM. I generally keeps about 6 backups of my virtual machine on a backup drive, so I can go back far enough if I have to, but fortunately I haven't really had to because of a VM problem.

Michael:

I've not been using FM on my MacBook Pro, early 2008, 6GB RAM, with Parallels 8 much recently. I haven't upgraded Windows beyond XP SP3 yet.

Can you clarify "6 backups?" Are you saving snapshots, cloning the drive the VM is on, or just making backup copies of the VM with Parallels itself, and copying them off?

Regards,

Peter Gold

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