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Host System Requirements
Host System Requirements
What do you need to get the most out of VMware Workstation 5? Take the following list of requirements as a starting point. Like physical computers, the virtual machines running under VMware Workstation generally perform better if they have faster processors and more memory.
PC Hardware
Standard x86-compatible personal computer
400 MHz or faster CPU minimum (500 MHz recommended)
Compatible processors include
Intel®: Celeron®, Pentium® II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M (including computers with Centrino™ mobile technology), Xeon™ (including "Prestonia"), EM64T
AMD™: Athlon™, Athlon MP, Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Duron™, Opteron™
Experimental support for AMD Sempron™
Multiprocessor systems supported
32-bit guest support for AMD64 Opteron, Athlon 64, EM64T; support for 64-bit guest operating systems is available only on the following specific versions of these processors:
AMD Athlon 64, revision D or later
AMD Opteron, revision E or later
EM64T VT-capable processors (experimental support)
Memory
128 MB minimum (256 MB recommended)
You must have enough memory to run the host operating system, plus the memory required for each guest operating system and for applications on the host and guest. See your guest operating system and application documentation for their memory requirements.
Display
16-bit or 32-bit display adapter recommended
Disk Drives
Guest operating systems can reside on physical disk partitions or in virtual disk files.
Hard DIsk
IDE and SCSI hard drives supported, up to 950GB capacity
At least 1GB free disk space recommended for each guest operating system and the application software used with it; if you use a default setup, the actual disk space needs are approximately the same as those for installing and running the guest operating system and applications on a physical computer.
For Installation — 80MB (Linux) or 250MB (Windows) free disk space required for basic installation. You can delete the installer afterwards to reclaim disk space.
Optical CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Drive
IDE and SCSI optical drives supported
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives supported
ISO disk image files supported
Local Area Networking (Optional)
Any Ethernet controller supported by the host operating system
Non-Ethernet networks supported using built-in network address translation (NAT) or using a combination of host-only networking plus routing software on the host operating system
Host Operating System
VMware Workstation is available for both Windows and Linux host operating systems.
Windows Host Operating Systems (32-bit)
Workstation supports the following Windows 32-bit host operating systems.
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1 (Listed versions are also supported with no service pack.)
Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 or 2
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3 or 4, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 3 or 4, Windows 2000 Advanced Server Service Pack 3 or 4
Windows Host Operating Systems (64-bit)
Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition SP1
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP1
Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher is required for the Windows online help system.
Linux Host Operating Systems
Supported distributions and kernels are listed below. VMware Workstation may not run on systems that do not meet these requirements.
Note: As newer Linux kernels and distributions are released, VMware modifies and tests its products for stability and reliability on those host platforms. We make every effort to add support for new kernels and distributions in a timely manner, but until a kernel or distribution is added to the list below, its use with our products is not supported. Look for newer prebuilt modules in the download area of our Web site. Go to
www.vmware.com/download/.
Mandrake Linux 10 — stock 2.6.3-7
Mandrake Linux 9.0 — stock 2.4.19
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES/WS 4.0 — stock 2.6.9-5, 64-bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES/WS 3.0 — stock 2.4.21, update 2.4.21-15.EL, 64-bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 — stock 2.4.9-e3
Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 — stock 2.4.9-e3
Red Hat Linux 9.0 — stock 2.4.20-8, upgrade 2.4.20-20.9
Red Hat Linux 8.0 — stock 2.4.18
Red Hat Linux 7.3 — stock 2.4.18
Red Hat Linux 7.2 — stock 2.4.7-10, upgrade 2.4.9-7, upgrade 2.4.9-13, upgrade 2.4.9-21, upgrade 2.4.9-31
SUSE Linux 9.2 — stock 9.2-2.6.8-24.11
SUSE Linux 9.1 — stock 2.6.4-52
SUSE Linux 9.0 — stock 2.4.21-99
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 — 32-bit, 64-bit, SP1(listed versions also supported with no service pack)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 — stock 2.4.19, 64-bit
SUSE Linux 8.2 — stock 2.4.20
SUSE Linux 8.1 — stock 2.4.19
SUSE Linux 8.0 — stock 2.4.18
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 — stock 2.4.7 and patch 2
SUSE Linux 7.3 — stock 2.4.10
Platforms not listed above are not supported.
A Web browser is required for the Help system.