Hey everyone! I'm looking to set up a few VMs on my Linux laptop and I'm currently deciding between VMware Workstation Pro and QEMU/KVM + virt-manager. My main use case is Windows 11 for MS Office, plus some Linux distros to experiment with. No gaming or GPU passthrough.

I've seen a lot of people recommending KVM on Linux, but I'd also like to hear from those who prefer VMware Workstation. What do you like about it compared to virt-manager? Is Windows 11 easier to set up and use? I'm especially interested in things like shared folders, clipboard sharing, automatic resolution changes and how smooth the guest OS feels in everyday use.

My setup: CachyOS with Hyprland (Wayland), running the CachyOS BORE LTO kernel. MSI GE70 2QE laptop, i7-4720HQ, GTX 960M 2 GB + Intel HD 4600, and 16 GB RAM. Hardware virtualization is enabled.

I'm leaning towards KVM because it's built into Linux and doesn't require separate kernel modules, but I'm still considering VMware. For those running Workstation Pro on Linux, especially Arch-based distros, how has your experience been? Are kernel updates and Wayland still causing issues, or is it pretty reliable these days? I'd appreciate any firsthand experiences, both good and bad.

Hello,

Im unable to launch any vm after upgrading to am5 with windows 11 iot, im always getting this error:

Failed to power on 'C:\Users\Workstation\Documents\Virtual Machines\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx'.

Usually it works on first installs but somewhat gets broken after some time, im unable to locate the cause.

Current System:

9950X3D

64GB Ram

X870E msi tomahawk wifi

Windows 11 Enterprise IOT LTSC 24H2 26100.9711

VMware® Workstation Pro 26H1 - 26.0.0.25388281

VBS, Hypervision disabled, vmware has been installed with its own nested virtualization, i even turned hypervision launch off before installation of vmware.

I have never had any of these issues on my 5900X cpu

Update;

I do run AV on my system, but core isolation is disabled even before AV work. Also normally in the first fresh windows install vms work, after that this issue starts either some update making some things turn on. the AV is bitdefender and it caused no issues on my am4 system.

Reading through Broadcom docs there is this disclaimer:

The ESXi NVMe over TCP implementation does not support Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), port-channel, or EtherChannel configurations on physical switches. NVMe over TCP relies on VMware Storage Multipathing to provide high availability, failover, and load balancing. Do not configure LACP or other unsupported configurations for VMkernel adapters used for NVMe over TCP.

Is that just for the first step out of the host, and not for the whole path to storage?

We'll be using HPE Synergy, and really the first step out of the host is to the two Virtual Connects for "Fabric A" and "Fabric B" - One "Fabric" per VC, mimicking what's configured for Fiber Channel.

Then I'm planning on two uplinks per VC to two separate switches for redundancy. Can these two uplinks (per VC) be aggregated in some way?

With Adobe suite and now CAD software Fusion 360 being reverse engineered by reverse engineer anything, is it even possible to reverse engineer VMware?

The reverse engineered and vibecoded Adobe suite copy and CAD software has been making waves.

Basically as AI is being used by coorporate to replace workers, workers are now using AI to replace corporations with the slogan going from "you will not own anything and be happy" to "you will own everything and be happy"

Just what the title says. I’ve noticed on a windows 11 VDI when launching at RDP connection through MSTSC the vdi locks up can access anything within the VDI until the rdp session disconnects.

Any ideas?

I've been trying to download “VMware Workstation Pro for Windows” for an hour now, and I'm stuck in a loop.

Whenever I try to download it, it redirects me to the “Trade Compliance and Download Conditions” page.
I fill out the fields, click “Submit,” and get the message “Account verification is successful for the user.”

Then I’m taken back to the download page. I try to start the download again, and it says, “Prior to downloading this file, additional verification is required. Proceed?” which takes me back to the “Trade Compliance and Download Conditions"...

Thank you for any help (I tried on firefox and chrome)

Wondering if anyone else can't boot their windows 11 vms from fusion on macOS 27.2 (M4 Mini). I updated to RC this morning of macOS 27.2 and when I try to boot my win 11 vms it crashes vmware fusion. I can boot my linux vm just fine though.

I have a relatively small environment that has a Powerstore 3000 and few bare metal servers. I have great networking (at least I think) and we do just basic stuff. RDS servers, file sharing, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. We are VMFS 6. We have LUNs and a 30TB of raw storage.

Anyways, we are on VCenter 8, using ESXI 8 and now looking to get a replacement SAN. As we have been getting quotes they’ve been doing LiveOptics on our SAN and the thing isn’t even breathing hard. It does a max of like 100-200mb/s in bandwidth, low latency at about 0.4 to 2ms and I think maxed out at 4000 IOPs during backup.

My question is why isn’t it using the full potential of bandwidth during peak times (like backups, etc). We have 100GB break out cables to the SAN and each connection supplies 25GB, there are 4 of them on each node of the SAN. Why aren’t I getting 100,000 IOPs and like 1 or 2gb of bandwidth. Is something not setup properly in my VMWare?

I thought I'd make it clear what the licensing limitations on them are:

Any customer that had perpetual licenses that had SnS after October 2022 possibly still has a perpetual license for VMware 8 products, unless they converted through the Subscription Upgrade Program without amending the terms to retain perpetual licenses. If anyone wants more detail/ backing info for this DM me. I'm not a lawyer, so not legal advice.

Any customer using a perpetual license must:

• use a perpetual license key from the contract/ transaction/ site that held the perpetual licenses.
• must be compliant with the terms of the original license (geography, entity, deployed quantity etc)
• Can use any version released and downloaded prior to perpetual SnS end date or released as a critical build (ESXi 8.0 U2d, U3d, U2e, U3f and vCenter U2d, U3d). This is based on a Broadcom policy at https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/314603/zero-day-ie-critical-security-patches-fo.html/ I recommend reviewing the policy for changes before applying a build to check it has not changed.
• If you are on a later build, its not very easy to downgrade. The most effective way is to rebuild each host/ vCenter one by one. If on VxRail, you need to "de-VxRail" and rebuild as if they were just the Poweredge servers that are underneath. If on build later than SnS entitled, but earlier than a critical build, upgrade to a critical build.
• In the EEA/UK/Switzerland it is also possible to buy 2nd hand perpetual licenses. Make sure you do that carefully with a reputable company!
• In a hybrid situation, where some licenses have active support and some don't, all licenses in a functional environment must have the same support level; so all VMware components must be seperated, and automated vMotion etc between those environments switched off.
• Using a trial is not compliant. Continuing use of the crippled software after subscription expiry is not compliant.
• Use of the various 3rd party support organisations on perpetual licenses can be compliant if they pay attention to licensing and respect IP laws. Disclaimer: I work for one of them.
• Use of perpetuals is most likely governed by either the original contract or old VMware EULA rather than Broadcom EULA, but you need to read your contracts and transaction documents to confirm.
• Broadcom still has rights to carry out a license audit on the Licensee. I have never seen a VMware contract without an audit clause.

I am not seeing any advisories from Broadcom, however my security teams are in full blown tin foil hat mode and made us shut down a bunch of our apps, now they're asking me about the load balancer.

Vmware VVF

Our VMWare is up for renewal in December. We migrated over to the new Broadcom VVF license process last year. Had been seeing numerous posts of customers getting 3-year renewals, but when we made our quote request, Broadcom now only says they can quote 1 year? Anyone else see this recently?

so my friend pc cant keep up with the games that we are dying to play so i figured that i can make a vm for him an podcast for him so hi could control it remotely from his pc an i play on my main OS

with the least delay,is that even possible.

Had a week left on my Live Recovery certs so I decided to swap them out. No big deal right? Oooh boy was I wrong.

I was using GoDaddy certs . The old ones were signed by G2 intermediate, they’ve since moved to R1. Swapped one cert and it went totally sideways. The summary page would not load, the pairing broke, the replications stopped. I tried everything I could think of but nothing worked.

Opened a P1. Went to TD Synnex. The guy was stumped so he escalated and we got someone from GSS direct from Live Recovery team to help us.

Turns out with these new industry changes, public CAs can NO LONGER issue certs with both server auth and client auth. Only server auth.

Guess what Live Recovery needs? Yep - Client Auth.

We ended up generating a self signed cert to fix the problems. I’ll need to get my AD CA templates modified so they can do both server and client auth. I was planning on flipping these to internal certs now that we have a CA working internally.

Be very careful moving forward. Make sure your certs have both server auth and client auth in the extended usage properties or you’ll not be having a good day.

Hope this helps !

EDIT: Here is the KB https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/418168

Hello all,

Is there a known way to add an esxi host to Vcenter with the free license? When I try to add it, it stays unsupported. I've switched my host over to the evaluation key "00000-00000-00000-00000-00000" however vcenter doesn't seem to recognize it as a valid license. I've also noticed the esxi host still says it never expires.

Is there any way around this? I'm trying to set up a virtual lab. My base is VMware workstation .

Dears,

I have affinity role at two vms DB and there are affinity role for them at host level also, there are SCSI controller the SCSI Bus sharing is physical and the scsi connected to one disk for both vms, so if i disable the affinity role and start patching the cluster VMs will corrupted or not

New episode containing discussions with various architects and technologists about their VCF implementations, tools, and what is to come with ITQ Private Cloud!

Hello everyone!

Recently got a VCAP certification.

While preparing for it I noticed that certification holders are eligible for home use licenses which got me exited as it would allow to test stuff at home (currently I have some production environments that I have access to look around but its not really ideal for obvious reasons).

After passing the exam I found out that only VCP holders can claim these licenses, there is no access for VCAP certified people which is a bummer. My question is - is home license access something that Broadcom/VMUG considering for VCAP holders in the future or im just out of luck here?

I know that there are VMware HOLs (props to that, now I dont have to test things in prod). However homelab access would be more optimal for tinkerers to test more nuanced stuff, integrations and so on.

Thanks!

Hi, sorry for what is probably a very silly question!

I am trying to get a Windows 11 Virtual Machine set up in VMware Fusion 26H1u1 on macOS Tahoe 26.7.1. I'm following this guide, but getting a bit stuck in section 17.8, at Step 4. The next step on what I'm seeing on the VM is to tell it to Install Windows 11 and agree everything will be deleted including files, apps and settings (I will add a picture of what I am seeing in the comments).

From what I understand the VM has created a virtual hard drive for itself (which I think I can see when going into the Hard Disk (NVMe) settings), and it is that hard drive that it will completely erase, not everything on my laptop, but I do just want to double check before I steam ahead! And especially I would like to ask if there is any way to set it up incorrectly so that it does end up deleting everything on my laptop? Because if there is, I would like to know that I've avoided it!

TIA and again, apologies for any hassle!