3.1

Host System Requirements for
VMware Player 2
Your computer must have the compatible hardware to install VMware Player.
The minimum host system requirements for installing and using VMware Player are:
n
Standard x86-compatible or x86-64 with Intel VT Intel™ Virtualization Technology feature turned on or
most AMD64 processors (except the earliest revision C Opteron processors).
n
Processor speed – 1.3GHz or faster
n
Memory – Minimum 1GB is required, however VMware recommends to have 2GB and above available
memory. You must have enough memory to run the host operating system, the guest operating system
for every virtual machine, and for applications on the host and guest. For more information about memory
requirements, see your guest operating system documentation.
The total amount of memory you can assign to all virtual machines running on a single host is limited
only by the amount of RAM on the host. The maximum amount of memory for each virtual machine on
32-bit hosts is 8GB and on 64-bit hosts is 32GB. VMware Player does not allow powering on virtual
machines that are configured to use more than 8GB of memory on 32-bit hosts. Memory management
limitations on 32-bit operating systems cause virtual machine memory to overcommit, which severely
affects system performance.
n
Hard disk – At least 1GB free disk space is recommended for each guest operating system.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“Compatible Virtual Machines and System Images,” on page 12
n
“Using Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing,” on page 12
VMware, Inc.
11