Windows 7, Rockwell FactoryTalk, Virtual Machine, PLC

You may have the wrong version of Doze 7. Ultimate and Pro offer XP compatibility. Home does not.

But since you didn't tell us, we cannot assist fully.

The native OS is Windows & Professional. The virtual OS is XP Pro.

If you can, XP is the way to go. Even after Rockwell comes out with a version that is compatible in 7 months, will Siemens and the others? Add to that the fact that the first go round on any software for a new OS is buggy as hell, and it just isn't worth the risk until things get settled a bit.

Put another way: I want my software to be leading edge, but not bleeding edge.

Are you using 32 bit or 64 bit base OS ? Also Windows 7 might need Rockwell to define new workflows, especially to support UAC. The better option would be XP on VMware, even better would be to use 64 Bit base Windows 7 OS with XP VM. Use NAT for network support, and that will be the safest, your VM will actually run just like your base environment.

Also note that VMware does nothing but simulate your underlying hardware, to technically using VM is no different than using a base OS, and it is much cost effective.

As SimS has stated w7 64bit is preferable though XP 32bit is preferable; yes there is a 64bit XP version but XP was designed for 32bit.

In disk management create a new partition make it about 48128MB and install XP to this partition. When you boot the computer you will choose which O/S to boot to.

As the vendor softwares catch up you should begin to use w7 instead of XP or you may be catching up not far down the road

I am currently running Windows 7 with an XP VMWare and all seems to work pretty well. Prior to this laptop I had a Vista machine with Virtual PC and had pretty good luck with that for Rockwell software as well. Not sure what kind of networking issues your having. I regularly connect via ethernet to Compact and ControlLogix PLC's. Have also used RSNetworx for DeviceNet and ControlNet with the VirtualPC without problems.

Shawn

My biggest problem was with FactoryTalk, it would not allow me to run the directory create application because it thought it was being run from a remote terminal. RSLogics and RSNetworks all seemed to work fine. The big issue is FactoryTalk.

Hello RickLee,

I run Windows7 Ultimate on my laptop... and I have a whole variety of VMWare Virtual machines from Win3.11 to Win2k8 Server. With proper resource allocation, I have NEVER had an issue running anything within a VM.

No secret, I work for Wonderware... and I have used VM's from local presentations to WebServers... connected to a MULTITUDE of hardware devices from RTU's, to ControlLogix PLC's, to Distributed Control Systems (DCS). Any networking issues can be resolved. I would recommend running the software on a VM that it supports. If it requires multiple VM's running at the same time, so be it... just have adequate resources to dedicate to them. VM's can communicate with each other quite nicely.

Right now, as I type, I am running a Win2k3 Server VM, an XP Pro VM AND a Win2k8 VM on a Dell m6500 i7 with 8G of ram (Win7 Ultimate 64 bit host)

My advice, spend the money for VMWare Workstation 7.1 and do what your heart desires. Without workstation you cannot "create" the VM's. Also, you need to be particular with distributing VM's you create. Each requires it's own valid license, as if it were it's own computer... this includes the OS.

I'll be happy to help you navigate the issues... can even provide a friendly ear in your geography.