To suspend a virtual machine:
By default, the state of a virtual machine is suspended or saved to disk, unless you specify otherwise. You can use the Configuration Editor to modify suspend options for your virtual machine. Suspend options include:
The speed of suspend and restore options depends on how much has changed during your working session. In general, the first suspend will take a bit longer than later suspend operations.
The following table contrasts Suspend to disk and Suspend to memory under certain situations.
Situation |
Suspend to disk |
Suspend to memory |
Multiple virtual machines are running on a system with limited physical memory. |
Memory is released so that it may be used my other applications. It is possible that you may not be able to resume a suspended virtual machine if too little memory is available at the time. |
Memory is not released because it is required to maintain the state of the virtual machine. |
Virtual machine(s) running on a portable computer. You need to save power. |
You may exit the virtual machine after suspending, and save your work for when you can resume it. |
The saved state of the virtual machine is only available as long as the virtual machine is powered on. |
The guest operating system in a virtual machine consumes resources while idling (for example, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Red Hat Linux 6.0). |
You may suspend a virtual machine to disk and then exit. |
You must resume the virtual machine and perform an orderly shutdown before powering off and exiting. Warning: If you power off or exit a virtual machine that is suspended to memory, you will lose all your work and possibly leave the guest operating system in a bad or unstable state. |
© 2001 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.