How many macOS guests does Parallels Desktop allow to run

S

SergeyP6

Bit poster
Hello.
I have an a2348 model mac mini (which is an 8-cores M1, 16GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, with macOS Monterey 12.2.1), and I'm picking virtualization software that will allow running several MacOS guests on the Mac mini (I'm going to test a developing software on different MacOS versions).
Has the Parallels Desktop 17 a limit of simultaneously running MacOS guests? How many MacOS guests will I be able to run on my Mac mini if to use the Parallels Desktop 17? Please advise.
 
Hey, I'm looking for creating as many guest VMs as I can on an M1 Mac mini as well. Did you figure out how many one can?
 
I've just learned any Mac running Apple silicon can only run OS12, nothing earlier is supported. While this is a small disappointment, it's a huge embarrassment to me as I've been touting Parallels to clients and colleagues for many years. Being able to have development environments from OS 10.6 to OS12, Windows 95 to Windows 11, and Ubuntu on one machine has been lovely. I recommended a client use Parallels after they bought a M1 Mac replacement, but need to run 10.11 in emulation for some abandonware they use at work. Imagine my surprise when they sent me the error messages attempting to create a VM for their old software. A quick email to customer support resulted in a quick and informative reply. Parallels is an outstanding product, but they need to be VERY transparent regarding their product usefulness during this Apple transition of hardware. Seems a bit more painful than the PowerPC->Intel transition years back. The website presently seems to gloss over this limitation with its absence of forthrightness on the topic prior or during purchase. How many guest OS VMs can you have? As many as you want, as long as it's Mac OS12, Windows 10, 11 and some linux flavors. Nothing prior, apparently.
 
Aries@PF said:
If anyone comes up later, in reality, Parallels should be able to handle as many VMs as you have the Storage / RAM. IE: This Mac has 32 Gb of RAM and plenty of storage. So if I give each VM the max of 8 Gb RAM, then I can safely run 3 VMs without major Host system performance issues. If I wanna push my luck, then I could Technically do 4, but the whole thing would drag and there would be a high chance of Something crashing.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is possible to create multiple VM's with Parallels Desktop for Mac. Kindly help us with the version and edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac for further assistance. Thanks
 
To clarify: I can run up to two macOS VMs concurrently. But how many installations can I have as long as I only have two of them running at a time? More than two?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top