One of my favourite topics over the last several months has been to explore ways in which a PEGA Personal Edition can be used in a Mac laptop. Being a fan of the Apple ecosystem I was unwilling to leave it and tried several avenues to find the ideal approach , but all of them had their downsides : a Cloud instance , for example, is extremely limited in its ability for customisation, while other approaches like getting a Windows Virtual Machine through Parallels software (requiring a monthly paid subscription) was not providing the adequate levels of performance I was expecting.
This latest approach is by far the best solution : anyone interested in trying it out requires a downloaded PEGA Personal Edition, a free version of the Parallels software, and a free instance of Debian GNU/Linux 10 VM installed in the Parallels machine. This was tested in both x86 and ARM-based architecture models of Mac , so it should work for both M1 and Intel-based Mac laptops. The choice of Debian was also a simple one : Debian’s stable releases are much more reliable compared to other distros like Ubuntu , and although Debian’s software ecosystem is considered outdated, stability was a benefit which far outweighed any such issues.
The documentation is fairly detailed, only requiring a rudimentary knowledge of technical details, and anyone having an issue while using it can definitely reach out to us for clarification. I have been using it in my own M1 machine with 32GB RAM for about a week now, and it is INSANELY fast !
If anyone using MacOS tries it out and encounters any issues, please let me know.
— Update on 14th October 2022 —
Parallels require a licensing cost, so use UTM instead. It is a free virtualization tool and is available here : https://mac.getutm.app/
Only downside is : unlike Parallels you have to install Debian OS manually, but the steps are pretty simple. Once Debian is installed, the PEGA installation steps are exactly the same.
@HenrikW I think the Parallels software itself doesnot require a subscription. Only the Windows installation in the Parallels software should require that.
@VTALUKDAR Good day - Many thanks for the steps - I was able to run Pega using Parallels & Debian in my MacBook(intel based machine) - However the Parallels has a trial period of only 14 days - I tried to search for a free version but it is in available - could you let me know if there are any links which I can use to download the Parallels free version- Thanks in advance.
@RadhakrishnanR4657 I have a an even better suggestion : try using an application UTM. UTM is a free tool which you can use without any extra money to pay for.
The downside is : unlike Parallels, you have install Debian manually in the UTM VM, but the steps are fairly simple. Once Debian is installed in VM, the steps to install PEGA are exactly the same.
@VTALUKDAR Yep - it worked .. Using UTM - I had to download the Debian gnome.iso file separately and then had to install it - it took few more steps and some amount of googling to take care of the access issues - But finally running the app without problem.
The iso file available in the UTM gallery is for M1 macs and Unfortunately mine is Macbook pro (15 inch model -amd64) version was required.. that is the difference.
@SandeepPamidamarri If you are somehow able to allocate 8GB RAM to the UTM, your Mac will crash (I would know as I have tried it !). Try allocating 6GB to it, and it might still work : although it would be extremely slow.
To be honest, running a basic PEGA 8.7 Personal Edition is best done on a 16GB RAM machine.
@PPRANEETH007 i tried VMware VM but the silicon chips are not supporting them at this time
however if i can suggest any solution one thing i can is to use AWS cloud
I have tried the executing the exercise system on AWS cloud as an experiment to see if it yeilds any result.
These are the steps followed.
1.Creating a S3 bucket.
(In AWS cloudshell)
2.setting up permission for AWS to access the S3 bucket.(permission and role creation)
3.Attaching the permissions to bucket.(policy)
4.Associating the policy to the role created.
5.Executing a batch job to convert the .ova file in s3 bucket to AMI.
6.Once above batch job is done VM machine will be available as a AIM in EC2 list.
This instance can be launched and pega application can be accessed form AWS cloud.
to avoid delay or stuck in process increase SWAP RAM size so you can access the application within the considerable time but if need high performance then you have to go to billable credits.
