The service console memory should be increased if you are running apps other than the default install. This includes management agents, backups, etc. Here is a simple command that I ran across to accomplish this. It requires a reboot to take effect. I incorporate this in my kickstart script. Don't forget to set your swap partition to be 2x the Service Console memory.
See Current Setting:
The setting shown is in bytes (MB * 1024 * 1024)
vimsh -n -e "/hostsvc/memoryinfo"
serviceConsoleReserved - Current setting
serviceConsoleReservedCfg - Setting after next reboot
Set to 800MB with vimsh:
vimsh -n -e "/hostsvc/memoryinfo 838860800"
Set by manual edit of files:
mv -f /etc/vmware/esx.conf /tmp/esx.conf.bak
sed -e 's/boot\/memSize = \"272\"/boot\/memSize = \"512\"/g' /tmp/esx.conf.bak >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf
mv -f /boot/grub/grub.conf /tmp/grub.conf.bak
sed -e 's/uppermem 277504/uppermem 523264/g' -e 's/mem=272M/mem=512M/g' /tmp/grub.conf.bak >> /boot/grub/grub.conf
If you feel like setting it to the maximum of 800 MB.
mv -f /etc/vmware/esx.conf /tmp/esx.conf.bak
sed -e 's/boot\/memSize = \"272\"/boot\/memSize = \"800\"/g' /tmp/esx.conf.bak >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf
mv -f /boot/grub/grub.conf /tmp/grub.conf.bak
sed -e 's/uppermem 277504/uppermem 818176/g' -e 's/mem=272M/mem=800M/g' /tmp/grub.conf.bak >> /boot/grub/grub.conf