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10 Replies Last post: Aug 7, 2008 6:28 AM by bascheew
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"Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM.

Aug 6, 2008 9:12 PM

Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007
Hi all. This is my first post since the new free release of ESXi has pulled me from the ranks of Xen and Hyper-V. I'm on my first ESXi evaluation project for a client and I've hit a bump in the road.

After successfully importing an Acronis .tib hard drive image as a new VM into ESXi I am unable to start the machine as I immediately get an "Insufficient Memory Resources" error. I found a blog that says you can get this error in ESX if you don't have a big enough swap disk created for ESX and suggests creating an additional swap disk from the command line. (http://www.systemsarchitech.com/en/article/12/vmware-esx-fix-insufficient-memory-resources-unable-to-poweron-vm)

I installed the Remote CLI but the command does not work and so I'm thinking I can't do this in ESXi. Is this in fact my problem or is this a problem with the VM settings? I've lowered the memory settings for the VM way down with the same result. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Tags: acronis, .tib, insufficient_memory_resources
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:13 PM
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru Dave.Mishchenko 6,710 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator
What sort of hardware are you running on and how much memory do you have? Are you able to create a VM and then install an OS into it?
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:24 PM
in response to: Dave.Mishchenko
Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007

This is on a Dell Poweredge 2600 with 2x 2.8GHz Xeons, 2GB RAM and 200GB SCSI array on PERC4i. Yes it's a bit dated but the client doesn't need much.

I can create a VM from scratch and install an OS on it with no problem. Is there a more detailed error log, the messages are lacking in detail.

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Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:32 PM
Click to view weinstein5's profile Champion weinstein5 3,999 posts since
Nov 19, 2005
What resources are you setting for the VMs - How much memory and are you setting memory reservations? with only 2 GB on the host there is not much memory left for vms - If you are using ESXi you will not need to worry about service3 console swap space since by default it does not have a service console - by adding the Remote CLI you are in essence adding a service console -
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:33 PM
in response to: bascheew
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru Dave.Mishchenko 6,710 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator
If you browse the datastore (see image) and go to the folder where the VM is, you'll see a number of vmware*.log files. Could you post the lastest one?
Attachments:
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:44 PM
in response to: Dave.Mishchenko
Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007
Thank you for the replies, I must say I am impressed with the fast responses.

We will be adding another 6GB of RAM to the server if I can get this to work, but right now we're in research mode. I haven't changed any resource allocation, everything is defaults. I only have this one VM on the server at this point.

I don't have any log files in the datastore to speak of. All I see is a subfolder with the VM files in it.

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Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:45 PM
in response to: bascheew
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru Dave.Mishchenko 6,710 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator
As suggested above, how much memory do you have allocated to this VM?
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 9:47 PM
in response to: Dave.Mishchenko
Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007
512MB currently.
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 6, 2008 10:15 PM
in response to: bascheew
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru Dave.Mishchenko 6,710 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator
What number do you have on the Resource Allocation tab for the Memory Reservation?
Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 7, 2008 5:15 AM
in response to: Dave.Mishchenko
Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007

81MB total and 0MB on the VM. See screenshot. This number is much lower than what I have on another host. I'm not sure what this number represents exactly but could this be a problem?

Capture32454.JPG

Reply Re: "Insufficient Memory Resources" error when attempting to power on VM. Aug 7, 2008 6:28 AM
in response to: Dave.Mishchenko
Click to view bascheew's profile Lurker bascheew 8 posts since
Feb 12, 2007
The problem is solved, I just had to add more RAM to the server and the VM boots fine now. I appreciate your quick help on this issue!
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