High Guest Memory Usage on XP VM

[DonDon11]

I have build a xp virtual desktop on esx 4.1 and on on vsphere the machine is showing high guest memory being used, sometime reaching nearly 100% and keep receiving alerts for the issue.

I have allocated 1024MB RAM allocated for the machine and the settings and Memory resource is set to max of 1024 MB.

How to do I stop the machine from running high guest memory, help!!

[iw123]

Hi,

Have you installed VM tools in the XP Guest? What is the utilization looking like from within the guest?

[BharatR]

Hi,

1. Use the esxtop command (Login in ESXi Host) to determine whether the ESX/ESXi  server's memory is overcomitted. For more information about esxtop, see the  Resource Management Guide for your version of ESX/ESXi:
   
   
   1. Examine the MEM overcommit avg on the first line of the command  output. This value reflects the ratio of the requested memory to the available  memory, minus 1.
      
      Examples:
      
      
      • If the virtual machines require 4 GB of RAM, and the host has 4 GB of RAM,  then there is a 1:1 ratio. After subtracting 1 (from 1/1), the MEM  overcommit avg field reads 0. There is no overcommitment and no extra RAM  is required.
      • If the virtual machines require 6 GB of RAM, and the host has 4 GB of RAM,  then there is a 1.5:1 ratio. After subtracting 1 (from 1.5/1), the MEM  overcommit avg field reads .5. The RAM is overcommited by 50%, meaning  that 50% more than the available RAM is required.
        
        
   If  the memory is being overcommited, adjust the memory load on the host. To adjust  the memory load, either:
   
   
   • Increase the amount of physical RAM on the host
     
     OR
     
     
   • Decrease the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machines. To decrease  the amount of allocated RAM, either:
     
     
     • Decrease the total amount of RAM allocated to all of the virtual machines  on the host
       
       OR
       
       
     • Reduce the total number of virtual machines on the  host.
       
       
   • ESXi  5.0
   • ESX/ESXi 4.1
   • ESX 4.0
   • ESX 3.5:
     • Update 2 and later
     • Initial Release and Update 1
   • ESX 3.0
2. Determine whether the virtual machines are ballooning and/or  swapping.
   
   To detect any ballooning or swapping:
   
   
   1. Run esxtop.
   2. Type m for memory
   3. Type f for fields
   4. Select the letter J for Memory  Ballooning Statistics (MCTL)
   5. Look at the MCTLSZ value.
      
      MCTLSZ (MB) displays the amount of guest physical memory reclaimed by the balloon  driver.
   6. Type f for Field
   7. Select the letter for Memory Swap Statistics (SWAP STATS).
   8. Look at the SWCUR value.
      
      SWCUR (MB) displays the current Swap Usage.
      
      
   To resolve this issue, ensure  that the ballooning and/or swapping is not caused by the memory limit being  incorrectly set. If the memory limit is incorrectly set, reset it correctly. For  more information, see:
   
   
   • Impact of virtual machine memory  and CPU resource limits (1033115)
   • Balloon driver retains hold on  memory causing virtual machine guest operating system performance is...

[v-4-virtual]

which process is using most of the memory ?

[DonDon11]

Looking into it further there dont seem to be any processes as I have only the OS and office 2010 installed as well as the VMware tools. I'm suspecting that it may be lack of resources on the host. Thanks for all responses!

[iw123]

Do you have many other virtual machines running on that host?

[DonDon11]

I have 2 other xp machines running on the host with no issues, anmd the new vm was built from template I created from cloning one of the working machines. The 2 other machine do not see any of the issues of the increased guest memory.

I had also orignally built th machine from scratch but the issue was occuring more frequently.

[rickardnobel]

Could you provide a screenshot of Taskmanager in the Performance tab?

[DonDon11]

I have been monitoring the machine for the majority of the morning and seems to be steady now around 10% guest memory. The only thing I done was limit the memory of the settings of the vm and set the share value to low.

[rickardnobel]

DonDon1 wrote:

I have been monitoring the machine for the majority of the morning and seems to be steady now around 10% guest memory. The only thing I done was limit the memory of the settings of the vm and set the share value to low.

You have set a Memory Limit on the VM? To what value if so?

[DonDon11]

The VM was built with 1GB RAM, on the resources I have set the Memory limit to 2592 MB, the share reservation is set 1024MB.

[rickardnobel]

So the VM has 1 GB of vRAM and you have set a 1 GB reservation and a 2.5 GB limit? It I understand it correctly it does not really make any sense.

[DonDon11]

I'm not quite sure how I ended up with these setting apart from messing around and seeing the outcome, it has seemed to work however as the guest memory seems to be stable now:smileyconfused:. I have also just enrolled on a VCP5 course :smileygrin:

[rickardnobel]

DonDon1 wrote:

I have also just enrolled on a VCP5 course :smileygrin:

That is a good course and it will have at least a decent amount of information on VMware memory techniques and how limits / reservations work.