Missing memory available for Virtual Machines?

AndyShinn · ‎01-11-2010

I just setup a new test ESXi host and thought everything was fine. But the memory available to Virtual Machines is much lower than the total memory.

I have 8GB total memory. Under the Summary tab, the host shows 7574 MB of 8081 MB used. Under the Configuration tab in the Memory section, it shows only 2793 MB available for Virtual Machines and the correct total again (8081 MB).

My question is, how can I begin to debug where this memory is being used? I only have 4 test VM running and each are using under 450 MB of host memory, under 2 GB.

Any ideas?

Dave_Mishchenko · ‎01-12-2010

If you run resxtop from the vCLI (or esxtop at the console) what sort of memory numbers do you see?

Dave

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J1mbo · ‎01-12-2010

How much RAM is assigned to each guest? Do they have vmware tools installed?

Adding up the host mem usage in the host level virtual machines tab should be somewhat less than the total memory usage reported on the host summary sheet, looking at two boxes here one is 900MB less and the other is 1600MB less.

HTH

AndyShinn · ‎01-12-2010

resxtop shows this:

 9:36:47am up 18:02, 196 worlds; MEM overcommit avg: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
PMEM  /MB:  8081   total:  5606     vmk,  1983 other,    490 free
VMKMEM/MB:  2920 managed:   175 minfree,  1396 rsvd,   1074 ursvd,  high state
PSHARE/MB:   434  shared,    86  common:   348 saving
SWAP  /MB:     0    curr,     0  target:                 0.00 r/s,   0.00 w/s
MEMCTL/MB:     0    curr,     0  target,  1329 max

This output looks really strange compared to another machine using only 4 GB total memory:

 9:39:11am up 3 days 22:38, 57 worlds; MEM overcommit avg: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
PMEM  /MB:  4029   total:   272     cos,   172 vmk,     979 other,   2606 free
VMKMEM/MB:  3669 managed:   220 minfree,  1165 rsvd,   2396 ursvd,  high state
COSMEM/MB:    13    free:   541  swap_t,   541 swap_f:   0.00 r/s,   0.00 w/s
PSHARE/MB:   200  shared,    73  common:   127 saving
SWAP  /MB:     0    curr,     0  target:                 0.00 r/s,   0.00 w/s
MEMCTL/MB:     0    curr,     0  target,   665 max

2920 MB appears to be my limit for some reason. Is the PMEM total the free or used?

This line definitely doesn't make sense to me:

PMEM  /MB:  8081   total:  5606     vmk,  1983 other,    490 free

According to resxtop the 4 VMs are using a total of about 2053 MB and nothing else really stands out at consuming the some 6 GB missing:

   GID NAME               MEMSZ    GRANT   SZTGT     TCHD %ACTV %ACTVS %ACTVF %ACTVN   OVHDUW     OVHD  OVHDMAX
    18 init.4177           2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   161 busybox.4326        2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   165 vmklogger.4330      2.45     0.09     2.45     0.09     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   683 vmkiscsid.4863      6.65     2.11     6.65     2.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   914 busybox.5102        2.41     0.13     2.41     0.13     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   963 ntpd.5150           2.28     0.17     2.28     0.17     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   979 sh.5166             2.53     0.13     2.53     0.13     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
   989 vobd.5176          16.54     0.46    16.54     0.46     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1001 sh.5194             2.53     0.13     2.53     0.13     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1011 hostd.5204         60.88    40.48    60.88    40.48     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1030 slpd.5225           2.62     0.37     2.62     0.37     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1099 sh.5294             2.53     0.13     2.53     0.13     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1109 openwsmand.5304     6.53     0.39     6.53     0.39     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1126 sh.5323             2.67     0.14     2.67     0.14     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1135 vpxa.5332          34.51    17.88    34.51    17.88     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1189 sh.5411             2.53     0.17     2.53     0.17     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1217 sh.5439             2.53     0.19     2.53     0.19     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1222 sh.5444             2.53     0.13     2.53     0.13     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1224 busybox.5446        2.55     0.14     2.55     0.14     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1233 net-cdp.5455        2.20     0.07     2.20     0.07     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1241 ash.5465            2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1242 ash.5466            2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1249 dcui.5473           5.70     1.25     5.70     1.25     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1250 ash.5474            2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1254 busybox.5478        2.40     0.11     2.40     0.11     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1357 sfcbd.5576          2.56     0.53     2.56     0.53     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1358 cimslp.5577         2.85     0.80     2.85     0.80     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1361 sfcbd.5580          2.54     0.44     2.54     0.44     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1362 sfcbd.5581          2.54     0.39     2.54     0.39     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1363 sfcbd.5582         13.34     3.47    13.34     3.47     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1397 sfcbd.6331          8.93     1.37     8.93     1.37     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1398 sfcbd.6332         18.96     3.61    18.96     3.61     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00
  1984 SAM-68R           512.00   511.70   526.07    81.92    14     13     14     11    37.37    51.44   110.73
  2070 SAM-69R           512.00   511.70   492.62    87.04    17     14     15     14    37.37    53.26   112.25
  2071 SAM-70R           512.00   511.69   521.27   102.40    19     14     17     14    37.37    48.29   107.39
  2072 SAM-71R           512.00   511.68   509.27    92.16    20     14     18      9    37.37    50.20   109.62
152494 sh.250085           2.53     0.17     2.53     0.17     0      0      0      0     0.00     0.00     0.00

Thanks for the help. Any ideas?

elixx · ‎08-14-2010

I am experiencing a similiar issue -- refer to posts 6 and 7 here: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1591071#1591071.

esxtop's first lines show something that seems to be telling:

PMEM /MB: 16061 total: 8474 vmk, 71 other, 7515 free

VMKMEM/MB: 7688 managed: 461 minfree, 527 rsvd, 7011 ursvd, high state

If I boot up with 8GB ram, everything is normal and System occupies < 1GB. Boot up with 16GB... and half of it is reserved.

This is happening after a fresh installation with no VMs deployed, too.

All

Missing memory available for Virtual Machines?