Accepted Solutions
We have a Win 2003 server template with 1 cpu and 256 MB memory and I have 12 or so VM's deployed from that. Some web servers, small sql database servers, etc.
Congratulations! Glad to see that you're following my best practice of starting out small and adding resources as needed!
When the servers are first fired up and being configured the memory use spikes up, but then they settle down.
This is "normal" for a Windows guest OS. One of the first things Windows does on startup is to go out and "touch" every available byte of RAM. So...no matter how much RAM you allocate to your VMs, Windows will always demonstrate the spike on startup.
What is the best practice on setting the memory size in general, leaving it low and letting them grab memory as needed or setting the baseline higher if they seem to want more?
Monitor the VM's memory usage over time. Don't worry about the first couple of minutes following a boot - they are not indicative of the true RAM requirements of the VM. If you see that your VM is running at 85% or higher utilization, then you might want to add more memory; otherwise, be happy that you've allocated enough memory to begin with 
Ken Cline
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blogging at: http://KensVirtualReality.wordpress.com/
We have a Win 2003 server template with 1 cpu and 256 MB memory and I have 12 or so VM's deployed from that. Some web servers, small sql database servers, etc.
Congratulations! Glad to see that you're following my best practice of starting out small and adding resources as needed!
When the servers are first fired up and being configured the memory use spikes up, but then they settle down.
This is "normal" for a Windows guest OS. One of the first things Windows does on startup is to go out and "touch" every available byte of RAM. So...no matter how much RAM you allocate to your VMs, Windows will always demonstrate the spike on startup.
What is the best practice on setting the memory size in general, leaving it low and letting them grab memory as needed or setting the baseline higher if they seem to want more?
Monitor the VM's memory usage over time. Don't worry about the first couple of minutes following a boot - they are not indicative of the true RAM requirements of the VM. If you see that your VM is running at 85% or higher utilization, then you might want to add more memory; otherwise, be happy that you've allocated enough memory to begin with
Ken Cline
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blogging at: http://KensVirtualReality.wordpress.com/
