Full memory assignment being used

[wallaceb]

Hi VMware forums,

I have a VDI where each machine I have set to use 16GB of RAM but each VM in the VDI is using the full 16GB assigned. I have another pool based on the same golden image that is not using all the RAM for each VM like you would normally see. The main difference between the two is that the VDI using the whole reservation are using GRID cards. Could that be why? Is there a way to change that behavior?

vSphere 6.5

Horizon View 7.5

Windows 10 LTSB

Thanks,

Wallace

[StephenMoll]

The use of GRID cards requires the vMemory settings of the guest to have the "Reserve all guest memory (all locked)" check box to be ticked. So those VMs will grab all of their 16GB RAM allocation on start-up.

[StephenMoll]

Here you go : See procedure step 6 : Add an NVIDIA GRID vGPU to a Virtual Machine

[wallaceb]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am actually familiar with those settings, that was a requirement for our VDI set up. However, my understanding was that it only relates to the GPU video memory (vRAM) and not the RAM on the VM. So for instance in those settings on one of my servers with two GRID K1 cards I have 8 different GPUs with 4GB of video memory each that are set to shared direct. I am using the K140Q profile set to reserve 1GB of vRAM per VM.

All the RAM having been used up may be related to the GRID card being present in some way but I do not see it being in this manner.

[wallaceb · Accepted solution]

Whenever a passthrough device is used a full memory reservation is required. So it doesn't have to be a video card, if any passthrough device is present on a VM then all the memory must be reserved.

VMware Knowledge Base

"Note: When the device is assigned, the virtual machine must have a memory reservation for the full configured memory size."

[JohnTwilley]

We are migrating from Horizon 6.2.3 --> Horizon 7.6, and have noticed the memory seems to behave differently on the VMs with GRID cards.

All of the VMs are alerting 'RED', since the Memory is 'maxed out'.

  

If you login to the VM, the OS is using approximately 1.3 GB memory.

Everything works fine, but I don't like seeing RED PCs in vSphere.

Sample of the OLD Horizon 6.2.3 VMs.

  

Is this normal?

[StephenMoll]

I think the new behaviour more accurately reflects what should happen.

"Memory Active" is physical memory being used by a VM that is not available for ballooning or swapping. With the "Reserve All Guest Memory" box checked, the purpose here is to prevent just that (ballooning or swapping), so therefore all physical memory allocated to the VM effectively becomes "active", i.e. it can't be used by another process or VM.

[JohnTwilley]

That makes sense.  

I was just trying to determine a way to NOT see these virtual machine memory alerts daily...what are other GRID card admins experiencing with memory alerts?

Sample:

[sjesse]

They need to add a way to supress these, I don't have nvidia cards yet, but instant clone parents do this and there isn't a way to supress them. I think its the same thing with nvidia cards, we are waiting for a way to supress them

https://gridforums.nvidia.com/default/topic/1093/general-discussion/memory-alerts-in-esxi-6-5-hosts-...