SQL 2005 VM causes memory alert in vCenter

[jglenn84]

I've noticed a pattern with some SQL 2005 clusters where in vCenter the active node continually gets "Virtual Machine Memory Usage" alarms. When I open the VM the memory levels are normal (%65-70). Does anyone know what may be causing the active node to continually alarm? I have increased the amount of RAM to 8192MB per VM and reinstalled VMware Tools. After rebooting a node I notice the alarm doesn't trigger right away. Usually it's 4-5 days later that the gradual increase of the memory usage gets to %80-90.

vCenter - Performance tab:

SQL 2005 cluster (first)-

Active Node: Memory Usage (Average) %85.58

Active Node: Windows Task Manager %68.75

Passive Node: Memory Usage (Average) %32.72

Passive Node: Windows Task Manager %17.50

[RParker]

That means you didn't set the SQL memory parameters, by default SQL tries to grab ALL available RAM, so if your VM is 6GB you need to set the SQL Memory to something like 4GB (4096) or somewhat less than your RAM in the VM.

That should fix the problem.

[jglenn84]

Why does vCenter report higher memory usage than what Windows is reporting? That's where my concern is. Take a look at the numbers I posted and you will see that Windows is reporting less memory usage than vCenter for those SQL VMs. That results in the false memory alarms. I can set the triggers higher to mask the issue, but I would rather figure out why it's happen and fix it.