Memory allocation problem found in ESXi 3.5

[SonyRaymond]

Hi,

Before I switched to use ESXi 3.5 to host my guest VM, I used VMware Server 1.0.6 to guest VMs. However, I figure out that

the VMServer could not allocate correct memory which I specified in VM settings, for example, I set 3GB memory to a guest

OS, but I found that only 1200MB memory was allocated in toask manager.

So I now use ESXi 3.5 to host 3 VMs, the host of ESXi 3.5 has 8GB memory,two of these VMs have memory allocation of 1800MB and 4GB.

However, on ESXi console, I found that the me the "guest memory usage" are only 450MB and 778MB only.

It is really out of my expectation, it seems the memory managements on VMware products are the same.

Does anyone know how to fix the guest memory usage such that ESXi will not control the memory allocation dynamically?

In our case, it is not necessary to adjust memory consumption smartly by ESXi from time to time.

I attached some screen captures for your reference and hope the screens are helpful to explain the problem.

Thanks for your kind attention,

Raymond

[RParker]

However, on ESXi console, I found that the me the "guest memory usage" are only 450MB and 778MB only

Yes that is correct. The console sees what the HOST provides to these VM's NOT what the guest would see. In ESX it may only need to allocate 450Mb of RAM to grant that guest OS 1.8GB of RAM. That's how it works on ESX, so those numbers look correct.

Also those numbers are based on ACTIVE usage by the guest, if the guest isn't in need of that RAM, it won't hog it unless its actively using it.

Go inside the guest, and verify the RAM is correct for what you allocated, if it is, then it looks fine to me.

[SonyRaymond]

Hi RParker,

Is it possble to lock memory usage of guest OS in a fixed allocation? In our case, I do not think our guest OSs are not in need of those RAM, as I found that it swapped seriously and I even can't login into it via remote desktop.

Thank,

Raymond

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Is it possble to lock memory usage of guest OS in a fixed allocation?

Is called memory reservation.

You can do under VM settings (resources tab) or using resource pool.

Andre

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