Memory requirements / tips for VMware Fusion 6 on Mavericks?

[arang]

I updated my MBA with 4 GB of RAM to Mavericks today.

I have a Windows 7 VM configured for 1200 MB of RAM, which is suspended.  Trying to resume it results in a “not enough physical memory” message.  The logs show, in part, the following.

2013-10-23T17:18:17.312-06:00| vmx| I120: OvhdMem_PowerOn: lib/overheadmem:   paged   626512 nonpaged    37106 anonymous    18340

2013-10-23T17:18:17.312-06:00| vmx| I120: OvhdMem_PowerOn: initial admission: paged   590517 nonpaged    36271 anonymous     5715

2013-10-23T17:18:17.312-06:00| vmx| I120: VMMEM: Initial Reservation: 1270MB (MainMem=1200MB)

2013-10-23T17:18:17.312-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched_PowerOn: balloon minGuestSize 104857 (80% of min required size 131072)

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched: reserved mem (in MB) min 128 max 2456 recommended 2456

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: PShare: enabled 1 adaptive 1 scanRate [16, 400]

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched: pg 590517 np 36271 anon 5715 mem 307200

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched: numvm 1 locked pages: num 0 max 180092

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched: locked Page Limit: host 188284 config 628736 dynam -1

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: MemSched: minmempct 50 minalloc 0 admitted 0

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: Msg_Post: Error

2013-10-23T17:18:17.313-06:00| vmx| I120: [msg.memsched.preNotEnoughMem] Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings.

Activity Monitor reports no swap used (unsurprisingly—Mavericks memory compression is working well), 5.26 GB of virtual memory, 1.08 GB wired memory.  vm_stat shows that some active memory would have to be reduced (or compressed pages swapped out) for 1.2 GB, or 307200 pages, to be wired down:

Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)

Pages free:                               89289.

Pages active:                            285658.

Pages inactive:                          183772.

Pages speculative:                        20062.

...

Pages stored in compressor:              328288.

Pages occupied by compressor:            180158.

How large of a VM should I expect to be able to run on this system with Mavericks? I've successfully run up to 2 GB under Mountain Lion, though that's probably pushing things a bit far. I haven't tried rebooting yet as I'm still downloading some software updates.

....

Well, I let the machine sit for a few minutes, and apparently something cleared up — I was able to resume the VM just now.  This does feel like a bug, though, in either Mavericks new VM subsystem or in how VMware is interacting with it.  My question still stands; any ideas on what a reasonable VM size is that I can reliably use here?

Message was edited by: Anton Rang (added “it works now” paragraph)

[Australadian]

Disabling App Nap didn't help.

I'm going back to Version 5 and see if that changes things.

[aawevers]

Yes, I also have the same problem.

Now running Mavericks with Fusion6 & Windows7 VM and get the window informing me that my memory is too low to run the VM. It then advices me to reduce the memory settings for the VM. This was not happening before moving to Mavericks.

I am not restarting or reducing memory for the VM but use a small app called FreeMemory that forces Mavericks (FreeMemory | Rocky Sand Studio) to release more memory and will allow the VM to start as normal.

This is obviously not the way it should be but it will keep me going until Fusion comes out with a fix for the memory reclaim in Mavericks.

[DamageR]

Same problem here!

Disabling App Nap doesn't do the trick....

Now Re-Using Fusion5 :smileyangry:

[metapede]

Same problem on MBA 4GB running Fusion 6 on OS 10.9 (no problems before upgrading OS to 10.9).

Like others, if I reboot my Mac, I can run Fusion once. I can't run it again after closing it unless I reboot the Mac again.

I tried disabling App Nap on Fusion, but it didn't fix the problem for me.

[xiblack]

My case is similar, I run VMFusion 5.0.3 on MBA with 4GB RAM.

Before upgrade to Mavericks, I always run 2 VMs at the same time: Win7 (1GB RAM) and Ubuntu 12.04 (512MB RAM); I could run 2 VMs with many of usual apps: Mail, Safari, iTunes, Xcode...

After upgrade to Mavericks, I can only 1 VM at a time; try to boot the second VM will end with the error "Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings."

Summary: both VMFusion 5 and VMFusion 6 have this issue with Mavericks.

Hope VMware can release the patch soon, I can not work smoothly without either of the VMs

[goBizCare]

Same behavior here...

And NapApp worked for me, thanks!

[dalupus]

Just wanted to say that app nap semi works for me.  It gets me able to run my vm if I am not doing to much but I still have issues if try to do much on the computer.  

This is with a single xp vm I had some issues.  Before mavericks and fusion 6 I was able to run a couple xp vm's with no issue. 

I hope we get an updated fusion soon.

[Magnusemail]

One more 'me too'!

After upgrading to Mavericks and Fusion 6.0.1 on a MBA with 4GB RAM I can only start my Windows7 VM once, and then have consistent issues with the "Not enough physical memory ..." errors. Can only then run VM's after a full physical reboot. Also the performance and stability of the VM's are very poor, not somothing that  happened with Fusion 5.

Hindsight suggests I and others should have waited to upgrade.....Also shows that even when paying for upgrade's vendors can not be relied on for basic testing - had hoped that more professional approach and response would be forthcoming from vmware - several days on from several clear cases being reported on this list - not even a formal acknowledgement on the vmware support site.

One week further and then have to move on with parallels.....

[avanish321]

Hi...

A free update to fusion 6 has been rolled out which has the fix.

Please update your existing fusion build to 6.0.2.

[Magnusemail]

Hello avanish321,

positive news, could you indicate how to acquire upgrade to 6.0.2 as the vmware check for upgrade just says that I have the latest version?

Thanks

[avanish321]

The release notes have been published .

Hence the update should be available anytime.

[ShaddamIV]

... and? Where is the downloadable?

[avanish321]

Here's the link.

https://www.vmware.com/go/tryfusion

This will download the complete Fusion set with the tools included in the bundle itself.

[ShaddamIV]

Yay! thanks!

[aawevers]

Success - the new update seems to have solved my low memory waning. The VM also appears to be starting up quicker than before. Thanks!

[chrisrus]

I still seem to have the issue after updating to 6.0.2 build 1398658.  Is anyone else still seeing it?

Thanks,

Chris

[dariusd]

Hi Chris, and welcome to the VMware Communities!

Could you find the vmware.log from inside your virtual machine's log bundle, and upload it as an attachment?  (To attach a file, choose Use advanced editor in the top-right of the compose window, then use the Browse... button to attach the file.)

Thanks,

--

Darius

[chrisrus]

Hi Darius,

Thanks for the reply and the welcome.  Log file is attached. 

Thanks,

Chris

[dariusd]

Thanks for that, Chris.

The log indicates that you are running a several VMs at once there.  How much memory does your host have, and how much memory is allocated to each of the VMs you are already running when this failure occurs?

Cheers,

--

Darius

[ShaddamIV]

6.0.3 works fine and the previous issues with memory requirements on this mid 2011 MBAir have gone. Suspending the VM and quitting Fusion is a lot faster than before. Not yet sure about "re-animating" the VM. Thank you!