32 bit host, 8GB RAM MB, maximum RAM available to guest VM

[VM_T]

Hi,

If XP Pro 32 bit is the host which supports 3.5-4GB RAM and I have an Intel VT motherboard with 8GB RAM installed is it supported to assign 4GB of memory to the guest leaving the remainder available for the host OS?

TIA

[mike_laspina · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Here is the official WS 6 reference.

Increased RAM Support - The previous limit of 4GB total RAM that could be used for all virtual machines combined has been removed. The amount of memory used by all virtual machines combined is now limited only by the amount of the host computer's RAM and page file size. The maximum amount of memory that can be allocated per virtual machine has been raised from 3.6GB to 8GB.

So it is limitied to what the OS can use.

[mike_laspina]

If you use XP x64 then you could use th 8GB.

[VM_T]

I'm currently using WS 5.5 so it would appear that the maximum amount of RAM is 3.6GB/virtual guest.

But I'm confused by: "The amount of memory used by all virtual machines combined is now limited only by the amount of the host computer's RAM."

If the host computer has 8GB of RAM but the host OS is 32 bit addressing 3.6 GB RAM can the host OS continue to use 1 GB and two virtual guests another 7 GB or so total? In other words using Intel VT does a virtual guest have direct access to the processor and memory or is it sharing the memory supported by the host OS?

What I'm trying to do is have XP Pro 32 bit as the host OS, Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium (SBS) as a virtual guest (3.6GB RAM) and a XP Pro guest (2+ GB RAM) as a team member to the SBS server.

Thanks for the replies!

[Peter_vm]

You can't do that. Your host OS must support all physical host memory. Windows XP 32-bit can use only up to 4GB.

You would need to install host OS which support more than 4GB (XP 64-bit, 2003 Server Enterprise 32-bit, or others...) Windows XP 32-bit won't do the job.

[mike_laspina]

Unfortunately that's not how VMware Workstation works, it relies on the host OS as the resource provider. It must follow the same rules as the host OS and in this case with XP 32Bit that is 4GB max and XP 64Bit 128GB max however WS6 will only allow 8GB max and WS5 is 4GB max over all the VM's.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[VM_T]

Thanks for the replies! It's as I suspected although I was hoping to get lucky.:) T