RAM Consumption

[KenBeanNet]

Hello,

I just installed Windows 7 on a Ubuntu 10.10 (Fully patched) Raid 5 Software Raid.  I am running an I7, 16Gig Ram, 1.5TB hard SATA set up.  The mother board is a

GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. 

I have the latest, 7.1.3 version of VMWare installed and registered.  I notice that RAM consumption is constantly going up, starting around 2.1Gigs (Normal) to eventually maxing out 16Gigs and going into SWAP on the Ubuntu 10.10.  The cpu is about 30% on each core (Seems a lot) when the VM is just standing still.  Is there some known bug out right now?  I did some reasearch and found http://communities.vmware.com/message/1528965 but I feel like this isn't explaining my problem fully.

Thanks,

Ken

[idle-jam]

what's the virtual memory you have assigned to windows 7? is it some sort of processing inside there?

[KenBeanNet]

I am giving the VM about 14Gigs. Leaving 2Gigs +30Gig Swap for Ubuntu and 14Gigs for the Windows 7.  It just steadly goes up, seems like the Garbage collection never happens.

[idle-jam]

make sure your reserved memory is more than 14GB of Memory (some additional buffer for virtualization overhead) and that the memory settings in workstation is that it does not swap to ubuntu. that would make the VM more responsive and have dedicated memor usage. is there another other VM running at the same time?

go to Edit > Preferences > Memory and change the additional memory setting. Select the below:

• Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM — Strictly apply the reserved memory limit set in the top of the panel.  This setting imposes the tightest restrictions on the number and memory  size of virtual machines that may run at a given time. Because the  virtual machines are running entirely in RAM, they have the best  possible performance.

[KenBeanNet]

I have made the changes you suggested and I still am having issues.  The only thing abnormal about this set up is the computer is running 3 monitors. I have a dual GPU video card that supports up to 4 monitors.  This seems to all work fine, as I have only 3 monitors set up and in Linux is great.  Once I start the VM, and I just let it idle, and memory starts to increase. Now, in Windows 7, the RAM consumption is about 1.5Gigs which is normal. But in Ubuntu 10.10, the RAM just keeps going up and up.  I have tried turning off the 2nd GPU and running only 2 monitors, I still have the issue.  I am building 11 machines, and I have tried on two different peices of hardware to avoid the fact I could have some type of bad RAM/CPU w/e.  This happens on both machines.  I am only running one VM, we do it so we can make quick snapshots of machines incase of some type of hardware failure or such we can move it over to another machine and the user can be back online quickly.  Is there any types of test I can do?  I was using similar hardware on a prototype machine we build with VMWare 7.1.2 and that works fine with no issues.  I am wondering if 7.1.3 has some type of bug in it?

[KenBeanNet]

Ok.  So I turned off some Video settings and found the RAM to stay.  Not sure which is causing it, but def something with the Video settings is causing it to overload the RAM.

[idle-jam]

sounds like a bad memory leak. i wish i could help further but i have never run ubuntu as the host OS before. perhaps you can create a support call if you have a valid support with vmware.