I'm sorry, I've done a bit of googling, and I've read VMware Knowledge Base about vmtools. I fear my problem is quite likely one of vocabulary.
I've been told by a fellow engineer that, if I have multiple vm's on a single ESXI host, I really must have vmtools installed, as vmtools somehow tells the vm to release a thread or memory resources on the fly without vmtools.
Is there some documentation on the role vmtools plays in this?
If I have a host with say (using even numbers for simplicity) 100 GB of ram, and 16 1GHZ CPU cores. On that host I have 2x VM's, each consuming 25 GB of RAM, and 4x CPU cores, would it still be important to have this capability that I'm told comes with vmtools?
It's important to have VMtools on all VMs, but not just for reasons of resource reclamation. Some devices, known as paravirtualized devices, only exist so long as that VM exists in that state and run by the hypervisor of choice. For example, the e1000 adapter series exists as a physical implementation but also in virtual form through ESXi. However, the VMXNET3 NIC type only exists as a paravirtual device, and for it to work you must be using VMtools. From a resource standpoint, the most notable role VMtools plays is with memory in a concept known as memory ballooning and there's a good explanation of it here. There are many other reasons why you should have VMtools installed (pre-/post-thaw scripts, perf counters, etc), so it is important that all VMs do have tools of some form installed.
It's important to have VMtools on all VMs, but not just for reasons of resource reclamation. Some devices, known as paravirtualized devices, only exist so long as that VM exists in that state and run by the hypervisor of choice. For example, the e1000 adapter series exists as a physical implementation but also in virtual form through ESXi. However, the VMXNET3 NIC type only exists as a paravirtual device, and for it to work you must be using VMtools. From a resource standpoint, the most notable role VMtools plays is with memory in a concept known as memory ballooning and there's a good explanation of it here. There are many other reasons why you should have VMtools installed (pre-/post-thaw scripts, perf counters, etc), so it is important that all VMs do have tools of some form installed.
THANK YOU!!! I was going crazy trying to find anything on this.
