Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 - weird memory issue

[SilentGuy]

Hi all,

I am not sure if it's a VMware or Windows issue, but perhaps somebody has seen this before and can enlighten me ;-).

I have a VM with 8 GB RAM configured (VC reports 8192 MB, fine so far). But when I have a look at msinfo32 inside the VM it reports 7935.26 MB. So I wonder where the missing 256.74 MB have gone to.

The VM is a Windows Server 2003 Standard R2 x64 with SP2 applied. It has been sysprepped from a template (template was installed with 1 GB RAM).

ESX is V3.0.1 with the following patches: ESX-1006511, ESX-1410076, ESX-2257739, ESX-2559638, ESX-3199476, ESX-4825991, ESX-5031800, ESX-5095559, ESX-5140477, ESX-5885387, ESX-6431040, ESX-6704314, ESX-6856573, ESX-7302867, ESX-7408807, ESX-7557441, ESX-9916286, ESX-9986131

ESX is standalone, no VirtualCenter involved.

Host is a HP DL380 G5, 2x X5160 (VT enabled), 16 GB RAM, local storage.

Many thanks,

SilentGuy

[Paul_Lalonde]

This could simply be an artifact of the legacy Intel 440LX chipset that VMware uses as their virtual hardware foundation. Perhaps the >4GB memory is getting reduced by 256MB due to PCI bus overlay address space. I'm not completely sure, though... I don't have that much memory to test!

Paul

[SilentGuy]

Hi Paul ,

This could simply be an artifact of the legacy Intel

440LX chipset that VMware uses as their virtual

hardware foundation. Perhaps the >4GB memory is

getting reduced by 256MB due to PCI bus overlay

address space.

Sounds plausible (perhaps some of the VMware guys around here could add a statement...?).

Just checked a 2 GB VM (W2K3 Server Standard x32 SP1, 2048 MB according to VIC), msinfo32 shows 2047.38 MB, which is roughly the same as with a physical (Proliant DL380 G4, same OS) equipped with 2 GB, there msinfo32 tells me 2047.47 MB (so it seems it is not a VMware issue...).

I will wait some days if either someone or myself can confirm this before awarding points (at least one of the "helpful" will go to you...).

I'm not completely sure, though... I

don't have that much memory to test!

Neither did I until this week, but I finally could convince my bosses to set up a new testing environment with some rather "big" ( 4 - 8 GB) but rarely (and seldom at the same time) used, usually moderately loaded servers to ESX instead of buying a bunch of dedicated servers of this spec

Regards,

SilentGuy