Virtual Machine Memory Usage Alert

[mattyww]

Hello,

I need assistance with the following 'Virtual machine memory usage' alert, although that server is doing anything intensive. I've posted some screenshots below to show you what is happening.

As you can see the server isn't doing much at all although vSphere is reporting that the Virtual Machine Memory is maxed out.

Any idea on how to fix the above?

Kind regards,

Mat

[Alex_Romeo]

Hi,

is a Microsoft virtual machine?

can you insert an image of the task manager on what is consuming memory in the vm?

ARomeo

[mattyww]

Hi Alessandro,

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, it is a Windows Server virtual machine

I've sorted by Memory for reference below

[Alex_Romeo]

What version do you have of Esxi and build?

[nachogonzalez]

Hey mattyww​ hope you are doing fine

As per this document https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/perf-vsphere-memory_mana...

"Consumed Host Memory usage is defined as the amount of host memory that is allocated to the virtual machine, Active Guest Memory is defined as the amount of guest memory that is currently being used by the guest operating system and its applications."

You shouldn't worry about VM consumed, since it's the physical memory that is assigned to the VM. I would worry for the Active Guest Memory

Let me ask you a few questions:

Which Windows version is this?
Do you have VMware tools installed?
Have you checked memory usage on advanced performance charts / real - time?

(Monitor--> Peformance --> Advanced --> chart options --> Memory --> and then select Consumed host memory and Active Guest memory)

Do you have vROPs available?

[mattyww]

Hi nachogonzalez​,

Thank you for your help

The answers to your questions are below:

Which Windows version is this? - Windows Server 2016 Standard
Do you have VMware tools installed? - Yes, VMWare tools are installed
Have you checked memory usage on advanced performance charts / real - time? - Yes, I've attached an image of real time memory performance below

(Monitor--> Peformance --> Advanced --> chart options --> Memory --> and then select Consumed host memory and Active Guest memory)

Do you have vROPs available? - We don't use vROP

Do you have vROPs available?

[mattyww]

We have the following ESXi version and build below

ESXi 6.5.0 version 650.9.6.5.27 released on May 2017 and based on ESXi 6.5.0 Vmkernel Release Build 5146846.

[nachogonzalez]

I have seen this kind of drifts in the past
In my previous experience OS Was saying something, vCenter something and vROPS something different (more similar to what windows was saying)
IMHO i would lean towards the VROPs views but since you don't have this available i would take the following approach:

1. How longh have this server been up? Might be a stale process causing the issue. Maybe try a reboot.
2. If you consider it necesary I would open a VMware case

[mattyww]

Hi nachogonzalez​,

The server has been up since March 5th 2020, I'll give it a reboot on the weekend.

We no longer have paid VMWare support, I'll look into purchasing going forward.

Appreciate the prompt responses and help.

Kind regards,

Matt

[mattyww · Accepted solution]

Hey nachogonzalez​,

It's fixed now!

After rebooting twice the Active Memory was still high but then I shut it down and added 2GB to total RAM 20GB.

It has fixed itself and is back down.

Thanks for your help!

[nachogonzalez]

Thanks