Specifications

Administration Guide
216 VMware, Inc.
! Swapped!–!Total!memory!forcibly!reclaimed!from!virtual!machines!and!stored!in!
system!swap!files.
! Balloon!Driver!–!Memory!reclaimed!from!virtual!machines!by!cooperation!with!
the!VMware!Tools!(vmmemctl!driver)!and!guest!operating!systems.
This!is!the!preferred!method!for!reclaiming!memory!from!virtual!machines,!
because!it!reclaims!the!memory!that!is!considered!least!valuable!by!the!guest!
operating!system.!The!system!“inflates”!the!balloon!
driver!to!increase!memory!
pressure!within!the!virtual!machine,!causing!the!guest!operating!system!to!invoke!
its!own!nativ e!memory!management!algorithms.!When!memory!is!tight,!the!guest!
operating!system!determines!which!pages!of!memory!to!reclaim,!and!swaps!them!
to!its!own!virtual!disk.!This!proprietary!technique!provides!predictable!
performance
!that!closely!matches!the!behavior!of!a!native!system!under!similar!
memory!constraints.!
! Unused!–!Memory!that!has!never!been!accessed!by!the!virtual!machines,!and!has!
not!yet! been!allocated.
! Total!–!Total!memory!allocated!to!virtual!machines.
Virtual Machines: Virtual Machine Name
For!each!running!virtual!machine,!this!list!includes!a!breakdown!of!the!virtual!
machineʹs!memory!allocation.
! RAM!–!Maximum!amount!of!memory!configured!for!use!by!the!guest!operating!
system!running!in!the!virtual!machine.!This!value!is!often!larger!than!the!actual!
amount!of!memory!currently!allocated!to!the!virtual!machine,!which!may!vary!
depending!on!the!current!level!of!memory!overcommitment.
! Private!–!Memory!allocated!to!the!virtual!machine!that!is!not!shared.
! Shared!–!Memory!allocated!to!the! virtual!machine!that!is!shared.
! Swapped!–!Memory!forcibly!reclaimed!from!the!virtual!machine!and!stored!in!the!
system!swap!files.
! Balloon!Driver!–!Memory!reclaimed!from!virtual!machines!by!cooperation!with!
the!VMware!Tools!(vmmemctl!driver)!and!the!guest!operating!system.
! Unused!–!Memory!that!has!never!been!accessed!by!the!virtual!machine,!and!has!
not!yet! been!allocated.
! Active!–!Memory!that!has!been!accessed!recently!by!the!virtual!machine.
! Swap!I/O!–!Rate!at!which!the!virtual!machine!is!reading!from!and!writing!to!
system!swap!files,!in!bytes!per!second.