Manualshelf

Specifications

ManualsBrandsVMware ManualsComputer equipmentGSX Server 3 Administration
331332333334335336337338339340
www.vmware.com
340
VMware GSX Server Virtual Machine Guide
Allocating Memory to a Virtual Machine
The following sections describe how you can allocate memory to a virtual machine:
• Configuring Virtual Machine Memory from a Console on page 341
• Configuring Virtual Machine Memory from the Management Interface on
page 342
GSX Server allows you to allocate a portion of the GSX Server host memory to each
virtual machine. By adjusting this setting, you can affect the virtual machine’s
performance.
You set the size of an individual virtual machine’s memory in the virtual machine
settings editor or the VMware Management Interface. The minimum size of the
memory for the virtual machine should be set based on the recommendations of the
operating system provider.
When you create a new virtual machine, the wizard sets what VMware believes are
reasonable defaults for the memory size of a virtual machine, based on the type of the
guest operating system and the amount of memory in the host computer.
The actual size that should be given to a virtual machine depends on a few practical
considerations:
• What kinds of applications will run in the virtual machine.
• What other virtual machines will contend with this virtual machine for memory
resources.
• What applications will run on the host at the same time as the virtual machine.
• The total amount of host memory that all running virtual machines can use; for
more information, see Specifying How Much RAM is Used by All Running Virtual
Machines in the VMware GSX Server Administration Guide.
• The file system where the virtual machine is stored. You cannot allocate more
than 2000MB of memory to a virtual machine if it is stored on a file system that
cannot support files larger than 2GB, such as FAT16. You will not be able to
power on such a virtual machine. Further, you cannot allocate more than
2000MB of memory to a virtual machine if it is stored on a FAT32 file system,
even though it does support files up to 4GB in size.
For more information on host memory use, see Understanding Memory Usage in the
VMware GSX Server Administration Guide.