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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
276 VMware, Inc.
Reserving Host Memory for Virtual Machine Use
YoucanlimittheamountofhostmemorythatVMwareServerisallowedtoconsume
forallrunningvirtualmachines.Thisisther eservedmemorylimit,configuredas
describedin“ReservingHostMemoryforAllVirtualMachines”onpage 113.
Ifyousetthisvaluetoohigh,thehostmightperformpoorly
whenotherapplications
arerunningonthehost.Ifyousetthisvaluetoolow,virtualmachinesmightperform
poorlyandfewervirtualmachinescanrunsimultaneously.
Reservedmemoryisallocatedasneeded,andtheamountinusevarieswhilevirtual
machinesarerunning.Ifmultiplevirtualmachinesarerunningsimultaneously,
they
managethememorybetweeneachother.
Evenwhenmultiplevirtualmachinesarerunningsimultaneously,VMwareServer
mightbeusingonlyafractionofthereservedmemorylimit.Unusedhostmemoryis
availableforusebyotherapplications.However,ifallthereservedhostmemoryisin
usebyoneor
morevirtualmachines,thehostandotherhostapplicationscannot
operateproperly.Theamountofmemorythatmustremainallocatedtothehostand
otherhostapplicationsdependsonthehostoperatingsystemandthetotalhost
memorysize.
Configuring Host Memory for Swapping
Topreventvirtualmachinesfromaffectingeachothersperformance,VMwareServer
limitsthenumberofvirtualmachinesthatcanrunsimultaneouslybasedontheamount
ofmemoryreservedforallrunningvirtualmachines.Toadjustthenumberofvirtual
machinesthatcanrunsimultaneouslyortheirtotalmemoryusage,specifythe
amount
ofvirtualmachinememorythatthehostoperatingsystemcanswaptodisk.
Youcan allowvirtualmachinememorytobeswappedinandoutofhostRAM,oryou
canrequirethatallvirtualmachinememoryfitinreservedRAM.Thesettingthat
determineshowmuchmemorycan
besw apped isconfiguredasdescribedin
“ConfiguringAdditionalMemoryforSwapping”onpage 114.
Ifyoutrytopoweronavirtualmachinewheninsufficientmemoryisavailable,
VMwareServerdisplaysawarningdialogbox.Themessageindicateshowmuch
memorythevirtualmachineisconfiguredtouseandhowmuch
memoryisavailable.
Toattempttopoweronthevirtualmachineusingtheavailablememory,clickOK.
Otherwise,clickCancel.