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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 277
Chapter 12 Performance Tuning for VMware Server
Allocating Memory to a Virtual Machine
Youspecifythememorycapacityforeachvirtualmachinewhenyoucreateit.TheNew
VirtualMachinewizarddisplaysareasonabledefaultvaluebasedontheguest
operatingsystemtypeandthetotalamountofhostmemory.However,youmightbe
abletoimproveperformancebyadjustingthesettingwhenyou
createthevirtual
machine,orbylatereditingthememorysetting.See“EditingVirtualMachine
Memory”onpage 277.
Mostmodernoperatingsystemsusesignificantamountsofmemory,soallowinga
generousvirtualmachinememorycapacityisbeneficialforoptimalperformance.The
optimalsettingdependsonthefollowingconsiderations:
Recommendationsoftheoperatingsystemvendor.
Typesofapplicationsthatareruninthevirtualmachine.
Whethermultiplevirtualmachinesarecontendingformemoryresources.Ifyou
plantorunonevirtualmachineatatimemostofthetime,agoodstartingpointis
togivethevirtualmachinehalfoftheavailablehostmemory.
Whichapplicationsarerunonthehostatthesametimeasthevirtualmachine.
Totalamountofhostmemorythatallrunningvirtualmachinescanuse.See
“ReservingHostMemoryforVirtualMachineUseonpage 276.
Filesystemwherethevirtualmachineisstored.Youcannotallocatemorethan2GB
ofmemorytoavirtualmachineifitisstoredonafilesystemthatdoesnotsupport
fileslargerthan2GB,suchasFAT16.Ifyoudo,thevirtualmachinewillnotboot.
Forinformationabout
hostwidememorysettings,see“ConfiguringHostWide
VirtualMachineMemoryUsage”onpage 275.
Editing Virtual Machine Memory
Youcanchangetheamountofmemoryallocatedtoavirtualmachine.
To edit memory allocation for a virtual machine
1 SelectthevirtualmachinefromtheInventorypanel.
2Makesurethatthevirtualmachineispoweredoff.
3IntheHardwaresectionoftheSummarytab,clicktheMemoryiconandselect
Edit.