Consumed memory of VM

[ricky73]

I'd like to understand because every virtual machine has maximum memory as Consumed memory, because every performance graph of vm (Windows, Linux, ...) shows a straight line at maximum value.

My environment is ESXi 5.5.

I know Consumed memory is the amount of host memory that is allocated to the virtual machine so host allocates memory pages upon their first request from the guest but doesn’t deallocate them once they are freed in the guest OS (because the host simply doesn’t see those guest deallocations).

But what means!??! When virtual machine start first time it will allocate maximum ram?!? Graph is always straight line.

If I understand right VM will access to whole memory at first boot.

Messaggio modificato da Riccardo

[Davoud Teimouri]

Hi friend,

Based on VMware articles, consumed memory is:

Virtual machine:  Amount of guest physical memory consumed by the virtual machine for guest memory. Consumed memory does not include overhead memory. It includes shared memory and memory that might be reserved, but not actually used. Use this metric for charge-back purposes.

vm consumed memory = memory granted - memory saved due to memory sharing

When your server is not under pressure about memory resources, graph will always an straight line.

Active guest memory is a important memory metric.

You can find useful information about memory metrics on this link: Memory Counters

[ricky73]

focus on Consumed memory ....

By vSphere web client I can see Consumed memory both in performance and in resource allocation sections.

In resource allocation, memory section, It's showed host memory and in this case I think Consumed memory is referencing to amount of ESX server’s physical memory for VM + overhead.

In memory performance graph I don't know what Consumed memory means (overhead included or no?)

I read ESXi allocates memory only when VM requires it and I don't understand because Consumed memory is always straight line as if  guest OS (Linux/windows) touched almost all the memory assigned to that virtual machine during boot time!!! What do you think?

I thought to see a growing line and not straight one.