Windows 2003 Hardware Memory Resources Esxi

[copter]

Hi,

I am wondering if the following problem I have is just related to my setup or if it is a know feature?

I have a terminal server running on ESX 3.5. It has 4 cpu's, 4Gb ram and runs Windows 2003 R2 32bit.

When I migrate the machine over to ESXi v4 the system requires an upgrade to vmtools but otherwise runs fine.

As a vm v4 I loose 250Mb of the 4Gb or ram to hardware resources so windows only actually sees 3.75GB of ram. Regardless of if it is running on ESX 3.5 or esxi v4.

BUT the moment I upgrade the the vm from v4 to v7 windows now only sees 3Gb of ram?

Does the virtual hardware resources of a v7 vm really take a whole gig of ram?

Regards

Copter

[AntonVZhbankov]

This is limitation of 32bit Windows, not hardware version. Did you enable PAE for Windows?

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[copter]

Hi,

I understand where you are coming from but it doesn't make sense in this case.

Windows can use 3.75G ram (Allocated 4G) when running as a v4 virtual machine.

Thats fine I understand why it is missing 250Mb but when I update the vm to v7 it now can only see 3G of ram.

All that has change is the virtual hardware.

I just think lossing a whole gig of ram is a bit excessive and does a v7 have better preformance than say leaving the system as a v4 with 750Mb more available ram.

[AntonVZhbankov]

Checked twice to be sure.

I have Windows 2003 R2 32bit template with hardware ver. 4 and some VMs deployed from this template and upgraded to hardware ver 7. Windows see all 4GB of RAM.

So, it's strange that your VM work this way, but I suppose it's not common issue.

Do you have PAE enabled in guest Windows?

---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[jhicks]

I just ran into the same issue - upgraded a Win2003 VM to v7, went from 3840MB to 3072MB visable.

Is anyone aware of why this is, and if there's a way to get back that additional memory?

[jhicks]

Update: Discovered that the VM was configured to hide the NX-bit. Shutdown, exposed NX, powered up... now it sees the full 4096MB allocated.

With NX/XD exposed, Windows 2003 automatically uses PAE. Then it has the full memory available.

I really didn't want to hear from our application folks, "where's our other gig of ram???" :smileywink:

[golddiggie]

I really didn't want to hear from our application folks, "where's our other gig of ram???" :smileywink:

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You could have just told them that they're sitting on it... :smileyshocked:

VMware VCP4

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