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VMware Workstation 4 User's Manual
292
Memory Usage Notes
VMware Workstation allows users to set the memory size of each virtual machine and
the amount of physical host memory reserved for virtual machines. By adjusting the
memory sizes of each virtual machine and the amount of reserved memory, users can
affect both virtual machine and overall system performance. This section describes
how VMware Workstation uses the memory configuration parameters to manage
virtual machines and reserved memory properly.
Virtual Machine Memory Size
The first configuration parameter users can set is the size of the virtual machine's
physical memory. Set this configuration parameter in the Virtual Machine Control
Panel (Edit > Virtual Machine Settings > Memory). The minimum size of the memory
for the virtual machine should be set based on the recommendations of the
operating system provider.
The New Virtual Machine Wizard sets what we believe 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
Windows operating systems do not behave well when they run low on free memory.
For this reason users should not run virtual machines whose memory requirements
exceed that of the host and other applications. To help guard against virtual machines
causing the host to thrash, VMware Workstation enforces a limit on the total amount
of memory that may be consumed by virtual machines:
The sum of the memories of all currently running virtual machines plus overhead for
the VMware Workstation processes cannot exceed the amount of physical memory
on the host minus some memory that must be kept available for the host.
Some memory must be kept available on the host to ensure the host is able to
operate properly while virtual machines are running. The amount of memory reserved
for the host depends on the host and the size of the host's memory.
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