Comments on: Running vSphere within Workstation will take up a lot of memory… http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/ Building blocks for virtualization... Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:41:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: James http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-7019 James Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:25:41 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-7019 Hi, I am running the Esxi 4 hypervisor and have made the change /vmkernel/minMemoryCheck = “false” and it has worked. The problem I have is that my laptop has only 2GB or RAM and I need to run 2 ESXi for testing. With 1 ESXi booted running 1096 MB RAM I obviously cant start the other ESXi. Problem is I can't find the /etc/vmware/init/init.d/00.vmnix in its location. Is there an equivalent file for ESXi and not just ESX... Any help appreciated. James Hi,

I am running the Esxi 4 hypervisor and have made the change /vmkernel/minMemoryCheck = “false” and it has worked. The problem I have is that my laptop has only 2GB or RAM and I need to run 2 ESXi for testing. With 1 ESXi booted running 1096 MB RAM I obviously cant start the other ESXi.

Problem is I can’t find the /etc/vmware/init/init.d/00.vmnix in its location.

Is there an equivalent file for ESXi and not just ESX…

Any help appreciated.

James

]]> By: Simon L http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-6935 Simon L Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:43:31 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-6935 Just did the test with RequiredMemory=1032192 (1g of ram) And worked well with Workstation 7.01 Tested with ESX vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Just did the test with

RequiredMemory=1032192 (1g of ram)

And worked well with Workstation 7.01

Tested with ESX vSphere 4.0 Update 1

]]> By: JayH http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-6650 JayH Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:00:20 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-6650 I'm having mixed success. The fix for ESXi(using ESXi 4.0.0 U1 Releasebuild-208167): adding the line /vmkernel/minMemoryCheck = “false” to /etc/vmware/esx.conf works fine. The fix for ESX(using ESX 4.0.0 U1 build-208167): changing RequiredMemory=2064384 in /etc/vmware/init/init.d/00.vmnix has not been working for me. Even though the 00.vmnix file is modified (to 1548288, a size of 1.5 GB) ESX stops booting and gives the message: "There is not enough memory to load VMKernel. 1572350 KB of RAM was detected. We require at least 2064384 KB of RAM to boot. Aborting boot." Changing the virtual machine settings back to 2048 MB, while leaving the 00.vmnix file at RequiredMemory=1548288, allows the VM to boot - and when finished the title screen displays "2 GB Memory". The VMKernel seems to be disregarding the the change in the 00.vmnix file. Did VMware make some changes that are causing the fix not to work? Has anyone found a solution? Any advice would be appreciated. I’m having mixed success.

The fix for ESXi(using ESXi 4.0.0 U1 Releasebuild-208167):
adding the line /vmkernel/minMemoryCheck = “false”
to /etc/vmware/esx.conf
works fine.

The fix for ESX(using ESX 4.0.0 U1 build-208167):
changing RequiredMemory=2064384
in /etc/vmware/init/init.d/00.vmnix
has not been working for me.

Even though the 00.vmnix file is modified (to 1548288, a size of 1.5 GB) ESX stops booting and gives the message:
“There is not enough memory to load VMKernel. 1572350 KB of RAM was detected. We require at least 2064384 KB of RAM to boot. Aborting boot.”

Changing the virtual machine settings back to 2048 MB, while leaving the 00.vmnix file at RequiredMemory=1548288, allows the VM to boot – and when finished the title screen displays “2 GB Memory”.
The VMKernel seems to be disregarding the the change in the 00.vmnix file.

Did VMware make some changes that are causing the fix not to work?
Has anyone found a solution?

Any advice would be appreciated.

]]> By: Kevin http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-6224 Kevin Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:05:45 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-6224 I am unable to get this memory "hack" to work. I am using Windows 7 x64 and vmware workstation 7. The problem is that I can edit the 00.vmnix file but if the VM on workstation 7 does not get 2 GB allocated my ESX server will not boot. Did anyone else have this problem? I am unable to get this memory “hack” to work. I am using Windows 7 x64 and vmware workstation 7. The problem is that I can edit the 00.vmnix file but if the VM on workstation 7 does not get 2 GB allocated my ESX server will not boot. Did anyone else have this problem?

]]> By: Jeremiah Powell http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-5963 Jeremiah Powell Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:44:56 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-5963 You can pass the memory check options on the command line when starting up the Installer ISO. On the blue menu that mentions pressing [Tab] for options, press Tab and edit the command line to add the nominMemoryCheck option. For a good example with screenshots, see the http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/vmkernel_boot_options.php vmkernel boot options page for ESXi 4.0. The boot process appears to get values from /etc/vmware/esx.conf for this command line, so anything you would set in esx.conf may be also provided on boot. Unfortunately, the installer seems to eat an inordinate amount of RAM. I've had no luck getting the default ISO to run in under 2048 Mb when trying many of the memory control options documented in the vmkernel debugger (press escape at any purple screen and type 'l' to access the list.) Perhaps install.tgz needs a diet? You can pass the memory check options on the command line when starting up the Installer ISO. On the blue menu that mentions pressing [Tab] for options, press Tab and edit the command line to add the nominMemoryCheck option.

For a good example with screenshots, see the http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/vmkernel_boot_options.php vmkernel boot options page for ESXi 4.0.

The boot process appears to get values from /etc/vmware/esx.conf for this command line, so anything you would set in esx.conf may be also provided on boot.

Unfortunately, the installer seems to eat an inordinate amount of RAM. I’ve had no luck getting the default ISO to run in under 2048 Mb when trying many of the memory control options documented in the vmkernel debugger (press escape at any purple screen and type ‘l’ to access the list.) Perhaps install.tgz needs a diet?

]]> By: @vRobM http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-5392 @vRobM Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:06:45 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-5392 By default nano wraps files it edits so you can see their entirety. To avoid this behavior, simple start nano with the '-w' flag, and you're good to go. Long lines now won't wrap and you can't ruin a file just by saving it. So go ahead, use nano -w file.conf for all your needs. By default nano wraps files it edits so you can see their entirety.

To avoid this behavior, simple start nano with the ‘-w’ flag, and you’re good to go. Long lines now won’t wrap and you can’t ruin a file just by saving it.

So go ahead, use nano -w file.conf for all your needs.

]]> By: Ivo Musters http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-5305 Ivo Musters Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:34:46 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-5305 Hi, started 2x esx4i yesterday with 2GB a piece and vCenter. Everything works fine, but it doesn't leave me any room for booting a VM :S changed the esx hosts to 3GB a piece and i had about 1GB free for VM's (checked by setting resource pool memory reservation) 4i seems to be taking up the whole first 2GB for itself. Checked this article, but can't find a file 00.vmnix on my esx4i servers... There is a 00.vmvisor, but not the file mentioned above. Is there any way to change how many mem 4i reserves for kernel ? ESXi 4.0.0 build 208167 (Update 1) Hi,
started 2x esx4i yesterday with 2GB a piece and vCenter.
Everything works fine, but it doesn’t leave me any room for booting a VM :S
changed the esx hosts to 3GB a piece and i had about 1GB free for VM’s (checked by setting resource pool memory reservation)

4i seems to be taking up the whole first 2GB for itself.
Checked this article, but can’t find a file 00.vmnix on my esx4i servers…
There is a 00.vmvisor, but not the file mentioned above.

Is there any way to change how many mem 4i reserves for kernel ?
ESXi 4.0.0 build 208167 (Update 1)

]]> By: djswarm http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-5262 djswarm Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:55:13 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-5262 change RequiredMemory to 516096 and you can boot with 768 MB which is barely enough for a minimal xp guest, but enough to vMotion things about. You can put the esxi boot image on a usb key, boot to it, make the change, rip it back off with winimage, rezip it and then recreate the iso and not have to sweat installing esxi on minimal machines again, well except for not supporting hardly anything ;) change RequiredMemory to 516096 and you can boot with 768 MB which is barely enough for a minimal xp guest, but enough to vMotion things about.

You can put the esxi boot image on a usb key, boot to it, make the change, rip it back off with winimage, rezip it and then recreate the iso and not have to sweat installing esxi on minimal machines again, well except for not supporting hardly anything ;)

]]> By: LucD http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-4103 LucD Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:59:44 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-4103 Note that some ESX patches will overwrite this file ! Note that some ESX patches will overwrite this file !

]]> By: Jay Rogers http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/08/running-vsphere-within-workstation-will-take-up-a-lot-of-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-3884 Jay Rogers Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:57:13 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=2887#comment-3884 I started with 1280mb but didn't see any problems until I tried to add the ESX server to VC and it would fail. When I put memory on ESXI to 2048 adding to VC worked fine...then I lowered it back. I started with 1280mb but didn’t see any problems until I tried to add the ESX server to VC and it would fail. When I put memory on ESXI to 2048 adding to VC worked fine…then I lowered it back.

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