Maximum guest RAM under OS X

[Bruce Ferrell]

Hi All,

I'm testing something and with my vbox host installed under OS X 10.6.8, with 8Gb RAM, I'm seeing the guest os can only be assigned 3584 Mb.

On a Linux host with 16Gb installed, the guest can be assigned up to the full 16Gb.

Both instances of vbox are 4.3.6

Can anyone comment of this?

[Edward Ned Harvey (vbox-users)]

Post by Bruce Ferrell
I'm testing something and with my vbox host installed under OS X 10.6.8,
with 8Gb RAM, I'm seeing the guest os can only be assigned 3584 Mb.
On a Linux host with 16Gb installed, the guest can be assigned up to the full 16Gb.
Both instances of vbox are 4.3.6
Can anyone comment of this?

Not the answer you're looking for, but I have OSX with 8G of ram. I find that OSX is unstable if I assign more than 3G to the guest (and over a longer period, if I assign over 2G to the guest.)

The reason seems to be: The OSX just simply has a crappy memory management system. Even if you clear the cache and stuff like that, problem persists until reboot host. (During the reboot, it's ok to sleep the guest and then wake the guest, to avoid being forced into rebooting guest) ...

But I agree with you, even if it's not a STABLE configuration, you should be ABLE to assign as much memory as you want to the guest.

Whatever amount of memory you assign to the guest, you must have that much FREE at the time of launching the guest. Or else the guest will fail to launch. So it *could* be, that 3584 is all the memory you have available at the time you create your guest. You might free up more by rebooting the host.

[Peter Ondruška]

Not sure if OSX has anything to do with this memory issue(s). I do not use
VirtualBox on OSX but I do use Parallels with Linux guests using large
memory for long time with no such issue you you describe.


On 31 December 2013 15:31, Edward Ned Harvey (vbox-users) <

Post by Edward Ned Harvey (vbox-users)

Post by Bruce Ferrell
I'm testing something and with my vbox host installed under OS X 10.6.8,
with 8Gb RAM, I'm seeing the guest os can only be assigned 3584 Mb.
On a Linux host with 16Gb installed, the guest can be assigned up to the

full

Post by Bruce Ferrell
16Gb.
Both instances of vbox are 4.3.6
Can anyone comment of this?

Not the answer you're looking for, but I have OSX with 8G of ram. I find
that OSX is unstable if I assign more than 3G to the guest (and over a
longer period, if I assign over 2G to the guest.)
The reason seems to be: The OSX just simply has a crappy memory
management system. Even if you clear the cache and stuff like that,
problem persists until reboot host. (During the reboot, it's ok to sleep
the guest and then wake the guest, to avoid being forced into rebooting
guest) ...
But I agree with you, even if it's not a STABLE configuration, you should
be ABLE to assign as much memory as you want to the guest.
Whatever amount of memory you assign to the guest, you must have that much
FREE at the time of launching the guest. Or else the guest will fail to
launch. So it *could* be, that 3584 is all the memory you have available
at the time you create your guest. You might free up more by rebooting the
host.
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[Pierre Malard]

Perhaps your problem came with your OS X version?
i had this problem a long time ago with my old Mac Pro (intel core 2) on 10.6. if you can try to upgrade Mac OS X?

i 'm working with a Mac (Intel i7) on Mac OS X 10.9.1 and 16Gb RAM and VirtualBox 4.3.6. I can, without any problem give, at least 8 Gb RAM to VB with this configuration. however, normaly I don't give more than 2 Gb to VM.

Not sure if OSX has anything to do with this memory issue(s). I do not use VirtualBox on OSX but I do use Parallels with Linux guests using large memory for long time with no such issue you you describe.

Post by Bruce Ferrell
I'm testing something and with my vbox host installed under OS X 10.6.8,
with 8Gb RAM, I'm seeing the guest os can only be assigned 3584 Mb.
On a Linux host with 16Gb installed, the guest can be assigned up to the full 16Gb.
Both instances of vbox are 4.3.6
Can anyone comment of this?

Not the answer you're looking for, but I have OSX with 8G of ram. I find that OSX is unstable if I assign more than 3G to the guest (and over a longer period, if I assign over 2G to the guest.)
The reason seems to be: The OSX just simply has a crappy memory management system. Even if you clear the cache and stuff like that, problem persists until reboot host. (During the reboot, it's ok to sleep the guest and then wake the guest, to avoid being forced into rebooting guest) ...
But I agree with you, even if it's not a STABLE configuration, you should be ABLE to assign as much memory as you want to the guest.
Whatever amount of memory you assign to the guest, you must have that much FREE at the time of launching the guest. Or else the guest will fail to launch. So it *could* be, that 3584 is all the memory you have available at the time you create your guest. You might free up more by rebooting the host.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT
organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance
affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your
Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro!
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
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organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance
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Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro!
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