Guest VM memory consumed

[EzE]

I am new to VEEAM One, so maybe I'm overlooking something.

I have a 2008R2 Hyper-V cluster running a mix of 2008-2012R2 Guest VMs. We are not using Dynamic memory, and I was hoping that VEEAM One could give me some stats that show memory usage within the Guest OS and how much benefit we would gain by moving to Dynamic memory. This would help with our existing infrastructure and help me with capacity planning for a new 2012R2 cluster coming soon. However, all of the graphs seem to show the memory that has been allocated to the VM, not what it is using. This means that my graphs show no changes over time (straight line - unless we add or remove a VM). It seems this may be a limitation of Hyper-V - can someone please confirm? Are there any methods or tools someone can recommend to evaluate existing memory usage (without manually logging into each machine) and whether Dynamic memory could be of benefit?

Thanks in advance!

[Shestakov]

Hello Eric and welcome to the forum!

You are right, it`s difficult to measure guest OS memory for VMs using static memory, because Hyper-V`s Performance Monitor provides Memory Demand and Current Pressure metrics always equal to 0 for VMs with static memory. I`m not sure if there are special tools to monitor it.
Using static memory is not a best practice and respective VMs are considered as over-sized. What is your reason of not using Dynamic Memory?
Thanks.

[EzE]

Thanks! Static memory was recommended when we implemented 2008R2 years back. I've read a few blogs that suggest Dynamic memory is geared more towards VDI, but I feel it could be utilized by our server VM's. I've also read that Hyper-V won't let VM's boot if RAM has been under-allocated, but I think I can manage that by staggering start times and sizing the new servers appropriately. I was able to get some information from a Kaseya report and am assembling the information I need. It is somewhat painful but it will work. Thanks for your input.

[Shestakov]

Eric,

I've also read that Hyper-V won't let VM's boot if RAM has been under-allocated, but I think I can manage that by staggering start times and sizing the new servers appropriately.

Technically if you allocated not enough RAM to a VM to start viable services, it will not work at all.
I would suggest to set Minimum RAM at 50% and Maximum as 100% of the existing static allocation for a couple of VMs and examine the memory usage statistics. After while you will now what is a real memory demand of those VMs. Such reports as Oversized VMs, Undersized VMs can help you with right-sizing of virtual machines.
Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Nikita, these reports would definitely be helpful, but they are for vSphere, while Eric is using Hyper-V in his environment. Anyway, in order to have visibility into how much RAM is used/demanded/etc. by the VM, dynamic memory option should be a way to go. Microsoft does not expose memory usage counter for VMs with static memory.

[Shestakov]

My bad.
Vitaliy is correct, for now those reports are available only for VMware, but we are currently working on "Oversized VMs", "Undersized VMs" reports for Hyper-V as well.

[EzE]

I have been evaluating VEEAM 1, and although it has a lot of capabilities, I feel like the Hyper-V reporting is not quite up to snuff. I look forward to the additional reports, but for now, the free version will suffice.

[Vitaliy S.]

Any examples of the reports you would like to see next? We are working on introducing similar reports that we currently we have for VMware vSphere.

[Shestakov]

...I feel like the Hyper-V reporting is not quite up to snuff. I look forward to the additional reports...

Eric, could you please clarify what kind of reporting you are missing? It will help us to make a better product for you and other customers.
Thanks in advance!