Force lower memory limits in XenServer VMs

XenServer forces you to use a lot of memory when defining VMs. For example, the Windows 7 64-bit VM won’t let you define a VM with less than 2GB of memory. This can be a problem when testing XenServer stuff on small (non-server) machines.

After the VM is created. You can lower the memory limit by accessing the text console of the host and using “xe vm-list” to find the UUID of the VM to modify, then “xe vm-param-set” to drop the minimum memory setting.

[root@virtual0 ~]# xe vm-list
uuid ( RO)           : 194ac4a5-c6ad-6453-6108-8186f2bc6935
     name-label ( RW): xm1.vc.example.com
    power-state ( RO): halted

uuid ( RO)           : 63a19c31-9835-4bb4-97b3-c2230cefd9ed
     name-label ( RW): Control domain on host: localhost.localdomain
    power-state ( RO): running

[root@virtual0 ~]# xe vm-param-set memory-static-min=512MiB uuid=194ac4a5-c6ad-6453-6108-8186f2bc6935

Now XenCenter will allow you to set a lower memory size.

citrix

3 Comments

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Is it possible to create memory less than the default minimum memory to virtual memory…..? Will that vm works?
on March 20, 2014 at 9:22 am Reply |

Yes, as long as the VM has enough memory for the OS to work.
on March 23, 2014 at 6:55 pm Reply |

[…] might run into the problem of XenServer setting a low limit of 2GB RAM for guests. Have a look at this article for info on how to get around […]
on October 24, 2013 at 12:50 am Reply |

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