When you power on a virtual machine in a resource pool, or try to create a child resource pool, the system performs additional admission control to ensure the resource pool’s restrictions are not violated.
Before you power on a virtual machine or create a resource pool, ensure that sufficient resources are available using the Resource Reservation tab in the vSphere Web Client. The Available Reservation value for CPU and memory displays resources that are unreserved.
How available CPU and memory resources are computed and whether actions are performed depends on the Reservation Type.
| Reservation Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Fixed | The system checks whether the selected resource pool has sufficient unreserved resources. If it does, the action can be performed. If it does not, a message appears and the action cannot be performed. |
| Expandable (default) |
The system considers the resources available in the selected resource pool and its direct parent resource pool. If the parent resource pool also has the Expandable Reservation option selected, it can borrow resources from its parent resource pool. Borrowing resources occurs recursively from the ancestors of the current resource pool as long as the Expandable Reservation option is selected. Leaving this option selected offers more flexibility, but, at the same time provides less protection. A child resource pool owner might reserve more resources than you anticipate. |
The system does not allow you to violate preconfigured Reservation or Limit settings. Each time you reconfigure a resource pool or power on a virtual machine, the system validates all parameters so all service-level guarantees can still be met.
