Virtual Memory Configuration

You can add, change, or configure virtual machine memory resources or options to improve virtual machine performance. You can set most of the memory parameters during virtual machine creation or after the guest operating system is installed.

Some actions require that you power off the virtual machine before changing the settings.

The memory resource settings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine. A virtual machine cannot benefit from more memory resources than its configured virtual hardware memory size. ESXi hosts limit the memory resource use to the maximum amount useful for the virtual machine, so that you can accept the default of Unlimited memory resources.