48 GB of unused RAM..

[lopri]

I have a dual-Xeon system with 64 GB of DDR3-1333 (ECC) which I am thinking about using as my workstation. While I was toying around with it, I realized that my normal usage rarely, if ever, go over 16 GB of commit charge. It kind of is a waste to have that much RAM sitting there doing nothing, so I am wondering how I can put it to good use. Currently I am thinking of RAM disk, but I have never used one before and not sure how to go about it. Is putting Windows swap files into a RAM disk a good idea?

What else can I do with this extra RAM? If I decide to keep this system I would like to keep the sticks as well since they are not worth much for sale.

 

[mxnerd]

Run a lot of virtual machines. VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V (Windows 10 Pro and up).

 

[lopri]

The 16 GB I use already includes a VM.

Edit: I mean, even if I leave multiple VMs running I do not think I can realistically go over, say, 32 GB of commit charge, which still leaves the other 32 GB unused.

 

[Elixer]

One big RAM drive for the VMs.
It would be pretty useless to use it for a Windows swap drive.

 

[mxnerd]

Run one or more free ESXi VMs and reserve all memory for them.

3 x 16GB, 2 x 24GB or one 48GB ESXi VMs and you used up 48GB.

 

[Mr Evil]

Just because it isn't allocated doesn't mean it isn't being used. The memory tab in Resource Monitor will show you how much is really in use, including for disc cache (labelled "standby" and "modified"). For instance in my system I currently only have 23% commit charge, but a further 57% of my RAM is being used by Windows for cache, giving 80% total usage.

With that much RAM you might as well disable the swap file.

 

[ch33zw1z]

If I could justify 64GB, then I'd buy it. I have 32GB now

So yea, if you already had the 64GB laying around....then why not.

 

[sdifox]

err, turn it into a vm host instead of a workstation?

if you want to use a ramdisk and are using hyperv, then I think your best use is to load the base os vm into ramdisk, then mount that as your base vm disk.

You are using difference disk right?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Just because it isn't allocated doesn't mean it isn't being used. The memory tab in Resource Monitor will show you how much is really in use, including for disc cache (labelled "standby" and "modified"). For instance in my system I currently only have 23% commit charge, but a further 57% of my RAM is being used by Windows for cache, giving 80% total usage.

This. "Unused" RAM is probably not unused.

 

[lopri]

Sometimes unused RAM is actually unused. I made sure to check the performance of the system with less RAM by taking out half the sticks. Even if Windows somehow tried to fill up whatever RAM available, limiting the available memory will work like taking out some sticks from the system, which is sort of transparent to the OS. (that is how virtualization works, btw) Furthermore, from my observation Windows does the opposite and tries aggressively to empty out applications that are sitting in RAM without doing anything.

 

[lopri]

Run one or more free ESXi VMs and reserve all memory for them.

3 x 16GB, 2 x 24GB or one 48GB ESXi VMs and you used up 48GB.

I am not familiar with ESXi. Does it work like Hyper-V?

One big RAM drive for the VMs.
It would be pretty useless to use it for a Windows swap drive.

err, turn it into a vm host instead of a workstation?

if you want to use a ramdisk and are using hyperv, then I think your best use is to load the base os vm into ramdisk, then mount that as your base vm disk.

You are using difference disk right?

Yeah I have separate disks for different VMs. I have not used Hyper-V: I have been using VMWare Workstation. Anyway that is an interesting idea, running a VM in a RAM disk! Thank you for the suggestion. It is definitely something I would like to see for myself.

 

[sdifox]

I am not familiar with ESXi. Does it work like Hyper-V?





Yeah I have separate disks for different VMs. I have not used Hyper-V: I have been using VMWare Workstation. Anyway that is an interesting idea, running a VM in a RAM disk! Thank you for the suggestion. It is definitely something I would like to see for myself.

Linked clone is the vmware equivalent. The idea is that if you need a whole bunch of VMs that are based on a starting OS, may as well save space and reuse the base OS vm as starting point of the different VMs.

I use it for dev, it has shaved a lot of drive space use off my server.

unless you play games on that machine, I would turn it into a baremetal vmware host.

 

[mxnerd]

I am not familiar with ESXi. Does it work like Hyper-V? I have not used Hyper-V: I have been using VMWare Workstation.

I tried Hyper-V before, but I always go back to VMware.

==========

Install & run ESXi in VMware Workstation

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=esxi+in+vmware+workstation

ESXi tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=esxi+tutorial

 

[daxzy]

I have a dual-Xeon system with 64 GB of DDR3-1333 (ECC) which I am thinking about using as my workstation. While I was toying around with it, I realized that my normal usage rarely, if ever, go over 16 GB of commit charge. It kind of is a waste to have that much RAM sitting there doing nothing, so I am wondering how I can put it to good use. Currently I am thinking of RAM disk, but I have never used one before and not sure how to go about it. Is putting Windows swap files into a RAM disk a good idea?

What else can I do with this extra RAM? If I decide to keep this system I would like to keep the sticks as well since they are not worth much for sale.

It really depends on what OS you are using. Modern Linux and Windows (e.g. 10) are far better at caching applications/data in memory (e.g. actually using your memory) for use. Just because your current system (let's say 16GB memory) is only using about 14-15GB, doesn't mean that a system with 32GB memory will use the same amount.

I tried Hyper-V before, but I always go back to VMware.

Odd, I tried a week of ESX 5.5 back in the day and went straight back to 2012 R2 based Hyper-V*. If you only care about new features and bleeding edge, you should probably use KVM (Linux virtualization). If you care about ease of use and maturity of features, you should probably use Hyper-V. IMO, ESX always stood at this very odd position in the middle where it never has the newest features and is never the easiest to use. As of late, it's actually losing the feature battle with Hyper-V.

* Hyper-V differs hugely based on Windows versions. The initial version (Server 2008) sucks. The newest version (Server 2016/Windows 10) is way more mature and feature rich.

 

[lopri]

It really depends on what OS you are using. Modern Linux and Windows (e.g. 10) are far better at caching applications/data in memory (e.g. actually using your memory) for use. Just because your current system (let's say 16GB memory) is only using about 14-15GB, doesn't mean that a system with 32GB memory will use the same amount.

Can you tell me where to look to find out the the amount of actually used memory in Windows 7 and Windows 10, respectively?
That different OSes has different ways of handling memory seem intuitive enough to understand. But where do I find that out, other than resource monitor which I have already looked?

 

[mxnerd]

SysInternals Processor Explorer, works in Win7/8/10

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx

View, System Information, Memory.

 

[daxzy]

Can you tell me where to look to find out the the amount of actually used memory in Windows 7 and Windows 10, respectively?
That different OSes has different ways of handling memory seem intuitive enough to understand. But where do I find that out, other than resource monitor which I have already looked?

Not sure what you're specifically looking for, but it's probably queryable in a wmi-object. Here's the base operatingsystem object for starters.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394239(v=vs.85).aspx
uint64 FreePhysicalMemory;
uint64 FreeSpaceInPagingFiles;
uint64 FreeVirtualMemory;
uint64 TotalVirtualMemorySize;
uint64 TotalVisibleMemorySize;

So you'd open a powershell session (probably in admin mode), and 'get-wmiobject win32_operatingsystem | fl *'

 

[Red Squirrel]

That sounds like enough ram for a kick ass MCSA/etc lab environment.

My server maxes out at 32. At the time I built it, it was just too expensive to go to a motherboard platform that can support more.

Just got a free subscription to CBT Nuggets, and while I still have room to spin up a decent amount of VMs, it would be tight if I want to really get fancy like have 10+ clients etc. Debating on splurging on a bigger server. I kinda want to do a HA cluster at some point anyway. I threw VMware on it originally as I wanted something turn key but the free version is quite limited if you want to do any of the fancy stuff. Might look at Proxmox again. I did not really like it when I tried it, it had weird quirks in how it handled the ISO store and other stuff like that.