Linux – Allocating More Than 4 GB Of Memory

memoryredhat-enterprise-linuxvmware

I am facing an issue with memory allocation.

I have:

Host OS: Microsoft Windows XP – Professional x64 Edition – Version 2003 – Service Pack 2.

Host Physical Memory: 8 GB

Guest OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS release 4 (Nahant Update 5). I am not sure if it is 32 or 64 bits. The lsb_release -a command says that argument LSB Version: core-3.0-ia32, so I guess that would be 32 bits…

VMware Player Version: 2.5.2 build-156735

I would like that VMware Player could allocate more that 4 GB, but when I go to the setting, it only lists 4 GB. If I choose the "About" option, it actually says that I have 8 GB installed in the host machine.

This VMware image created by someone else and provided to me, apparently done with VMware Workstation 5.

Why can't I allocate 8 GB?

Where is the problem?

In the WMware Player Version, Guest OS or Host OS?

How can I solve this?

I understand that for this version of player there isn't one version for 32 and another for 64 bits.

Best Answer

The lsb_release -a command says that argument LSB Version: core-3.0-ia32, so I guess that would be 32 bits...

Try uname -a and look at the resulting output. If you see x86_64 then yes, it's 64-bit.

I would like that VMware Player could allocate more that 4 GB, but when I go to the setting, it only lists 4 GB. If I choose the "About" option, it actually says that I have 8 GB installed in the host machine.

This VMware image created by someone else and provided to me, apparently done with VMware Workstation 5.

Older images have limitations that are inherent to them, based on what version they were made with. It could be as simple as the fact that the image was made in version 5; newer versions lift several limitations, and one of those might be the amount of memory supported. For instance, I run 6.5 at work, which allows 2 CPUs. Version 7 allows for 4.

Follow-up:

My Workstation 6.5 install reports that a version 5 image will have the following limitations:

  • 3.5 GB memory limit
  • 2 processor limit
  • 3 network adapter limit
  • No USB 2.0
  • No multiple monitor display
  • No battery status
  • No CPU hot plug
  • No device hot plug
  • No memory hot plug
  • No LSI Logic SAS SCSI adapter
  • No VMCI support

In other words, you're not going to get it to run with 8 GB because it's a version 5 image. You'll want to consider migrating the machine to a newer format.

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