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ESXi host (version 5.5.0) is only using about half of physical memory, but when I look at esxtop I see:

SWAP /MB: 1136  curr,    854 rclmtgt
MEMCTL /MB: 7986  curr, 7986 target, 103832 max

I would have thought that because it is not overcommitting memory it shouldn't be using any swap space. Why is it still using swap?

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    That's nice. Do you have a question?
    – ewwhite
    May 19, 2016 at 18:51
  • ESXi what version?
    – joeqwerty
    May 19, 2016 at 18:59

2 Answers 2

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Assuming this server wasn't just booted, it would be because, at some point in the past, it did run low on available memory.

By default, ESXi won't immediately page-in previously-paged-out memory. There's no immediate need for it to, so to reduce IO load, the pages will remain on disk until they're needed.

I'm guessing this must be tuneable, but this is the default, standard behaviour.

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  • Yes this server was previously overcomitting about 40% memory, but that was hours ago. How long does it take to clear up RAM? Is there a VMware doc that goes into depth on this?
    – red888
    May 20, 2016 at 12:42
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Before you read it, do note that this feature was intended for VMware Support. While it is internally supported, you’d be using it at your own risk, and consider this write-up to be purely for educational purposes. Support for this feature, and exposure through the UI, may or may not change in the future.

I have memory pages swapped, can vSphere unswap them?

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