Minimum Memory to Use VirtualBox

[Soloam]

Hello, this is my system:

Supermicro X10SL7-F
Intel Xeon E3-1231V3
2x Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL11 ECC (16Gb)
4x WD Red 2Gb (RAIDz2)
3x WD Red 1Gb (RAIDz)

I would like to have a VirtualBox jail running Linux Debian, is my memory RAM enough? What is the maximum that I can allocate to the Jail and keep my system with the minimum RAM to work?

Thank You for your help.

 

[Mirfster]

I would say to give it 1-2GB tops; but that is just me. :)

 

[jgreco]

You can afford several GB (but I'd suggest avoiding more than 4-5 if you can) and the system will definitely let you know when it is unhappy because it'll get slow.

 

[joeschmuck]

Debian only requires 1GB (recommended specs) but it will depend on what you are using it for. As for what FreeNAS can live with, well try to leave 8GB alone and dedicated for FreeNAS for stability. From a speed perspective it depends on what you are using FreeNAS for, if you have a lot of reading from the cache then reducing your RAM will affect performance, not stability.

 

[Soloam]

The idea to use Debian is to run Zoneminder and OpenHab. FreeNas does not have a lot of readings, Most of the time the system will be Idle. I use a lot of trascoding when watching movies.

 

[joeschmuck]

Transcoding will be fine unless your jail consumes a lot of the CPU.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I would like to have a VirtualBox jail running Linux Debian, is my memory RAM enough?

As stated above, with 1GB allocated to Debian, you should be fine, but keep an eye on swap usage. I recommend you check "Use host I/O cache" in the virtual SATA controller settings for the VM, to avoid aborted VMs.

 

[Soloam]

thank you all for the feedback

Best Regards