SOLVED VM and RAM

[jspfunk]

I looked around but couldn't really find anything. I would like to setup a VM (Not sure about Window or Ubuntu, or an offshoot). My server has 24gb of RAM, and almost 22 of it is used for cache. I have 3 8tb drives and 2 4tb drives. I know more RAM is always better, but if I do a VM with the current amout of RAM how would the ram work? Would it take away ram my server needs?

 

[Heracles]

Hey JSP,

FreeNAS will always use all the RAM available for caching. So technically, Yes, running VMs will take away RAM that FreeNAS would have use. But how bad it is, that is another question.

With 24 GB of RAM as of now, you can easily give 4G to a Linux VM and let FreeNAS do with the other 20G. Your load is probably not high enough for these 4G to harm you significantly.

But should you already do iSCSI, run some plugins or turned on dedup (if you did, turn that one off ASAP!) your system may be low on RAM despite its 24G.

Reasonable guess is that you can easily offer a few GB or RAM to a few VM without suffering too much. I would not drop FreeNAS below 16G, so that would leave you up to 8 G for VMs.

 

[jspfunk]

Thank you @Heracles! I don't run any plug-ins, I'm not comfortable enough yet, in Freenas, to get all crazy with extras.

Again, thank you!