VMware vCenter 4 minimum RAM requirement, is it 2GB or 3GB?

Posted by Simon Long Sep 14, 2009

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I’ve had numerous emails about this question which can be found in my VCP410 Practice Exam. So I think it’s time to sort this out once and for all.

According to the VMware document: ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide page 16, it clearly states;

Memory – 3GB RAM. Memory requirements might be higher if the database runs on the same machine.

According to Scott Lowe’s new book: Mastering VMware vSphere 4.0 in Chapter 3, page 61 under “Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server” he says;

2GB or more.

According the VMware vSphere 4 Install, Configure, and Manage course books they says;

2GB, more if you run the vCenter Database locally.

So what is it?? I want to get the questions/answers to my practice exams 100% right, as there would be no point if I was giving out the wrong answers.

Please comment or contact me directly if think you can help answer this question.

Thanks to: Christian Mohn, Scott Vessey, vinf_net and Gabrie for checking their books.

Related posts:

http://www.virtualisedreality.com Barry Coombs

Im looking at my course material for the “What’s new in vsphere” and can’t see anything but sure I was told 3Gb during the course
http://www.planetvm.net Tom Howarth

Now that is an interesting question. vSphere will not install with less than 2GB of memory, but that said you have two authoritive documents that have conflicting results. personally I would raise this with VMware Education as an issues as theortically you have two correct anwser to a question.
http://viewyonder.com Steve Chambers

Like all the configuration maxims (and minims) these are not usually hard numbers – ie. vCenter won’t start with less than 2GB RAM. Mostly these recommended guidelines are exactly that, and remember that guidelines != rules.

What is always missing from these (hence the confusion) is the context and explanation for the guideline, so here’s my recommended guideline for the recommended guidelines:

1) If you need to know the minimum vCenter RAM for the VCP4 exam, follow the guideline in the official course (nothing else).
2) If you need to know the minimum vCenter RAM for your operational environment, start with the latest advice and adjust according (your mileage may vary).

HTH
Steve
Pingback: RE: VMware vCenter 4 minimum RAM requirement, is it 2GB or 3GB? » Yellow Bricks
Vegard Sagbakken

I have to agree with Steve here, the exam is based upon information from the pre req. which is What’s New and the Install, Configure & Manage courseware. This is only one of the differences you will find in the courseware and the offical documentation.
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com Scott Vessey

I would always go with the documentation as far as the VCP exam is concerned – they don’t write the questions from the courseware.

I hate being a Vasey, can you fix my link above please
Vegard Sagbakken

Scott, you are completely right. Always follow the offical documentation and not what you learn on the course..
Corey C

This wont help anyone out, but I have vCenter 4.0 running on a old 1TB NAS that only has 512 MB of RAM in it. I was kind of surprised that it runs.
http://www.facebook.com/midus Kenneth Chan (Midus)

Now we’re all really confused …

Exam answer = 3GB
Real World = 512MB (That must be dog slow… and how many ESX nodes is that vCentre taking care of?)

I’ve got mine as a VM within vSphere cluster, Virtual Hardware 2GB, Reservatio 1GB, Max 2GB. Database on another machine (MS SQL2K8)
David

I’ve also noted different CPU requirements between vmware docs and the courseware. vmware docs state that (2) 2GHz CPU’s are required for vcenter, but the courseware states that only a single 2GHz cpu is required?!?!

From Page 77 of the ICM course manual >

vCenter Server Hardware Requirements

Processor – 2.0GHz or higher Intel or AMD x86 processor
Memory – 2GB RAM minimum
Disk Storage – 1GB minimum
Networking – Gigabit recommended
David

And for comparison… Form the “vmware” installation guide. http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esx_vc_installation_guide.pdf#page=13 >

Minimum Requirements for vCenter Server

CPU – 2 CPUs
Processor – 2.0GHz or faster Intel or AMD processor. Processor requirements might be higher if the database runs on the same machine.

Memory – 3GB RAM. Memory requirements might be higher if the database runs on the same machine.

Networking – Gigabit connection recommended.

This kind of stuff is maddening!
Luka

This is why you study from official documentation only. The exam is built from the PDFs on VMware’s website. The course is pre-requisite and gives good hands on experience, but I wouldn’t take anything as gospel from it.
Rene

I just took the vSpere 4 Install, Configure and Manage at the IBM Canada last week, and the minimum RAM was :

ESXi 4.0 : 3 Gb
ESX 4.0 : 2 Gb
Steve D

My understanding is for the exam is
recommended minium 3gb
minium 2gb.
Joel K

It is 2GB for an ESX Host and 3GB for a Vcenter server.
http://vsphere-land.com/ Eric Siebert

2.5GB maybe?
Andrew C

When I did the course the tutor spent a couple of minutes on this and specifically told us that the exam answer is 3GB not 2GB
http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com Matt Simmons

I installed ESXi 4 on a lab machine with 2GB of RAM last week. I have just over 400MB available for guest OS use.

More memory is on order
Lovro Lazarin

I would say definitely your first statement is most accurate, and hold on to what is in ESX & vCenter installation guide, and that is 3GB.

Cheers !
jay

According to the VMWare ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide, the minimum is 3GB. I would go with the official VMWare documentation rather than any of the other books.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_e…
Anil

I took the What's new course for vSphere and the instructor mentioned 3 Gb
Dr.B.

Am running 4.0u2 with 2 GB RAM for 16 hosts. It runs well, but nearly maxes out the RAM. When I move to 4.1, will definitely increase RAM.

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VMware vCenter 4 minimum RAM requirement, is it 2GB or 3GB?

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