VirtualBox: out of swap space

[Samuel Martín Moro]

> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 11:15 PM, Hubert Tournier <hubert at frbsd.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>>
>> Samuel Martín Moro wrote:
>> > Sometimes, when I start a VM, all other running VM stop
>>
>> Never had that. Though, when I can only launch one VM, it usually means
>> that
>> there's a discrepency between my running FreeBSD kernel, FreeBSD userland,
>> VirtualBox kmod and/or VirtualBox. Syncing all of that usually solves the
>> issue.
>>
>>
>> Samuel Martín Moro wrote:
>> >
>> > I see a few 'pid xxxx (VirtualBox), uid 0, was killed: out of swap
>> space'
>> > I've got 8Gb of RAM, and so assumed I wouldn't need any swap.
>> >
>>
>> Just compute the free memory space after booting, without VirtualBox
>> loaded
>> (you can see that with top or the following snippet):
>>
>> PAGES_FREE=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_free_count`
>>
> 1990724
>
>> PAGES_INACTIVE=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_inactive_count`
>>
> 3176
>
>> PAGES_CACHE=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_cache_count`
>>
> 50
>
>> PAGES_LIBRES=`expr ${PAGES_FREE} + ${PAGES_INACTIVE} + ${PAGES_CACHE}`
>>
> 1993950
>
>> TAILLE_PAGES=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_page_size`
>>
> 4096
>
>> MEMOIRE_LIBRE=`expr ${PAGES_LIBRES} \* ${TAILLE_PAGES} / 1048576`
>>
> 7788
>
>> echo "${MEMOIRE_LIBRE}M free memory"
>>
> ok...
>
> Then subtract, for each VM, the RAM requested plus 100 MB, and 60 MB for
>> the two VirtualBox processes (rough values for headless VM).
>>
> indeed, the fourth one don't fit...
>
>>
>> If you are already negative (without doing anything else), then you will
>> either need to add swap (if you don't mind low performances) or reduce the
>> number of running VM or their memory requirements.
>>
>
>>
>> Samuel Martín Moro wrote:
>> > Have I to reinstall my server to add some swap? (and if so, how much?!)
>> >
>>
>> No, you just need to add a swap device somewhere. See
>> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/adding-swap-space.html in the
>> handbook.
>>
> indeed...
> I'm giving it a try: 24G file, let's see...
> I presume it's not that far from actual swap performances
>
>>
>>
>> Samuel Martín Moro wrote:
>> > Second problem: When I'm creating a disk (in VirtualBox) [...] these
>> > guests display some gvfs errors, about not finding ad0.
>>
>> If they don't find ad0, are you sure you declared an IDE controller(s) and
>> disk(s) in your guest VMs? (IDE=ad0 through ad3, SATA=ad4 and above).
>>
> yep, the disk is here, the system is installed on it.
> that's just, when i create an other VM disk (got a script preparing the VM,
> creating and attaching discs, install ISO, and so...), and while I've
> already
> launched some stuff implying disk access, I sometimes (for each disc I
> create...)
> see other VMs crashing or whatever, loosing their root partition, ...
> I assume disc creation slow down my HD, and others VM might have troubles
> accessing their own...
>
>>
>>
>> Samuel Martín Moro wrote:
>> > I could have finished already if I just had installed a Linux host in
>> the
>> > first place [...] Is there some hope sticking with BSD? [...] I'm
>> > seriously thinking on dropping that BSD idea, and choosing some random
>> > linux to make it work...
>>
>> You should use the OS you're most comfortable with... or be prepared to
>> make
>> some efforts! At least if you want people to help you...
>>
> I never had to virtualize with FreeBSD as host.
> But I'm quite comfortable using it.
> The thing is, my colleague, a former-linux-sysadmin, and my boss are
> breaking my
> balls with their linux. IMHO it would be better to use FreeBSD, because we
> generate
> FreeBSDs, and we may (will) want to try our stuff outside the VM (thinking
> about a
> ifconfig-like tool, that we had to patch in order to make it work with VMs)
> So, I'ld be really disapointed if, finally, I'd have to install a linux on
> that server...
>
OK, so I still have the "out of swap space" problem... with 24Gb of swap,
none of it beeing used...
Debian stable might do it... sorry...

>
>> Regards,
>>
>
> Thanks!
>
>>
>> Hubert
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://old.nabble.com/VirtualBox%3A-out-of-swap-space-tp29389270p29392196.html
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>>
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