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  • Why the server shows less total memory compared to the physical memory installed

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    I have 2 guestOS of RHEL on VMware Virtual Center 2.5.0
    Resource allocated to GuestOS of RHELA and RHELB identical.
    Memory: 4608 MB

    RHEL A

    [root@RHELA ~]# free -m
                 total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
    Mem:          4082        130       3952          0         12         32
    -/+ buffers/cache:         85       3997
    Swap:         2047          0       2047
    
    dmesg:
    BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
     BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000000ca000 - 00000000000cc000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000efef0000 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000efef0000 - 00000000efeff000 (ACPI data)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000efeff000 - 00000000eff00000 (ACPI NVS)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000eff00000 - 00000000f0000000 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000120000000 (usable)
    ...
    x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x0, new 0x7010600070106
    original variable MTRRs
    reg 0, base: 3840MB, range: 256MB, type UC
    reg 1, base: 0GB, range: 4GB, type WB
    reg 2, base: 4GB, range: 512MB, type WB
    total RAM covered: 4352M
    

    RHEL B

    [root@RHELB]# free -m
                 total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
    Mem:          4329        448       3880          0        145        136
    -/+ buffers/cache:        166       4162
    Swap:         2991          0       2991
    
    dmesg:
    BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
     BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000000ca000 - 00000000000cc000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000bfee0000 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000bfee0000 - 00000000bfeff000 (ACPI data)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000bfeff000 - 00000000bff00000 (ACPI NVS)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000bff00000 - 00000000c0000000 (usable)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0000000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
     BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000160000000 (usable)
    ...
    total RAM covered: 4608M
    
    

    In RHEL A BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000120000000 (usable)[4608MB] and total RAM covered: 4352M
    In RHEL B also resource allocated memory 4608MB, but: BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000160000000 (usable)[5632MB] and total RAM covered: 4608M
    I found https://access.redhat.com/solutions/454133 but RHELA (4608-4082)/4608 = 11.4% , RHELB (4608-4329)/4608=6%.

    Where RHEL A lost ~300MB memory?

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