Why is memory consumption high when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as a VMware guest?

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6
  • vmware-tools 8.3.12 build-653202

Issue

  • When vmtoolsd service is stopped, it releases 4 GB RAM.
  • When vmtoolsd service is started, 4 GB of memory is consumed but why wasn't this shown on top or ps commands?

Resolution

  • Contact VMware as issue seems with vmware-tools 8.3.12 build-653202. When running RHEL5 as VMware guest with vmware-tools 8.3.2 build-299420 the memory consumption is normal.

Diagnostic Steps

  • Problem can be repeated by starting vmware-tools again and waiting for a while.

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