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:lastproofread: 2021-07-24

.. _vyosonvmware:

Running on VMWare ESXi
######################

ESXi 5.5 or later
*****************

.ova files are available for supporting users, and a VyOS can also be stood up 
using a generic Linux instance, and attaching the bootable ISO file and 
installing from the ISO using the normal process around `install image`.

.. NOTE:: There have been previous documented issues with GRE/IPSEC tunneling 
   using the E1000 adapter on the VyOS guest, and use of the VMXNET3 has been 
   advised.

Memory Contention Considerations
--------------------------------
When the underlying ESXi host is approaching ~92% memory utilisation it will 
start the balloon process in a 'soft' state to start reclaiming memory from 
guest operating systems. This causes an artifical pressure using the vmmemctl 
driver on memory usage on the virtual guest. As VyOS by default does not have 
a swap file, this vmmemctl pressure is unable to force processes to move in 
memory data to the paging file, and blindly consumes memory forcing the 
virtual guest into a low memory state with no way to escape. The balloon can 
expand to 65% of guest allocated memory, so a VyOS guest running >35% of 
memory usage, can encounter an out of memory situation, and trigger the kernel 
oom_kill process. At this point a weighted lottery favouring memory hungry 
processes will be run with the unlucky winner being terminated by the kernel.

It is advised that VyOS routers are configured in a resource group with 
adequate memory reservations so that ballooning is not inflicted on virtual 
VyOS guests.





References
----------

https://muralidba.blogspot.com/2018/03/how-does-linux-out-of-memory-oom-killer.html