Opened 9 years ago
#15352 new defect
Poor/missing documentation of Balloon parameters
Reported by: | prensing | Owned by: | |
---|---|---|---|
Component: | documentation | Version: | VirtualBox 5.0.18 |
Keywords: | Cc: | ||
Guest type: | other | Host type: | Linux |
Description
The parameters involved in the balloon control (in VBoxBalloonCtrl) are very poorly described (section 9.22.1). I had to read the code to understand how they are being used.
BalloonLowerLimitMB - despite the confusing name, this parameter is the minimum free memory that should be maintain in the Guest. It is not a "balloon lower limit", it is a Guest free memory lower limit.
VBOXWATCHDOG_BALLOON_SAFETYMARGIN - this parameter is only visible in the daemon start up script. While I assumed this was the memory safety margin in the Guest, it is not. It is the memory safety margin the Host. The balloon daemon will not reduce the balloon in a Guest if that would cause the Host to not have enough memory.