Is there thin provisioning for memory?

[incognitonoobr]

I am aware we got thin provisioning for storage with LVM for example out of the way
but curious if there is thin provisioning for memory also, as that is another big one

 

[bbgeek17]

There are multiple memory optimization techniques available in PVE, you can overcommit if you want to:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Dynamic_Memory_Management

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Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[LnxBil]

I am aware we got thin provisioning for storage with LVM for example out of the way
but curious if there is thin provisioning for memory also, as that is another big one

It is already the default, but this does not make sense with a modern operation system that caches everything it reads in memory. Your VM will only have a small amount of memory used if you start it up (not looking at hugepages, different story) and will in general gradually use all the memory it has. An OS that does not use all it's available memory for caching is very slow. I can recommend Linux Ate my Memory, which summarizes the difference between Windows and Linux.

What actually exists is memory deduplication and also compression. The former is already included in PVE and has been for many years: kernel samepage merging (KSM). @bbgeek17 already mentioned it. Compression is currently in development for general stuff, but ZFS has it already for block cache, so it's kinda there if you're using ZFS.

 

[incognitonoobr]

It is already the default, but this does not make sense with a modern operation system that caches everything it reads in memory. Your VM will only have a small amount of memory used if you start it up (not looking at hugepages, different story) and will in general gradually use all the memory it has. An OS that does not use all it's available memory for caching is very slow. I can recommend Linux Ate my Memory, which summarizes the difference between Windows and Linux.

What actually exists is memory deduplication and also compression. The former is already included in PVE and has been for many years: kernel samepage merging (KSM). @bbgeek17 already mentioned it. Compression is currently in development for general stuff, but ZFS has it already for block cache, so it's kinda there if you're using ZFS.

Yeah i thought as much...yup agree that most systems will use memory to cache and almost always will use all except if not doing anything at all. The deduplication, where do i read up on proxmox's implementation and how to use?

 

[LnxBil]

The deduplication, where do i read up on proxmox's implementation and how to use?

If you mean KSM, just use the link @bbgeek17 already provided:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Dynamic_Memory_Management

 

[incognitonoobr]

If you mean KSM, just use the link @bbgeek17 already provided:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Dynamic_Memory_Management

yeah am familiar with the dynamic memory range
ok cool..thanks