A systems administrator is planning the hardware provisioning for a hypervisor host system… — CompTIA A+ (Core 1 & Core 2)

A systems administrator is planning the hardware provisioning for a hypervisor host system that will run two distinct workloads: $5$ database virtual machines (VMs) allocated $8\text{ GB}$ of RAM each, and $10$ web server VMs allocated $2\text{ GB}$ of RAM each. The host hypervisor operating system requires $4\text{ GB}$ of dedicated physical RAM to operate, and the virtualization platform requires an additional $5\%$ of the total allocated guest RAM for management overhead. What is the minimum total host RAM, in $\text{GB}$ , required to provision all VMs without memory overcommitment?

Answer: 67 GB

Answer

The minimum total host RAM required is

67\text{ GB}

To accurately provision a virtualization host without overcommitment, technicians must calculate the total memory assigned to guest VMs (

(5 \times 8\text{ GB}) + (10 \times 2\text{ GB}) = 60\text{ GB}

), calculate hypervisor overhead (

5\%

60\text{ GB} = 3\text{ GB}

), and include the host OS base requirement (

4\text{ GB}

). Adding these together (

60\text{ GB} + 3\text{ GB} + 4\text{ GB}

) yields a total of

67\text{ GB}

Step-by-Step Solution

Calculate the total RAM allocated to all guest virtual machines.

5 \times 8\text{ GB} + 10 \times 2\text{ GB} = 40\text{ GB} + 20\text{ GB} = 60\text{ GB}

Each virtual machine requires its assigned memory dedicated from the host pool.

Calculate the hypervisor management overhead based on total guest RAM.

5\% \text{ of } 60\text{ GB} = 0.05 \times 60\text{ GB} = 3\text{ GB}

Hypervisors consume additional system memory to track state, manage virtual hardware tables, and handle guest processes.

Sum guest RAM, hypervisor overhead, and dedicated host operating system RAM.

60\text{ GB} + 3\text{ GB} + 4\text{ GB} = 67\text{ GB}

Combining guest requirements, overhead, and base host OS usage determines total physical host RAM needed to prevent performance degradation or overcommitment.

Key Concept

Virtual Machine Resource Requirements and Host RAM Capacity Planning

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