[libvirt] SetMaxMemory vs. SetMemory

[Matthias Bolte]

Hello,

I just took a look at the driver functions for SetMaxMemory and
SetMemory, as they are not implemented yet for the ESX driver and
Daniel Veillard was a bit surprised that they are missing, as he
expects them to be simple to implement. The problem is that I'm not
sure how the memory model of ESX maps to SetMaxMemory vs. SetMemory.

An ESX virtual machine has a defined memory size. That's the size
reported to the guest OS as the available "physical" memory size.
Beside this ESX allows the user to control how the hypervisor
satisfies this "physical" memory size. You can define a reservation
and an upper limit. The hypervisor will at least use the reserved
amount of real physical memory to satisfy the "physical" memory size,
but will not use more than the upper limit.

How does this map to SetMaxMemory and SetMemory? My first assumption
was, SetMaxMemory defines the "physical" memory size and SetMemory
defines the upper limit of real physical memory to satisfy the
"physical" memory size. This assumption seems to be in sync with the
QEMU driver from just looking at the code. But with Xen it seems to be
different. If I call SetMaxMemory and SetMemory with 2GB than free
inside the domain reports 2GB total memory. After I call SetMemory
with 1GB, free reports 1GB of total memory.

I'm confused. So, what is the intended semantic for SetMaxMemory and SetMemory?

Regards,
Matthias