Fusion 12.2.1 Memory Doubles on Monteray

[renegade33]

I am seeing a persistent memory leak in the fusion vmware-vmx file within process monitor. I have tried both v19 and v17 hardware compatibility and am noticing the same behavior. 

Host system has 32GB memory - allocating 12GB to the Windows 11 guest VM. Within minutes of starting the vmware-vmx process has almost doubled. This is reflected in the Real Memory Size when double clicking the process. Any clues as to why this is happening or how best to troubleshoot it? 

Thanks in advance for any assistance

Edit: the two screenshots were taken ~4 min apart and showing it continuing to rise. As I type this it is already up to 17.66GB... only a min from the last screen shot.

[Technogeezer]

Have you opened a support incident with VMware? Most folks here are not Fusion support engineers. 

[renegade33]

I haven't as it doesn't appear that I have the option (thought there would be some support as I have had this version less than a year). Was hoping that this was a common or known issue I was in the dark about. 😞

[Technogeezer]

Do things change if you have hard disk buffering turned off (not automatic) 

[renegade33]

It doesn't seem to be. I reset the HD buffering to disabled and restarted. Already at 16.5GB+.

[gringley]

I recall falling in this rabbit hole last year.  I think there was a discussion on it at the time that should be in this forum.  I launched two 4GB RAM Windows 11 guests tonight and total Memory Used at that point was 22GB out of 32GB.  I come back now and each vmx process has grown to 7GB, but the total Memory Used has dropped to 18GB.   Looks like Cached Files grew.  Memory Used is what matters here.  I forget why the vmx memory total is not what it seems.  

[renegade33]

It's bizarre behavior for sure. I had taken a look at the post you referenced but it didn't seem as if it was resolved. 

Have you found if you leave the Win11 VM on indefinitely that the VM crashes (or the host freezes) - or does it continue to dynamically (albeit strangely) adjust and cause no stability issues? Both of those conditions have happened to me (2 crashes and 2 freezes) in recent days as I have been attempting to run long processes on the guest. 

[Technogeezer]

I've given up on trying to decipher how much memory a process actually uses in macOS. Apple doesn't exactly tell you all of what those different kind of memory statistics mean.

I've just resigned myself to looking at the memory pressure graph. If that starts going into the red, I know that I've over subscribed memory and that the system is starting to swap and page its brains out. At that point I look for something that seems to be hogging memory and deal with that.

[renegade33]

Well, I've turned off both 3D accel and HD buffering and it seems to be holding steady around 3GB over the value I set as maximum for the VM. I'll fire off the processes I was running on the guest tomorrow and report back. Appreciate the assistance!

[gringley]

There is a key difference I usually boot the VMs for short tasks and do not leave them running so not seeing a lot of crashing.

[renegade33]

Well the VM is still going, which is a good sign but I am not sure for how much longer. It has steadily increased to 23+GB consumed (real) and seems to be growing. Not sure what to think at this point.