VM's Crashes - O/S Centos 6.4

[racingyacht]

I have installed two Centos Virtual Machines as guest on a laptop running Windows 7. The VM keeps crashing whenever I try to work on them, such installing additional applications. Can you please help to resolve the issue?

Logfile attached

I found the following error in the logs relating to memory, however, 794231 Host RAM: 6047MB total, 3789MB available:

.478684 VM: Raising runtime error 'HostMemoryLow' (fFlags=0x2)
00:14:20.478690 AssertLogRel D:\tinderbox\win-4.2\src\VBox\VMM\VMMR3\VMM.cpp(1703) int __cdecl VMMR3EmtRendezvous(struct VM *,unsigned int,int (__cdecl *)(struct VM *,struct VMCPU *,void *),void *): !pVCpu->vmm.s.fInRendezvous
00:14:20.478703 Console: VM runtime error: fatal=false, errorID=HostMemoryLow message="Unable to allocate and lock memory. The virtual machine will be paused. Please close applications to free up memory or close the VM"
00:14:20.478794 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'GURU_MEDITATION'.
00:14:30.670882 Console::powerDown(): A request to power off the VM has been issued (mMachineState=Stopping, InUninit=0)
00:14:30.671989 Changing the VM state from 'GURU_MEDITATION' to 'POWERING_OFF'
Please see

[mpack]

In the past this has normally meant that something third party running on the host is refusing to release borrowed memory, e.g. memory used as cache which is supposed to be released when something else (i.e. VirtualBox) requests a large memory allocation. Previous culprits have been GoogleCrashHandler.exe, some antivirus etc. Have a look at the host task list.

[racingyacht]

I closed most other application and replicated the error during testing, before posting for help.
The application that are running are: Skype, Norton AV, SSL VPN client, and VirtualBox with the two Centos guest.

Regards

[mpack]

Well, shut those down too. Get down to one running VM and the add things back until you discover the culprit.

[racingyacht]

I forgot to say that I have this working on another laptop (same model) with no issues. It is also running Norton AV, so I am discounting Norton's from the equation at the moment. I'm checking for difference in apps installed and shutting down everything I can.
Regards

[mpack]

I would not discount anything, whether or not it gives you problems elsewhere.

[racingyacht]

i disabled everything but the problem still persists. I also disabled service from the control panel.
I thought I had it solved but the problem moved from the VM that I was working on to the other VM.

[mpack]

Then I'm running out of ideas. The error message is "low memory" and I am not aware that this error message ever means anything except what it says.

I'm not sure what I believe VirtualBox needs to allocate it's memory in one contiguous chunk, so memory fragmentation can cause problems even if the memory doesn't appear to be filled. Running a large memory hungry application early in the boot process can cause other resident processes to load here and there throughout the memory map, which is how you might get that fragmentation.

Your original post didn't mention running two VMs at the same time. Obviously finding two contiguous 1GB memory blocks might be harder than finding one.

You say you "disabled everything" but I don't see how that can be the case. Even ignoring the error, all your symptoms say lack of memory.

[racingyacht]

Hi mpack,
Thanks for you support so far. I am running out of ideas and time. Please note that my initial post stated the configuration was two VMs running Centos 6.4

To isolate services:
- I used MS Services to stop automated start of all applications that ran as a service but weren't required by the O/S. This is a developer's machine, so I looked at everything.
- Made sure applications weren't loading in start-up
- Used task manager to check processes running
- I found that Google now runs GoogleCrashHandler.exe as part of Chrome updater, so GoogleCrashHandler.exe no longer appears as a service in task manager. So I removed Google Chrome in order to test
- Disabled Anti-virus

I have been working on this continously for 3.5 days. Running out of the will and energy to continue working on this, as it is impacting other work.

Any other thoughts?

Regards

[mpack]

Please note that my initial post stated the configuration was two VMs running Centos 6.4

Your original post said that you had installed two VMs - that's quite common, e.g. I've installed around twenty. OTOH, running them at the same time is a different matter, and definitely worth highlighting.

The only other thing you might do is raise a BugTracker ticket for this, on the offchance that it is a VBox bug.

[smithy2306]

I have just had the exact same problem. Windows 7 host 6GB RAM, Centos6 guest. 3GB for the guest crashed, so did 2GB. Lowered to 1320MB and seems to be installing now. Its a real pain. Log file attached.

VM: Raising runtime error 'HostMemoryLow' (fFlags=0x2)
00:03:40.881211 AssertLogRel D:\tinderbox\win-4.2\src\VBox\VMM\VMMR3\VMM.cpp(1703) int __cdecl VMMR3EmtRendezvous(struct VM *,unsigned int,int (__cdecl *)(struct VM *,struct VMCPU *,void *),void *): !pVCpu->vmm.s.fInRendezvous
00:03:40.881238 Console: VM runtime error: fatal=false, errorID=HostMemoryLow message="Unable to allocate and lock memory. The virtual machine will be paused. Please close applications to free up memory or close the VM"