SLES servers on ESX hitting swap space when they have no application load

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

Multiple SLES servers, configured with Websphere, are using swap and have the appearance of a server suffering with high utilization. There was no end user activity on these guest servers. They were hosted on a VMware ESX 3.5.

Resolution

Distribute the virtual machine guests over additional VMware ESX host servers.

This issue does not necessarily apply to VMware Workstatation and VMware Server guests. However, if the host server is running out of resources, you may consider moving one or more guests to a different host server as well.

Additional Information

The VMware ESX host servers were overbooked on memory resources for the number of guests. When the memory management suffered a spike, the SLES guests started swapping to disk and consuming memory.

Disclaimer

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