Possible conflict with RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory
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Thursday, November 04, 2010 4:50 AM
I upgraded my server and test VM to the RC build (from the Beta 1 build) last night/today, and ran into some issues with D3D/video over RemoteFX RDP. The VM in question is Windows 7 Ultimate which originally had the SP1 Beta 1 build on it. It has since been upgraded to the SP1 RC build. I also re-installing the newest Integration Components and finally re-added the RemoteFX adapter.
After RDP'ing ito the VM (RemoteFX enabled) I ran into issues trying to use any 3D app/utility or playing video in the VM. Trying to launch a 3D app gave a Direct3D error (8876086A - D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE). Trying to launch a video would cause the screen to 'reload' kind of like the video driver crashed and needed to be re-loaded. It then displayed a message saying the color scheme has been changed to 'Basic'.
Thinking I had a corrupt DirectX installation, I tried to download the newest DirectX SDK (June 2010) and apply it. Several reboots later the problem still persisted.
What finally seems to have made a difference is in changing the Dynamic Memory settings. It appears that I can reproduce the problem if the VM is configured with 256 MB of startup memory, a max of 2048 MB, and a 10% buffer. This is with a custom sized pagefile (in the VM) of 1024-2048 MB. The problem doesn't occur right away, but appears after a couple of minutes of switching between different 3D apps, opening and closing browser windows, and trying to play videos. If I change the startup memory to 512 MB or change to static memory of 2048 MB, the problem appears to go away (or at least be harder to reproduce).
I have no problem staying with a startup allocation of 512 MB, but I wanted to get this report out there in case there is a bug that needs to be fixed before the final product ships.
Or... is this just a known limitation of RemoteFX / Dynamic Memory?
All Replies
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Monday, November 08, 2010 10:04 PM
Hi
Don't know if this will help you in any way, but RemoteFX requires at least 1024 MB for Windows 7 x86 VMs and at lease 2048 MB for Windows 7 x64 VMs. Your startup values are below this and, even though your max values are OK (you do not specify if you are running x86/x64), maybe this is causing the problem.
Regards
Morgan
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Tuesday, November 09, 2010 5:44 AM
My test VM is x64.
By the way, where are you quoting your minimum RAM requirements from?
Those values seem to reduce the usefulness of Dynamic Memory? I can verify that x64 only appears to need about 800 MB (with no additional programs loaded). Why would I need to reserve 2.5 times that for RemoteFX? (It doesn't appear to get used) Shouldn't RemoteFX be able to grab memory as needed?
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Thursday, November 18, 2010 1:55 AM
My test VM is x64.
By the way, where are you quoting your minimum RAM requirements from?
Those values seem to reduce the usefulness of Dynamic Memory? I can verify that x64 only appears to need about 800 MB (with no additional programs loaded). Why would I need to reserve 2.5 times that for RemoteFX? (It doesn't appear to get used) Shouldn't RemoteFX be able to grab memory as needed?
I agree with your comments and would also love to save the hardware memory. I have seen the same issue but not fully tested it yet (I was using a minimum of 1280 with windows ultimate 64bit, then run 3dmark06 about five times. Problem seems to disappear if you increase the minimum to 2048. More testing needed.)Some might think the official justification could be here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements, but 512MB as the minimum ram is listed in table 1 on page 12 of Implementing_and_Configuring_Dynamic_Memory_WP_SP1_final.pdf and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817651%28WS.10%29.aspx At a minimum this issue should be documented for the final release notes as a potential problem if not hopefully fixed.
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Friday, December 03, 2010 1:49 PM
Hello
The memory requirements I quote are from the RemoteFX Beta documantation, and as such, are subject to change, but they should at lease provide an idea of where the RTM requirments lie. If you download this document: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=dab3196b-97ec-4fbf-86b4-cc8023d8c111
Look at page 6, bullet 3:
Configure the proper RAM as required. Per the Windows® 7 requirements, if you are using an x86-based virtual machine, you must configure at least 1024 megabytes (MB) of RAM. If you are using an x64-based virtual machine, you must configure at least 2048 MB of RAM.Also, we must not confuse RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory here. The memory requirements for RemoteFX do not apply to Dynamic Memory as such.
Hope this helps!
Morgan
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