VMWare

VMWare and Disk activity on .vmem file

Every time I suspend a VM on my VMWare Workstation, there is a long running disk activity on the associated vmem file. This file is a copy of the virtual machines pagefile running on the host instead of the guest.

Suspending a VM shows a progress bar, which is pretty fast. But even a long time (minutes) after it has vanished, the disk activity still continues.

The setting mainMem.useNamedFile = “FALSE” will configure VMWare to use the host paging file instead of a vmem file. Suspending a VM is much faster. The progress bar is slower, but if it disapears, the disk activity also stops.