Create Resource Pools
You can create a child resource pool of any ESX/ESXi host, resource pool, or DRS cluster.
NOTE If a host has been added to a cluster, you cannot create child resource pools of that host. You can create
child resource pools of the cluster if the cluster is enabled for DRS.
When you create a child resource pool, you are prompted for resource pool attribute information. The system
uses admission control to make sure you cannot allocate resources that are not available.
Procedure
1 Select the intended parent and select File > New > Resource Pool (or click New Resource Pool in the
Commands panel of the Summary tab).
2 In the Create Resource Pool dialog box, provide the required information for your resource pool.
3 After you have made all selections, click OK.
vCenter Server creates the resource pool and displays it in the inventory panel. A yellow triangle appears
if any of the selected values are not legal values because of limitations on total available CPU and memory.
After a resource pool has been created, you can add virtual machines to it. A virtual machine’s shares are
relative to other virtual machines (or resource pools) with the same parent resource pool.
Resource Pool Attributes
You can use resource allocation settings to manage a resource pool.
Table 4-1 is a summary of the attributes that you can specify for a resource pool.
Table 4-1. Resource Pool Attributes
Field Description
Name Name of the new resource pool.
Shares Number of CPU or memory shares the resource pool has with respect to the parent’s total.
Sibling resource pools share resources according to their relative share values bounded
by the reservation and limit. You can select Low, Normal, or High, or select Custom to
specify a number that assigns a share value.
Reservation Guaranteed CPU or memory allocation for this resource pool. A nonzero reservation is
subtracted from the unreserved resources of the parent (host or resource pool). The
resources are considered reserved, regardless of whether virtual machines are associated
with the resource pool. Defaults to 0.
Expandable Reservation Indicates whether expandable reservations are considered during admission control. If
you power on a virtual machine in this resource pool, and the reservations of the virtual
machines combined are larger than the reservation of the resource pool, the resource pool
can use resources from its parent or ancestors if this check box is selected (the default).
Limit Upper limit for the amount of CPU or memory the host makes available to this resource
pool. Default is Unlimited. To specify a limit, deselect the Unlimited check box.
Chapter 4 Managing Resource Pools
VMware, Inc. 37
