In this blog post, we are going to see how to verify that the memory balloon driver is enabled for a virtual machine or not. While troubleshooting virtual machine performance, we need this information. We will try to keep it simple so that you can understand it better.
Let’s have a look on steps:
- SSH to the ESXi host using Putty. (It can be downloaded from here)
- Once you logged in, Type esxtop command and hit enter. You will see the next screen as below:

3. Now you have to click M to get the memory states on the console. Once you press it, will get a screen like:

4. Now press F to get the Balloon Driver Stats option. After it, You will see below screen:

5. Now you have to enter J to get MCTL = MEM Ctl (MB) aka ballooning details. Next screen will:

Let us explain about above information.
Here Name implies the name of Virtual Machines that are hosted on the ESXi host and in MCTL column Y represents that Yes Memory Balloon is Enabled for the virtual machines. That’s it.
Keep Learnings,
- 500 Internal Server Error – How To Troubleshoot And Fix
- How To Verify USB Connection For An ESXi Host?