High RAM Usage Due to VirtIO Ballooning on VPS

    • Neu

    Hi everyone,

    I have a netcup VPS with 32 GB RAM running Windows Server 2025.

    Immediately after a reboot, over 80% of the RAM is already in use, even though hardly any applications are running.
    Using RAMMap, I found that approximately 22.5 GB is marked as "Driver Locked". Both the VirtIO Balloon Driver and BalloonService are running.

    I need at least 16 GB of usable RAM for my applications, which is why I specifically ordered a VPS with 32 GB RAM.

    My questions:

    • Is this behavior normal on netcup VPS instances?
    • Is it safe to disable the VirtIO Balloon Driver?
    • How can I ensure that the RAM I paid for is actually available to my applications?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Neu

    Did you read/understand what the ballooning driver does?

    It try’s to reclaim RAM for other use on the server, which is UNUSED b the VPS. It should reduce the amount of reserved RAM automatically when you start to USE your RAM. That is simply how resource management on vps works where the resources are individual limits per vm/vps, where you don’t need effectively always 100%. And in case that on a node is too much load, Netcup will migrate the VM to another node.

    If you want guaranteed resources, you should choose RS (root servers), which are basically also VMs but without overbooking.

    • Neu

    Alright thanks.
    Thats all i needed to know :)


    EDIT: Just for info. For normal users/customers thats not really clear. VPS and RS have similar information about RAM. Only the CPS is named as dedicated for the RS variant.

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Luuk (23. Oktober 2026 um 11:32)