Steps to Install balloon driver on Windows Virtual Machines

Steps to Install balloon driver on Windows Virtual Machines

Why Balloon Driver?
If balloon driver is not installed on Windows Virtual Machines then memory metrics will not be collected for windows virtual machine.

Steps to Install balloon driver on Virtual Machines:
  1. Download latest package of virtio-win iso from the below link under 'Packaged sets of drivers' title.
    https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_VirtIO_Drivers
  2. To add a CD/DVD-ROM device to your Windows VM Guest, proceed as follows:
    1. Double-click on a VM Guest entry in the Virtual Machine Manager to open its console and switch to the Details view with View -> Details.
    2. Click Add Hardware and choose Storage in the pop-up window.
    3. Change the Device Type to IDE CDROM.
    4. Click Finish and Reboot the Windows VM to see the effects.
  3. To install Virtio Balloon driver, proceed as follows:
    1. In Control Panel-> Device Manager-> Other devices-> PCI Device, Right click 'PCI Device' and Select 'Update Driver Software'
    2. Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' -> Browse -> Select the CD Drive with virtio-win-0.1.1  and click OK.
    3. Install the Device Software.
  4. Install Balloon Service as below,
    1. open command line, go to the CD-ROM with VirtIO drivers, go to Balloon directory and deeper, depending on your system and architecture. When you are in amd64 (x86) directory, type blnsrv.exe -i and the service should install itself.
    2. Open run prompt-> type 'Services.msc'. In Services window, Balloon Service should be running.
  5. To check Memory stats, execute the below commands in KVM host:
    1. $virsh dommemstat <VMName> --period 10 --live
    2. $virsh dommemstat <VMName>