Re: Changing virtual memory amount in Appveyor and Travis CI tests

From: Gavin Lambert (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-09-21 05:29:20

On 21/09/2020 16:20, Edward Diener wrote:
> Even if 16 GB, these CIs limiting memory to 4 GB or 6 GB seem a 
> disservice to me.

While virtual memory is non-linear and weird (and virtual machine memory 
even more so), it still approximately boils down to however much 
physical RAM they can (affordably) fit onto the host, then divided by 
how many VMs they want to run per host.

Giving each VM a larger memory allocation means you can fit fewer 
concurrent VMs on the same hardware, meaning that you either need more 
hardware or less concurrent users.  And more hardware is expensive, 
especially at VM-host-server scale.

And these CIs have a lot of users who don't pay for anything.

So they have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.  They have apparently 
decided that those particular limits work for most of their users (or at 
least the ones that they care sufficiently about).

It's possible that they have some dedicated servers for paying customers 
with looser limits.  But it's also possible that they don't, if it 
hasn't been an issue in the past.