An administrator has created a resource pool named Marketing HTTP with a Memory Limit of 24 GB and a CPU Limit of 10,000 MHz. The Marketing HTTP resource pool contains three virtual machines…

All three VMs cannot power on at all because the admission control check fails before any VM enters a contention state - the pool limit prevents the third VM from starting.

The combined reservations of 26 GB exceed the 24 GB pool limit, so vSphere will refuse to power on the third VM rather than allow all three to run.

vSphere enforces a resource pool's memory limit by ensuring the sum of reservations for all powered-on VMs never exceeds that limit. The three VMs require 16 + 6 + 4 = 26 GB in total, which is 2 GB over the 24 GB limit. As a result, only two VMs whose combined reservations fit within 24 GB can be powered on at any given time.

Multiple two-VM combinations have combined reservations under 24 GB (for example, Mktg-SQL + Mktg-App = 22 GB), so at least two VMs can power on simultaneously.