Increase Memory or CPUs while on Virtual Machine

In Windows 2003/2008 ENT or DC is required as well as the memory/cpu hotplug option in the VM. If you are seeing the setting grayed out, then a power off will be required.

Also ...and while the guest is off you can configure the hot plug options as well... Edit Setting--Options Tab--Memory/CPU Hotplug.

Note: Will Explain Configuration of HotPlug in other Blog

Example Below ScreenShot.

ESX

With VMware Infrastructure Client, connect to the ESX host that is managing the virtual machine or to VirtualCenter Then Follow below steps

• Right-click the entry for the virtual machine.
• Click Edit Settings.
• If not already selected, click the Hardware tab.
• If not already highlighted, click Memory.
• From the window displayed at the right, increase the amount of memory.

This way If you find your VM Memory and CPU settings grade out to make any changes then you need to Power off the VM and open the Edit Settings and select the Hardware Tab and then choose your Devices and make changes to the Memory, Cores and Processors configuration. Click Ok and then Power on the VM.