SQL Performance, high guest ram, low active ram VM parameter.

HI All,

I have a question.  I have a guest OS running SQL 2012.  Inside the guest OS it shows memory at 95%, when I look

at the active memory counter or usage in Vmware in shows roughly 2-3GB.  The VM is configured for

12GB of ram.  SQL has a max memory set to 9GB.  My question is when I run a total memory (KB)

query it's using 9126000 which is 9GB, the active memory however is really low.  I suspect SQL

is caching/holding onto RAM and needs much less versus increases the total RAM for the VM. How

would I troubleshoot this?  I want to determine the optimum MAX value for ram for a SQL server.

Thanks,

Greg