I changed the value back to 100 and rebooted:
/vmfs/volumes/531e1a38-a54fe8f5-daeb-000c29dce64f/log # esxcli system settings kernel list -o maxVMs Name Type Description Configured Runtime Default ------ ------ -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- ------- ------- maxVMs uint32 Max number of VMs VMKernel should support. 0 == determine at runtime 100 0 0
Here is the vmware.log of clone #58:
/vmfs/volumes/5370a9e1-56c8f49a-d807-000c29dce64f/TCLVM-58 # grep -i "Precise Reservation" vmware.log 2014-05-31T08:24:08.382Z| vmx| I120: VMMEM: Precise Reservation: 119MB (MainMem=64MB)