Installation guide

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VMware ESX Server Administration Guide

Virtualization at a Glance

ESX Server virtualizes the resources of the physical system for use by the virtual

machines.

In the preceding example, each virtual machine is configured with one CPU, an

allocation of memory and disk, and two virtual Ethernet adapters. In reality, they share

the same physical CPU and access noncontiguous pages of memory (with part of the

memory of one of the virtual machines currently swapped to disk). Their virtual disks

are actually set up as files on a common file system. Each has a network interface

bound to and sharing a single physical network adapter. The second network

interface in each virtual machine is bound to a virtual network interface within the

ESX Server system.

Software Compatibility

In the VMware ESX Server architecture, guest operating systems interact only with the

standard x86-compatible virtual hardware presented by the virtualization layer. This

provides the capability for VMware to support any x86-compatible operating system.

In practice, however, VMware supports a subset of x86-compatible operating systems

that are tested throughout the product development cycle. VMware documents the

installation and operation of these guest operating systems and trains its technical

personnel in their support.

Because applications interact only with their guest operating system, and not the

underlying virtual hardware, once operating system compatibility with the virtual

hardware is established, application compatibility is not an issue.

Virtual machine 1

Virtual machine 2

Memory

Disk

Physical resources

NIC

Virtual network

Memory Memory

Disk

NIC

CPU

CPU1

Mem1

Disk1

NIC1a

NIC1b

CPU2

Mem2

Disk2

NIC2a

NIC2b