Specifications

CHAPTER 2 Creating a New Virtual Machine
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If the virtual machine is connected directly to a physical disk, rather than to a
virtual disk, the .vmdk file stores information about the partitions the virtual
machine is allowed to access.
Note: Earlier VMware products used the extension .dsk for virtual disk files.
• <vmname>.log or vmware.log — the file that keeps a log of key virtual
machine activity. This file can be useful in troubleshooting if you encounter
problems. This file is stored in the directory that holds the configuration file
(.vmx) of the virtual machine.
• <vmname>.vmdk.REDO_xxxxxx — a redo-log file, created automatically
when a virtual machine has a snapshot or is in independent-nonpersistent
mode. This file stores changes made to a virtual disk while the virtual machine is
running. There may be more than one such file. The xxxxxx indicates a unique
suffix added automatically by GSX Server to avoid duplicate filenames.
• <vmname>.vmss — the suspended state file, which stores the state of a
suspended virtual machine.
Note: Some earlier VMware products used the extension .std for suspended
state files.
• <vmname>.vmsn — the snapshot state file, which stores the running state of a
virtual machine at the time you take a snapshot of it.
• <vmname>.vmx.sav — the configuration snapshot file, which stores the
configuration of a virtual machine at the time you take a snapshot of it. If you
created the virtual machine under an earlier version of GSX Server on a Linux
host, this file may have a .cfg extension.
There may be other files as well, some of which are present only while a virtual
machine is running.
Permissions and Running Virtual Machines
When you create a virtual machine, by default the virtual machine is private, which
means you are the only user who can access it. If you choose the custom path when
creating the virtual machine, you can specify that all users can access the virtual
machine.
When a virtual machine is private, it appears in the inventory of the console of the
user who created it. The virtual machine does not appear in the inventory of consoles
for other users connected to the host. The virtual machine appears in the VMware
Management Interface only when you are logged on as the user who created the
virtual machine.