2.0

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 23
Chapter 1 Introduction and System Requirements
Updated VIX API
TheVMwareVIXAPI(formerlyknownastheProgrammingAPI)allowsyoutowrite
scriptsandprogramstoautomatevirtualmachineoperations.TheVIXAPIishigh
level,easytouse,andpracticalforbothscriptwritersandapplicationprogrammers.
ThisreleaseoftheVIXAPIisavailableintheC
language.APIfunctionsallowyouto
registervirtualmachines,powervirtualmachinesonoroff,andrunprogramsinthe
guestoperatingsystems.AdditionallanguagebindingsforPerl,COM,andshellscripts
(vmrun)areavailable.SeetheVMwareVIXAPI1.6ReleaseNotes.
VMCI Sockets Interface
Developerswhowanttowriteclientserverapplicationsforvirtualmachinescanuse
thissocketsinterfacefortheVirtualMachineCommunicationInterface.VMCIprovides
afastermeansofcommunicationamongapplicationsrunningonthehostandinvirtual
machines.SeetheVMCISocketsProgrammingGuide.
About the Host and Guest Computers
Thetermshostandguestdescribeyourphysicalandvirtualmachines:
ThephysicalcomputeronwhichyouinstalltheVMwareServersoftwareiscalled
thehostcomputer,anditsoperatingsystemiscalledthehostoperatingsystem.
Theoperatingsystemrunninginsideavirtualmachineiscalledaguestoperating
system.
Host System Requirements
YoucaninstalltheVMwareServersoftwareonaWindowsorLinuxserver.Youcan
storevirtualmachinesontheserverhostorlocatethemonanetworkshare.
PC Hardware
Thenumberofvirtualmachinesyoucanrunconcurrentlydependsontheresources
theyrequire.VMwareServersupportsupto16waymultiprocessorservers,witha
maximumoffourvirtualmachinesrunningconcurrentlyperprocessor.
VMwareServerhostsmustmeetthefollowingrequirements:
Standardx86compatibleorx8664compatibleserverwithupto16processors.
Hostswith32bitIA32processorsandIA32processorswith64bitextensionsare
supported.
733MHzorfasterCPUminimum.