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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 171
Glossary
vCenterServer
AservicethatactsasacentraladministratorforVMwareserversconnectedonanetwork.Thisservice
directsactionsonthevirtualmachinesandthevirtualmachinehosts.vCenterServeristheworkingcore
ofvCenter.
SeealsoVMwarevCenter(vCenter).
virtualhardware
Thedevicesthatmakeupavirtual
machine.Thevirtualhardwareincludesthevirtualdisk,removable
devicessuchastheDVDROM/CDROMandfloppydrives,andthevirtualEthernetadapter.
virtualmachine
Avirtualmachineisasoftwarecomputerthat,likeaphysicalcomputer,runsanoperatingsystemand
applications.Multiplevirtualmachinescanoperateonthe
samehostsystemconcurrently.
virtualmachineconfigurationfile(.vmx)
Afilecontainingavirtualmachineconfiguration.This.vmxfileiscreatedafteryoucreateavirtual
machine.Itisusedtoidentifyandrunaspecificvirtualmachine.
virtualmachineconsole
AninterfacetoavirtualmachinewithinthelargerLab ManagerWebconsole.
Usethevirtualmachine
consoletorunprogramswithinitormodifyguestoperatingsystemsettings.LabManagerprovides
operationsrangingfromtheinstallationofVMwareToolstomediafileactivityfortheguestoperating
systemtosnapshotsofvirtualmachines.
virtualmachinedisk(.vmdk)
Afileorsetoffiles
thatappearsasaphysicaldiskdrivetoaguestoperatingsystem.Thesefilescanbeon
thehostmachineoronaremotefilesystem.
virtualmachinetemplate
Amasterimageofavirtualmachinethattypicallyincludesaspecifiedoperatingsystemandvirtual
counterpartstohardwarecomponents.Avirtual
machinetemplatecanincludeaninstalledguest
operatingsystemandasetofapplications.
virtualrouter
Avirtualmachinethatspecificallyroutespacketsbetweenothervirtualmachines.Lab Managerconfiguresthe
virtualrouter whenyoudeployafencedconfigurationanddeletesitwhenyouundeploytheconfigurati on.
Lab Managerdoesnotcreateavirtual
routerfortheBlockInandOutfencingmode.
virtualswitch
AvirtualizednetworkswitchusedbyESXtomanagetrafficbetweenvirtualmachines,theservice
console,andthephysicalnetworkadaptersontheESXhost.
VMFS(VirtualMachineFileSystem)
Afilesystemthatisoptimizedforstoringvirtualmachines.OneVMFS
partitionissupportedperSCSI
storagedeviceorLUN.DifferentversionsofESXmightusedifferentversionsofVMFS.Forexample,
VMFS3wasintroducedwithESXServer3.
VMkernel
InESX,ahighperformancehypervisorthatoccupiesthevirtualizationlayerandmanagesmostofthe
physicalresourcesonthehardware,including
memory,physicalprocessors,storage,andnetworking
controllers.
VMotion
AfeaturethatenablesyoutomoverunningvirtualmachinesfromoneESXsystemtoanotherwithout
interruptingservice.Itrequireslicensingonboththesourceandtargethosts.VMotionisactivatedbythe
vCenteragent,andvCenterServercentrallycoordinatesallVMotionactivities.
Seealsovirtualmachine
disk(.vmdk).