6.0.1

Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware 6
You can add or configure most virtual machine properties during the virtual machine creation process or
after you create the virtual machine and install the guest operating system.
You configure the virtual machine hardware and can change nearly every characteristic that you selected
when you created the virtual machine. You can view the existing hardware configuration and add or
remove hardware. You can configure CPUs, CPU hyperthreading resources, memory, and disks.
Not all hardware devices are available to every virtual machine. The host that the virtual machine runs on
and the guest operating system must support devices that you add or configurations that you make.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 89
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“Virtual CPU Configuration,” on page 95
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“Virtual Memory Configuration,” on page 101
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“Network Virtual Machine Configuration,” on page 103
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“Parallel and Serial Port Configuration,” on page 107
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“Virtual Disk Configuration,” on page 115
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“SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125
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“Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration,” on page 130
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“Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual machines with 3D graphics Option,” on page 139
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“USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine,” on page 139
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“USB Configuration from a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine,” on page 146
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“Add a Shared Smart Card Reader to Virtual Machines,” on page 152
Virtual Machine Compatibility
When you create a virtual machine or upgrade an existing virtual machine, you use the virtual machine
compatibility setting to select the ESXi host versions that the virtual machine can run on.
The compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which
corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. Virtual hardware includes BIOS and EFI,
available virtual PCI slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other
characteristics. New virtual hardware capabilities are typically released once a year with major or minor
releases of vSphere.
VMware, Inc.
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