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Glossary

Bridged networking
A type of network connection between a virtual machine to the rest of the world. Under bridged networking, a virtual machine appears as an additional computer on the same physical Ethernet network as the host.
See also Host-only Networking.

Configuration
See virtual machine configuration.

Configuration Editor
A point-and-click editor to view and modify the configuration of a virtual machine. It may be launched from the Settings menu.
See also Configuration Wizard.

configuration Wizard
A point-and-click interface for convenient, easy creation of a virtual machine configuration. It is launched automatically when VMware is started without specifying a configuration file. It can also be launched from the VMware File menu. It prompts the user for information, suggesting default values in most cases. At the end it creates files that define the virtual machine, including a virtual machine configuration file and (optionally) a virtual disk or raw disk file.
See also Configuration Editor.

Custom networking
Any type of network connection between virtual machines and the host that is not bridged or host-only networking. For instance, different virtual machines can be connected to the host by separate networks, or connected to each other and not to the host. Any network topology is possible.

Disk mode
A property of a virtual disk that defines its external behavior, but is completely invisible to the guest operating system. There are three modes: persistent (changes to the disk are always preserved across sessions), nonpersistent (changes are never preserved) and undoable (changes are preserved at the user's discretion). Disk modes may be changed from the Configuration Editor's IDE Drives panel.
See also Disk Modes (VMware Web site).

Existing partition
A partition on a real disk in the host machine.
See also raw disk.

Guest operating system
An operating systems that runs inside a virtual machine.
See also host operating system.

Host-only networking
A type of network connection between a virtual machine and the host. Under host-only networking, a virtual machine is connected to the host on a private network, which normally is not visible outside the host. Multiple virtual machines configured with host-only networking on the same host are on the same network.
See also
Bridged Networking and Custom Networking.

Host machine
A real, physical computer (as opposed to a virtual machine).

Host operating system
An operating system that runs on the host machine.
See also guest operating system.

Nonpersistent disk mode
All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine to a nonpersistent disk appear to be written to disk, but are in fact discarded after the session is powered down. As a result, a virtual disk or raw disk in nonpersistent mode is not modified by VMware.
See also Disk Modes (VMware Web site).

Persistent disk mode
All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine are immediately and permanently written to a persistent virtual disk. As a result, a virtual disk or raw disk in persistent mode behaves like a conventional disk drive on a real computer.
See also Disk Modes (VMware Web site).

Raw disk
A hard disk in a virtual machine that is mapped to a physical disk drive in the host machine. A virtual machine's disk can be stored as a file on the host filesystem (see Virtual disk) or on a local IDE raw disk device. When a virtual machine is configured to use a raw disk, VMware directly accesses the local disk/partition as a raw device (not as a file on a filesystem). It is possible to boot a previously installed operating system on an existing partition within a virtual machine environment. The only limitation is that the existing partition must reside on a local IDE or SCSI drive.
See also safe raw disk file, virtual disk.

Safe raw disk file
A file containing access privilege information that controls a virtual machine's read/write access to partitions on a raw disk. Proper use of this file prevents dual-boot users from accidentally trying to run the host operating system again as a guest, or another guest operating system that the virtual machine was not configured for. Safe raw disk files can also prevent accidental writes to raw disk partitions from badly behaved operating systems or applications. Safe raw disk files can be created by the Configuration Wizard or the Configuration Editor.
See also Raw Disks (VMware Web site).

Undoable disk mode
All writes to an undoable disk issued by software running inside the virtual machines appear to be written to the disk, but are in fact stored in a temporary file (.REDO) on the host filesystem for the duration of the session. When the virtual machine is powered down, the user is given three choices: (1) permanently apply all changes to the disk; (2) discard the changes, thus restoring the disk to its previous state; or (3) keep the changes, so that further changes from future sessions can be added to the log.
See also Disk Modes (VMware Web site).

Virtual disk
A virtual disk is a file on the host filesystem that appears as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system. This file can be on the host machine as well as on a remote filesystem. By configuring a virtual machine with a virtual disk, a new operating system can be installed onto the disk file without the need to repartition a physical disk or reboot the host. VMware virtual disk devices can also be mapped to partitions on the host machine
See also raw disk.

Virtual machine
A virtualized x86 PC environment on which a guest operating system and associated application software can run. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same host machine concurrently.
See also Virtual Platform (VMware Web site).

Virtual machine configuration
The specification of what virtual devices (disks, memory size, etc.) are present in a virtual machine, and how they are mapped to host files and devices.

Virtual machine configuration file
A file containing a virtual machine configuration. It is created by the Configuration Wizard or the Configuration Editor. It is used by VMware to identify and run a specific virtual machine.