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 Host-only networking Host machine Host operating system Nonpersistent disk mode Persistent disk mode Raw disk Safe raw disk file Undoable disk mode
An operating systems that
runs inside a virtual machine.
See also
host operating system.
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.
A real, physical computer (as
opposed to a virtual machine).
An operating system that
runs on the host machine.
See also
guest operating system.
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).
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).
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.
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).
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.