A global setting that provides password protection for Windows hosts. Administrative lockout restricts users from creating new virtual machines, editing virtual machine configurations, and changing network settings.

An entity that monitors one or more properties of a virtual machine, such as CPU load. Alarms send notifications as directed by the configurable alarm definition.

A type of virtual disk in which all disk space for the virtual machine is allocated at the time the disk is created. This is the default type of virtual disk created by vCenter Server.

A specified set of functions that enables you to access a service programmatically.

In ESX Server 2.x, a disk mode in which software running in the virtual machine appears to write changes to the disk. Changes are stored in a temporary .REDO file. If a system administrator deletes the redo-log file, the virtual machine returns to the state it was in the last time it was used in persistent mode. See also disk mode.

A set of privileges grouped for convenient identification under names such as Administrator.

A managed entity grouped by a folder object or another managed entity. See also folder.

(n.) A duplicate of a virtual machine. (v.) To make a copy of a virtual machine. When a clone is created, vCenter Server provides an option for customizing the guest operating system of that virtual machine. Hosted products distinguish between full clones and linked clones. See also full clone, linked clone.

A server group in the virtual environment. Clusters enable a high-availability solution.

An extended compute resource that represents a cluster of hosts available for backing virtual machines. See also compute resource.

A managed object that represents either a single host or a cluster of hosts available for backing virtual machines. See also cluster compute resource.

See virtual machine configuration.

See service console, VMware virtual machine console.

A virtual machine of the latest version supported by the product in use. See also legacy virtual machine.

The process of applying new characteristic values to a virtual machine as it is being deployed from a template or cloned from another existing virtual machine. Customization options include changing the new virtual machine identification and network information.

In hosted products, any type of network connection between virtual machines and the host that does not use the default bridged, host-only, or network address translation (NAT) configurations. 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.

A UNIX background program that runs unattended, performing services at a specified time or when some condition occurs. Analogous to a service in Windows.

A required structure under which hosts and their associated virtual machines are added to the vCenter Server. vCenter Server supports multiple datacenters. A host can be managed under only one datacenter.

An optional inventory grouping structure contained within the datacenter structure. A vCenter Server supports multiple datacenter folders. Datacenter folders can contain only datacenters and other datacenter folders.

Virtual representations of combinations of underlying physical storage resources in the datacenter. A datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk, a RAID, or a SAN) for virtual machine files.

A communications protocol that enables dynamic addressing. The software relieves administrators of the task of assigning an IP address to each device that connects to a network.

A state in which actions and features are deactivated. The feature is turned off by a choice the user makes.

Groups of multiple disk devices that are the typical SAN disk storage device. These arrays vary in design, capacity, performance, and other features.

A property of a virtual disk that defines its external behavior (how the virtualization layer treats its data. It is invisible to the guest operating system. Available modes vary by product. See also persistent mode, nonpersistent mode and append mode.

A dvPort group is a port group associated with a DVS. It specifies port configuration options for each member port. A dvPort group defines how a connection is made through the DVS to the network.

An Internet data query service that translates host names into IP addresses. Also called Domain Name Server or Domain Name Service.

A port on a DVS that connects to a host’s service console or VMkernel or to a virtual machine’s network adapter.

See vNetwork Distributed Switch (DVS).

A state in which actions and features are active. The feature is turned on by a choice the user makes.

The act of discovering resources available in a virtual machine environment. In particular, discovering all resources of a given type or a list of resources discovered by enumeration.

A physical switch that manages network traffic between machines. A switch has multiple ports, each of which can be connected to a machine or to another switch on the network. See also virtual switch.

The software license that details any restrictions placed on users.

An action that is of interest to vCenter Server. Each event triggers an event message. Event messages are archived in the vCenter Server database. Messages appear in two locations in the user interface: the Events option in the navigation bar and the Events tab for objects under the Inventory button.

Type of event (alert, error, info, warning, or user) and its name, arguments, and message format.

A partition on a physical disk. See also physical disk.

A Fibre Channel network topology in which devices pass data to each other through interconnecting switches. A fabric is used in many SANs. Fabrics are typically divided into zones. Also called switched fabric or Fibre Channel fabric. See also FC (Fibre Channel).

See file allocation table (FAT).

A data object containing information about an exception condition encountered by an operation.

An ANSI-standard, gigabit-speed network technology used to build storage area networks and transmit data. Fibre Channel components include HBAs, switches, and cabling.

A container for raw data, such as text or an image.

An area on a disk that stores information about the location of each piece of every file on the disk and about the location of unusable areas of the disk.

A storage mechanism that speeds access to files stored on a disk by caching frequently accessed data. The maximum disk cache for 32-bit operating systems is 512MB; for 64-bit operating systems, the maximum is 1TB. All platforms use file system caches for improved performance.

A managed entity used to group other managed entities. Folder types are determined by the types of child entities they contain. See also child.

The name of a host that includes the host name and the domain name. For example, the FQDN of a host named esx1 in the domain vmware.com is esx1.vmware.com.

A complete copy of the original virtual machine, including all associated virtual disks. See also linked clone.

A display mode in which the virtual machine’s display fills the entire screen. (The user has no access to the VMware Workstation user interface.) The user cannot create, reconfigure, or start virtual machines. A system administrator performs those functions. See also quick switch mode.

Backs up all files that make up the entire virtual machine. These files include disk images, .vmx files, and so on.

To restore a snapshot of the active virtual machine. See also revert to snapshot.

See guest operating system.

A set of users assigned a common set of privileges. A group may contain other groups. See also service console.

A type of virtual disk in which the disk space is not preallocated to its full size. The disk files begin small and grow as data is written to the disk.

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

An unauthenticated user who can log in to a system with a temporary user name and password. A guest user has restricted access to files and folders and has a set of restricted permissions

A temporary token used by a Web service client to invoke Web service operations that require a reference to an object. Like a file handle, an object handle is a temporary handle that always refers to the same object.

A device that connects one or more peripheral units to a computer and manages data storage and I/O processing (often for Fibre Channel, IDE, or SCSI interfaces). An HBA can be physical (attached to a host) or virtual (part of a virtual machine).

The definitive list of hardware that VMware supports.

Describes a program that runs in the background without any interface connected to it. A running virtual machine that has no console connections is running headless.

A signal emitted at regular intervals by software to demonstrate that it is still active. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet transceiver at the end of every packet to show that the collision-detection circuit is still connected.

A computer that uses virtualization software to run virtual machines. Also called the host machine or host computer. The physical computer on which the virtualization (or other) software is installed.

Software that performs actions on behalf of a remote client when installed on a virtual machine host.

In ESX server software, one of two modes for licensing VMware software. License files reside on the host. Feature availability is tied strictly to the host in which the file resides. See also server-based licensing.

VMware products (including Workstation, VMware Player, VMware Server, VMware ACE, and Lab Manager) that run as applications on physical machines with operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Linux. See also hypervisor.

In hosted products, a type of network connection between a virtual machine and the host. With 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 NAT (network address translation).

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

An installable file that resets a user’s password, renews an expired virtual machine, or enables a copy-protected virtual machine to run from a new location.

A technology that allows a single physical processor to behave like two logical processors. The processor can run two independent applications at the same time.

A platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time.

A process that backs up an entire storage volume.

A feature is not currently functioning because of a constraint other than user choice. Can also be used when the feature is turned off by indirect user choice. For example, a feature can be “disabled” by direct user choice or made “inactive” by indirect user choice.

A process that backs up only those files that have changed since the last backup, whether it is a full or incremental backup.

A type of virtual disk that is not affected by snapshots. You can configure independent disks in persistent and nonpersistent modes. See also nonpersistent mode, persistent mode.

Storage virtualization devices are those that aggregate capacity from multiple heterogeneous arrays and manage a logical representation of this capacity. Models that belong to this group are array-based controllers only and not server-based or switch-based controllers. Most of these devices can also have physical disks installed internally that are presented to hosts as physical SAN LUNs, which are not virtualized. When these devices are supported in the internal storage configuration, this refers to the LUNs presented from disks internal to the array and not those virtualized from other arrays which they aggregate.

A hierarchical structure used by the vCenter Server or the host agent to organize managed entities. This hierarchy is a list of all the monitored objects in vCenter Server.

Mapping between resource pools, networks, and virtual machine folders on the protection site and their destination counterparts on the recovery site.

Any form of storage that uses TCP/IP network communication as its foundation. Both Network File System (NFS) and iSCSI storage can be used as virtual machine datastores. NFS can also be used for direct mounting of .ISO files for presentation to virtual machines as CD-ROM discs.

A company that develops and sells software for use on other companies’ platforms. Includes systems management vendors, imaging and provisioning vendors, storage management vendors, and so on.

A private virtual network that is available only to virtual machines within the same team. See also team, virtual network.

A virtual machine supported by the product in use but not current for that product.

A unique code associated with one or more VMware products purchased. You receive this code after your order is processed. If you purchase your products from a VMware partner, you receive your license activation code after you register your partner activation code for your VMware account.

A text file determining the license mode and entitlement to licensed features.

An encrypted block of text within a license file, determining entitlement to one specific licensed feature.

The method used for licensing VMware software. A license file can be located on an ESX server host or on a license server. vCenter Server uses server-based licensing. ESX server licensing can be server-based or host-based at the option of the system administrator. See also host-based licensing, server-based licensing.

A hyperlink that contains a path to another object. As on the Web, links can be relative to the current object path, relative to the current server’s object root, or on a specific server, as interpreted by the current client’s host name resolver.

A copy of the original virtual machine. The copy must have access to the parent virtual machine’s virtual disks. The linked clone stores changes to the virtual disks in a separate set of files. See also full clone.

A text file in a Windows network that maps NetBIOS host names to IP addresses.

See administrative lockout.

An identifier for a disk volume in a storage array.

A process that is used for permission management to make a LUN available to some hosts and not to other hosts. Also referred to as Selective Storage Presentation, Access Control, and Partitioning, depending on the vendor.

A managed object that is present in the inventory. See also inventory, managed object.

An object that resides on a server and is passed between the client and the Web service only by reference. A managed object has operations associated with it but might not have properties. See also.

A data object created to uniquely identify a managed object.

A data element that is used by an operation to carry data. It lists the data types exchanged between the Web service and the client.

The process of moving a virtual machine between hosts. Unless VMotion or Storage VMotion is used, the virtual machine must be powered off when you migrate it. See also migration with VMotion.

The process of moving a virtual machine that is powered on and meets selected requirements, including the activation of VMotion on both the source and target hosts. When you migrate a virtual machine using VMotion, the operations of the virtual machine can continue without interruption.

A set of basic input-output services for user interaction with a virtual machine.

A managed object has a MoRef that is server-specific. The MoRef is a pointer to an object.

Software that distributes data among the nodes of the cluster. If one node fails, other nodes provide failover support for applications such as databases, file servers, and mail servers.

A path (such as a URL) that refers to an object or the name of an item of information in the server.

A complete storage system that is designed to be attached to a traditional data network.

In hosted networking, a type of network connection that enables you to connect your virtual machines to an external network when you have only one IP network address and the host computer uses that address. The VMware NAT device passes network data between one or more virtual machines and the external network. It identifies incoming data packets intended for each virtual machine and sends them to the correct destination. See also host-only networking.

A diagnostic command that helps determine how a system name or IP address is resolved. Because it can display current connections using NetBIOS over TCP/IP, nbtstat is useful for determining whether Windows systems are online from a NetBIOS view. See also NetBIOS (network basic input/output system).

An API that enables applications on different computers to communicate across a LAN. NetBIOS provides the name service and offers two communication modes: session service for connection-oriented communication and datagram distribution service for connectionless communication.

Policies that give you detailed and flexible control over the network access you can provide to users of your ACE instances. Using a packet filtering firewall, the network access feature lets you specify exactly which machines or subnets an ACE instance or its host system may access.

A set of controls, governed by policies, that ensure only up-to-date virtual machines have access to specified resources on an organization’s network. These controls enable administrators to specify which machines or subnets a virtual machine may access.

An expansion board that provides a dedicated connection between a computer and a network. Also called a network adapter.

The association of multiple NIC adapters with a single virtual switch to form a team. Such teams can provide passive failover and share traffic loads between members of physical and virtual networks.

A Microsoft clustering technology that load balances incoming IP traffic across a cluster of nodes for applications such as Web servers and terminal services.

A disk mode in which all disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine appear to be written to the independent disk. In fact, they are discarded after the virtual machine is powered off. As a result, a virtual disk or physical disk in independent-nonpersistent mode is not modified by activity in the virtual machine. See also disk mode, persistent mode.

Amount of storage that is used only by a virtual machine and is not shared with other virtual machines. (This terms was formerly called unshared storage.) Also, the amount of guaranteed storage which can be reclaimed if a virtual machine is migrated out of a datastore or is deleted.

The correct, redundant use of new technology file system.

A protocol for distributing the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks.

A packaging format for virtual machines that allows virtual machine templates to be distributed, customized, and instantiated on any OVA supporting VMM.

A distribution format for virtual appliances that uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines with a standards-based XML wrapper. OVF gives the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters for virtual machines. This format allows any virtualization platform that implements the standard to correctly install and run virtual machines.

An IEEE-assigned manufacturer ID value for MAC addresses, Fibre Channel nodes, and ports.

An installable bundle for distribution to end users. The package might include one or more virtual machines and an application used to run virtual machines.

A component of an operating system that provides virtual memory for the system. Recently used pages of memory are swapped out to this area on the disk to make room in physical memory (RAM) for newer memory pages. Also called a “swap file.” See also virtual memory.

A mechanism (developed at Sun Microsystems) for integrating a variety of existing authentication technologies in a UNIX or Linux environment. A set of modules can be plugged in to customize the authentication of users or programs.

A device designed with specific awareness that it is running in a virtualized environment.

Free virtual machines that are intended to demonstrate the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) for virtual machine hypervisors. See also hypervisor.

(1) The source virtual machine from which you take a snapshot or make a clone. If you delete the parent virtual machine, any snapshot becomes permanently disabled. (2) In a VMware vSphere inventory, the managed entity that immediately encloses a given entity (considered the child entity). See also full clone, linked clone, snapshot, template.

A tool that enables user-level applications to collect and access performance statistics. Some form of performance monitoring is available on all Windows, Linux, and UNIX platforms, although the specific information collected and made available varies.

A data object consisting of an authorization role, a user or group name, and a managed entity reference. A permission allows a specified user to access the entity (such as a virtual machine) with any of the privileges pertaining to the role.

A disk mode in which all disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine are immediately and permanently written to a virtual disk that is configured as an independent disk. As a result, a virtual disk or physical disk in independent-persistent mode behaves like a conventional disk drive on a physical computer. See also disk mode, nonpersistent mode.

A single physical CPU in a physical machine.

In hosted products, a hard disk in a virtual machine that is mapped to a physical disk drive or partition on the host machine. A virtual machine’s disk can be stored as a file on the host file system or on a local hard disk. When a virtual machine is configured to use a physical disk, vCenter Server directly accesses the local disk or partition as a raw device (not as a file on a file system). See also virtual disk.

Manages network traffic between machines on the physical network. A switch has multiple ports, each of which can be connected to a single other machine or another switch on the network.

A network of physical machines (plus cabling, switches, routers, and so on) that are connected so that they can send data to and receive data from each other. See also virtual network.

A set of system enforced rules that automatically execute or inhibit actions upon entities such as virtual machines, processes, and users. Policies are set in the policy editor.

A construct for configuring virtual network options such as bandwidth limitations and VLAN tagging policies for each member port. Virtual networks that are connected to the same port group, share network policy configuration. See also virtual network, VLAN (virtual local area network).

Authorization to perform a specific action or set of actions on a managed object or group of managed objects.

An attribute of an object. In the VMware vSphere SDK, a property can be a nested data object, a managed object reference, or other data such as an integer or string.

A managed object used to control the reporting of managed object properties and the primary means of monitoring status on host machines.

The process of creating a functioning virtual machine by assigning resources such as CPU, memory, and virtual hardware and then deploying a system image.

A display mode in which the virtual machine’s display fills most of the screen. In this mode, tabs at the top of the screen enable you to switch quickly from one running virtual machine to another. See also full screen switch mode.

See physical disk.

A mechanism that enables a virtual machine to have direct access to a LUN on the physical storage subsystem (Fibre Channel or iSCSI only). At the same time, the virtual machine has access to the disk that is using a mapping file in the VMFS name space.

A role in which the user is allowed to view the inventory but not allowed to perform any tasks.

The file that stores changes made to a disk in all modes except the persistent and independent-persistent modes. For a disk in nonpersistent mode, the redo-log file is deleted when you power off or reset the virtual machine without writing any changes to the disk. You can permanently apply the changes saved in the redo-log file to a disk in undoable mode so that they become part of the main disk files. See also disk mode.

An interface that provides nonexclusive access to a virtual machine from the server on which the virtual machine is running and from workstations connected to that server.

A division of computing resources used to manage allocations between virtual machines.

To return a virtual machine to operation from its suspended state. When you resume a suspended virtual machine, all applications are in the same state as when the virtual machine was suspended. See also suspend.

To restore the status of the active virtual machine to its immediate parent snapshot. This parent is represented in the Snapshot manager by the snapshot appearing to the left of the You are here icon. See also Go to snapshot, Snapshot Manager, You are here icon.

A defined set of privileges that can be assigned to users and groups to control access to VMware vSphere objects.

The superuser who has full administrative privileges to log in to an ESX Server host. The root user can manipulate permissions, create users and groups, and work with events.

A large-capacity network of storage devices that can be shared among multiple VMware ESX server hosts. A SAN is required for VMotion.

A standard, based on serial signaling technology, for connecting computers and hard drives. Also called Serial ATA.

A vCenter Server activity that is configured to occur at designated times. In VMware Converter, scheduled tasks consist of migrations and configurations of virtual machines.

A set of tools for programmers who are developing software for a particular platform. A VMware SDK might include an API, an IDL, client stubs, sample code, and documentation.

(1) A system capable of managing and running virtual machines. (2) A process capable of accepting and executing instructions from another process.

A mode of licensing VMware software in which all license keys are administered by a license server, which manages a central license pool. Feature entitlement is checked out and returned on demand. See also host-based licensing.

The command-line interface for an ESX server system that enables administrators to configure the system. The service console is installed as the first component and used to bootstrap the ESX server installation and configuration. The service console also boots the system and initiates execution of the virtualization layer and resource manager. You can open the service console directly on an ESX server system. If the ESX server system’s configuration allows Telnet or SSH connections, you can also connect remotely to the service console.

The host on which a Web service executes.

In the VMware vSphere SDK, the managed entity that provides access to all other managed entities. Clients must access the service instance to begin a session.

A folder on a host computer—or on a network drive accessible from the host computer—that can be used by both the host computer and one or more virtual machines. It provides a simple way of sharing files between host and guest or among virtual machines. In a Windows virtual machine, shared folders appear in My Network Places (Network Neighborhood in a Windows NT virtual machine) under VMware Shared Folders. In a Linux virtual machine, shared folders appear under a specified mount point.

To reclaim unused space in a virtual disk. If a disk has empty space, shrinking reduces the amount of space the virtual disk occupies on the host drive. Shrinking virtual disks is a way to update an older virtual disk to the format supported by the current version of vCenter Server. You cannot shrink preallocated virtual disks or physical disks.

A unit of CPU and memory that can accommodate the CPU and memory reservation requirements of the largest virtual machine in your cluster. Spare capacity for failover is maintained on hosts in the cluster in slot sizes, so that any virtual machine in the cluster can fit in the slot size and be able to be failed over. Represents potential computing capacity on a node. A virtual machine can run in an empty slot in the event of failover.

Technical definition: A unit of CPU and memory that can accommodate the CPU and memory reservation requirements of the largest virtual machine in the cluster. Spare capacity for failover is maintained on hosts in the cluster in slot sizes, so that any virtual machine in the cluster can fit in the slot size and be able to be failed over.

A reproduction of the virtual machine just as it was when you took the snapshot, including the state of the data on all the virtual machine’s disks and the virtual machine’s power state (on, off, or suspended). You can take a snapshot when a virtual machine is powered on, powered off, or suspended. See also independent disk.

A control that enables you to take actions on any of the snapshots associated with the selected virtual machine. See also snapshot.

A program for securely logging on to a remote machine and executing commands. SSH provides encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts over a network. SSH can use several forms of encryption and has been ported to multiple platforms, including Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh.

A storage system that contains multiple disk drives.

A state in which settings are preserved and actions are no longer performed. To turn off a virtual machine while preserving the current state of a running virtual machine. See also resume.

The object that corresponds to a request URL.

A managed object representing the state of a long-running operation.

A reliable transfer protocol used between two endpoints on a network. TCP is built on top of the Internet Protocol (IP). See also TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).

The set of protocols that is the language of the Internet, designed to enable communication between networks regardless of the computing technologies that they use. TCP connects hosts and provides a reliable exchange of data streams with guaranteed delivery. IP specifies the format of packets and handles addressing. See also UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

A group of virtual machines configured to operate as one object. You can power on, power off, and suspend a team with one command. You can configure a team to communicate independently of any other virtual or real network by setting up a LAN segment. See also LAN segment, NIC teaming, virtual network.

A master image of a virtual machine. The template typically includes a specified operating system and a configuration that provides virtual counterparts to hardware components. Optionally, a template can include an installed guest operating system and a set of applications. Templates are used by vCenter Server to create new virtual machines. See also linked clone, parent, snapshot.

A list of virtual machines that provides a means to import and store virtual machines as templates. You can deploy the templates at a later time to create new virtual machines.

One of the core protocols in the Internet protocol suite. UDP enables a program to send packets (datagrams) to other programs on remote machines. UDP does not require a connection and does not guarantee reliable communication. It is a quick and efficient method for broadcasting messages over a network. See also TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).

A number used to uniquely identify some object or entity. The UUID is either assigned by VMware vSphere (in the case of virtual machines) or is hardware-assigned (in the case of SCSI LUNs). vCenter Server attempts to ensure that the UUIDs of all virtual machines being managed are unique, changing the UUIDs of conflicting virtual machines if necessary.

Symantec clustering software for reducing application downtime. VCS runs on UNIX, Linux, Windows, and VMware systems.

(1) An XML document that contains information about objects, particularly virtual machines and hosts. Use a view to access virtual machines and other top-level objects through the Web service. (2) In the Perl Toolkit, an object stored in the client that encapsulates the properties of a managed object with methods to access the properties and act on the managed object.

An XML document that specifies the elements that appear in a view. View definitions typically specify the items of interest in the view but might include additional elements for presentation or computation related to those items.

A software solution that is composed of one or more virtual machines. A virtual appliance is packaged as a unit by an appliance vendor and is deployed, managed, and maintained as a unit. Converting virtual appliances allows you to add preconfigured virtual machines to your Virtual Center, ESX Server, Workstation, or Player inventory.

A role in which the user can set the user+role permissions and control vCenter Server licensing.

Installed on each virtual machine host, this software coordinates actions received from the vCenter Server.

A persistent storage area for maintaining the status of each virtual machine and user that is managed in the vCenter Server environment. Located on the same machine as the vCenter Server.

A file or set of files that appears as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system. These files can be on the host machine or on a remote file system. See also growable disk, physical disk.

The devices that make up a virtual machine. The virtual hardware includes the virtual disk, removable devices such as the DVD-ROM/CD-ROM and floppy drives, and the virtual Ethernet adapter. See also virtual machine settings editor.

A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same host system concurrently.

See the guidelines for using the acronym VM in place of virtual machine.

A role in which the user can perform all the virtual machine management functions.

A set of virtual machines that can be operated on collectively. Currently called a VM Group or VM Folder in vCenter Server.

The specification of which virtual devices, such as disks and memory, are present in a virtual machine and how they are mapped to host files and devices. In vConverter, VMware virtual machines whose disks have been populated by restoring from a backup or by some other direct means of copying undergo configuration to enable them to boot in VMware products. See also virtual machine.

A file containing a virtual machine configuration. This .vmx file is created when you create the virtual machine. It is used to identify and run a specific virtual machine.

An optional grouping structure and a subset of a farm. vCenter Server supports multiple virtual machine groups. Virtual machine groups contain virtual machines and other virtual machine groups.

In vSphere Client, a point-and-click control panel used to view and modify the resource settings of all the virtual machines on a host.

A point-and-click control panel used to view and modify the settings of a virtual machine setting.

An extension of a system’s physical memory, enabled by the declaration of a page file. See also page file.

A network connecting virtual machines that does not depend on physical hardware connections. For example, you can create a virtual network between a virtual machine and a host that has no external network connections. You can also create a LAN segment for communication between virtual machines on a team. See also LAN segment, team.

A virtualized network switch used by ESX server to manage traffic between virtual machines, the service console, and the physical network adapters on the ESX server machine.

A software-managed logical segmentation of a physical LAN. Network traffic within each segment is isolated from traffic in all other segments.

Restricted use. A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications. A virtual machine is also referred to as a VM. Use the acronym VM when the screen or controls do not have sufficient space to use the complete term virtual machine.

The VMware vCenter Server Web service that provides a Web services interface that enables client programs to talk to each other using the SOAP protocol.

A file system that is optimized for storing virtual machines. One VMFS partition is supported per SCSI storage device or LUN. Each version of ESX server uses a corresponding version of VMFS. For example, VMFS3 was introduced with ESX Server 3.

In ESX server, a high-performance operating system that occupies the virtualization layer and manages most of the physical resources on the hardware, including memory, physical processors, storage, and networking controllers.

Software that is responsible for virtualizing the CPUs. One VMM runs in kernel space for each running virtual machine.

A component installed with VMware Tools that executes commands in the virtual machine, gracefully shuts down and resets the virtual machine, sends a heartbeat to VMware Migration Server, synchronizes the time of the guest operating system with the host operating system, and passes strings from the host operating system to the guest operating system.

An interface that provides access to one or more virtual machines on the local host or on a remote host running vCenter Server. You can view a virtual machine’s display to run programs within it, or you can modify guest operating system settings. You can also change the virtual machine’s configuration, install the guest operating system, or run the virtual machine in full screen mode.

An abstraction representation of multiple hosts defining the same vSwitch (same name, same network policy) and portgroup. These representations are needed to explain the concept of a virtual machine being connected to the same network as it migrates among multiple hosts.

A virtual network interface card that is configured on top of a system's physical Network adapter. See also NIC (network interface card).

See virtual switch.

A computer network that connects a wider area than a local area network, typically by use of high-speed, long-distance communications technology.

The identifier for a network port in a Fibre Channel SAN.

An icon in the Snapshot manager that indicates the current status of the active virtual machine. Checking the position of this icon can help you decide whether to revert to a snapshot or go to a snapshot. See also Go to snapshot, revert to snapshot, Snapshot Manager.