VCP flash cards

A VMware product that provides a way to secure and manage virtual  machines, for example in the workplace.

AMD's implementation of virtualization hardware assist

A virtualization technique pioneered by VMware in the late '90s for the  x86 architecture where the instruction stream is inspected and  non-virtualizable machine instructions are replaced with "safe" code. 

Using an existing Boot Camp installation as a virtual machine.

A Duplicate of a Virtual Machine

The window on the host which allows you to interact with the guest. Note: Not really applicable to a Unity situation, this is mainly single-window mode.

A VMware product that converts a physical (or virtual) Windows machine  to a virtual machine.

Computational unit. There may be multiple cores in a socket.

Copy-On-Write disk. Part of a snapshot, and keeps track of disk changes since the snapshot was taken.

A utility that balances computing workloads with available resources in a virtualized environment.

A free VMware virtualization software product aimed at businesses and  enterprise. Unlike Player/Fusion/Workstation/Server, does not run on top  of another OS.

A virtual disk where the contents are stored in a file  (or multiple files, for split disks).

A VMware hosted virtualization software product. Runs on Mac OS X hosts.

A view mode where the guest display takes up an entire physical monitor (or more).

The operating system that runs in a virtual machine. There can be  multiple guests per physical machine, but only one per virtual machine. 

An operating system that runs inside a virtual machine.

To direct input (i.e. keyboard and mouse) to a virtual machine, for example by clicking in a console window.

Forced ungrab, such as by pressing ctrl-cmd (by default) in Fusion.

A virtualization technique where the CPU allows software to specify  instructions (e.g. non-virtualizable ones) to cause traps (thus making  them virtualizable). Examples on the x86 architecture include VT-x and AMD-V.

The OS that has direct control of the hardware. There is only one host  per physical machine. What the virtualization software runs on; e.g. for  Fusion, the host is OS X. Contrast with guest.

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

The physical computer on which the VirtualCenter software is installed. It hosts the VirtualCenter virtual machines.

VMware's name for the guest-visible aspect of a Shared Folder.

Software that controls virtual machines, managing resources and ensuring that guests are properly isolated.

A companion program for Fusion 1.x that translates third-party virtual  machines (e.g. Parallels, VirtualPC) to a format that Fusion  understands. As of Fusion 2, this functionality is built in to Fusion. 

A free VMware hosted virtualization software product aimed at end  users. Has fewer features than Workstation or Fusion. Runs on Windows  and Linux hosts.

What the host uses to talk to the network.

what we present to a guest. Our vNICs always appear as wired devices to the guest, even if the pNIC is a wireless device.

A method for accessing one computer's filesystem from another computer;  not restricted to virtualization. Well-known examples include NFS and  SMB/CIFS. Does not require VMware Tools, but does require a network  connection.

For example, what you get when you create a new virtual machine with  all defaults. A normal virtual machine is portable between computers. Does not have things such as raw disks.

A self-contained region of a hard disk that usually contains a filesystem.

A mechanism for setting policies that govern the network connected to it.

A virtual disk where the contents are stored directly on a partition on  the physical machine. Not safe to use with snapshots or suspending. For  example, a Boot Camp virtual machine uses a raw disk. Contrast with file-based disk.

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

The command-line interface for an ESX Server system. It allows administrators to configure the ESX Server system.

In the context of VMware, a specific method for accessing the host filesystem from the guest using VMware Tools. Does not require a network connection.

A view mode where the guest's display appears in a single host window. This is the default view in Fusion.

Symmetric MultiProcessing. Using multiple cores at once.

Virtual Symmetric MultiProcessing. Using multiple cores in one virtual machine.

A way to save all state (disk, RAM, CPU) of a virtual machine (note  this does not include network, since that is external). Useful for testing purposes or for remembering a known-good  setup.

A (physical) computational unit, e.g. something you would plug a CPU  into.  Can also refer to a particular type of communication method between programs.

Automatic ungrab, such as when your mouse leaves the console window

Optional software installed in the guest that improves performance and usability.

To direct input (i.e. keyboard and mouse) away from a virtual machine.

A view mode where guest windows appear to be on the host, e.g. you can  interleave them with host windows. Requires VMware Tools; not available  for all guests. Contrast with single-window and fullscreen.

A "computer" that exists only in software.

Another name for a hypervisor.

Common abbreviation for virtual machine.

Intel's implementation of virtualization hardware assist for x86. All Intel Macs have this.

A VMware hosted virtualization software product aimed at developers and  testers, with a number of features that Fusion does not have. Runs on  Windows and Linux hosts.

The actual virtual hard drive for the virtual guest operation system (virtual machine / VM). You can create either dynamic or fixed virtual disks. With dynamic disks, the disks start small and grow as the disk inside the guest OS grows. With fixed disks, the virtual disk and guest OS disk start out at the same (large) disk.

a backup of the virtual machine’s paging file. It will only appear if the virtual machine is running, or if it has crashed.

used to store the exact state of the virtual machine when the snapshot was taken. Using this snapshot, you can then restore your machine to the same state as when the snapshot was taken.

stores information about snapshots (metadata). You’ll notice that the names of these files match the names of the snapshots.

these files are the BIOS for the virtual machine. The VM must know how many hard drives it has and other common BIOS settings. The NVRAM file is where that BIOS information is stored.

the primary configuration file for a virtual machine. When you create a new virtual machine and answer questions about the operating system, disk sizes, and networking, those answers are stored in this file.

A user interface that runs locally in a Windows machine and provides access to the virtual machine’s display. The Virtual Infrastructure Client runs on a networked machine. This can be on the same machine as the VirtualCenter Server or another networked machine. The Virtual Infrastructure Client requires a monitor for access to the virtual machine’s display.

A file system that is optimized for storing virtual machines.

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.

A service that acts as a central administrator for VMware servers connected on a network. This service directs actions on the virtual machines and the virtual machine hosts.

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

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

A ______ works like a layer 2 physical switch. Each server has its own ______. On one side of the _______ are port groups that connect to virtual machines. On the other side are uplink connections to physical Ethernet adapters on the server where the ________ resides. Virtual machines connect to the outside world through the physical Ethernet adapters that are connected to the ________uplinks.

A feature that enables you to move running virtual machines from one ESX Server system to another without interrupting service. It requires licensing on both the source and target hosts.