Summary

A vSphere administrator needs to understand virtual machine concepts before creating virtual machines. A virtual machine is a set of virtual hardware presented to a guest operating system whose characteristics are determined by a set of files. There are multiple VMware file types that are associated with and make up a virtual machine and are located in the VM's directory on a datastore. These files include the .vmx, .nvram, .vswp, .vmdk, -flat.vmdk, and .log files. Each virtual machine is equipped with virtual hardware and devices, such as one or more virtual CPUs, memory, video cards, IDE devices, SCSI devices, DVD/CD-ROM, parallel and serial ports, and network adapters that provide the same functionality as physical hardware.

CPU Hot-Plug and Memory Hot-Add, when enabled, allow for more CPU and memory resources to be added to virtual machines on demand. CPUID masks control the CPU features made visible to the guest operating system of the virtual machine. The CPU affinity...