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When software running in the virtual machine writes to a disk used in append mode, the changes appear to be written to the disk. In fact, however, they are stored in a temporary file (.REDO). If a system administrator deletes this redo-log file, the virtual machine returns to the state it was in the last time it was used in persistent mode.

See Virtual machine configuration file.

An operating system that runs on the physical computer to provide an interface to start up and administer your virtual machines. It is managed by the VMkernel.

See also Guest operating system.

A property of a virtual disk that defines its external behavior but is completely invisible to the guest operating system. There are four modes: persistent (changes to the disk are always preserved across sessions), nonpersistent (changes are never preserved), undoable (changes are preserved at the user's discretion) and append (similar to undoable, but the changes are preserved until a system administrator deletes the redo-log file). Disk modes may be changed from the VMware Management Interface.

An operating system that runs inside a virtual machine.

All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine with a nonpersistent disk appear to be written to disk, but are in fact discarded after the session is powered down. As a result, a disk in nonpersistent mode is not modified by ESX Server.

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 disk in persistent mode behaves like a conventional disk drive on a physical computer.

The administrator logs in to the VMware Management Interface and the console operating system with a user name of root.

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) 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.

A virtual disk is a file on a file system accessible from the server. To a guest operating system, it appears to be a physical disk drive. This file can be on the server where the virtual machine is running or on a remote file system.

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 server machine concurrently.

The specification of what virtual devices (disks, memory size, etc.) are present in a virtual machine and how they are mapped to files and devices on the physical computer.

A file containing a virtual machine configuration. It is created when you set up a virtual machine. It may be modified from the VMware Management Interface or by editing the file in a text editor.