VMware GSX Server 2.5.2

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A type of network connection between a virtual machine and 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 Custom networking, Host-only networking and Network address translation.

See Virtual machine configuration.

A point-and-click editor used to view and modify the configuration of a virtual machine. It can be launched from the Settings menu.
See also Configuration Wizard, New Virtual Machine Wizard.

On Linux hosts, a point-and-click interface for convenient, easy creation of a virtual machine configuration. You can launch it from the dialog box that appears when you start VMware GSX Server without specifying a configuration file. You can also launch it from the File menu. It prompts you for information, suggesting default values in most cases. 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, New Virtual Machine Wizard.

See Local console and Remote console.

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) networking 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.
See also Bridged networking, Host-only networking and Network address translation.

A property of a disk used in a virtual machine 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 when the virtual machine is powered off), undoable (changes are preserved at the user's discretion) and nonpersistent (changes are never preserved). Disk modes may be changed from the Configuration Editor. For a detailed explanation of disk modes refer to Disk Modes: Persistent, Undoable and Nonpersistent.

A page in the VMware Management Interface that displays the most recent actions or events recorded in a virtual machine.

A partition on a physical disk in the host machine.
See also Raw disk.

An operating system that runs in a virtual machine.
See also Host operating system.

A program or application that runs in the background without any interface connected to it. A running virtual machine that has no consoles connected to it is running headless.

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, Custom networking and Network address translation.

The physical computer on which the VMware GSX Server software is installed. It hosts the VMware GSX Server virtual machines.

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

An interface to a virtual machine that provides exclusive access to a virtual machine, so the configuration can be changed, an operating system can be installed or the virtual machine can be run in full screen mode. The local console only runs on the host machine where the virtual machine is located.
See also Remote Console.

A type of network connection that allows you to connect your virtual machines to an external network when you have only one IP address, and that address is used by the host computer. If you use NAT, your virtual machine does not have its own IP address on the external network. Instead, a separate private network is set up on the host computer. Your virtual machine gets an address on that network from the VMware virtual DHCP server. 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 Bridged networking, Custom networking and Host-only networking.

On Windows hosts, a point-and-click interface for convenient, easy creation of a virtual machine configuration. You can launch it from the local console window or from the File menu in a local console. It prompts you for information, suggesting default values in most cases. 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, Configuration Wizard.

All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine with a disk in nonpersistent mode appear to be written to disk but are in fact discarded after the virtual machine is powered off. As a result, a virtual disk or raw disk in nonpersistent mode is not modified by VMware GSX Server.
See also Persistent mode, Undoable mode

All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine are immediately and permanently written to a virtual disk in persistent mode. As a result, a virtual disk or raw disk in persistent mode behaves like a conventional disk drive on a physical computer.
See also Nonpersistent mode, Undoable mode

A type of virtual disk where the full capacity of the disk is allocated when you create the disk, provided the space is available on the host.

See also Raw disk, Safe raw disk file, Virtual disk.

A hard disk in a virtual machine that is mapped to a physical disk drive on the host machine. A virtual machine's disk can be stored as a file on the host file system (see Virtual disk) or on a local hard disk. When a virtual machine is configured to use a raw disk, VMware GSX Server directly accesses the local disk or partition as a raw device (not as a file on a file system). 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 Plain disk, Safe raw disk file, Virtual disk.

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

An interface to a virtual machine that provides non-exclusive access to a virtual machine from both the server on which the virtual machine is running and from workstations connected to that host machine.
See also Local Console.

Resume a virtual machine repeatedly from the same point at which it was suspended using the same suspended state file. This feature works only with virtual disks in nonpersistent mode.
See also Resume.

Return a virtual machine to operation from its suspended state. When you resume a suspended virtual machine, all applications are in the same state they were when the virtual machine was suspended.
See also Suspend.

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 from another guest operating system for which the virtual machine was not configured. 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, the New Virtual Machine Wizard or the Configuration Editor.

The method to reclaim unused space in a virtual disk. If there is empty space in the disk, shrinking reduces the amount of space the virtual disk occupies on the host drive. Shrinking virtual disks is a convenient way to convert a virtual disk to the new .vmdk format supported by VMware GSX Server 2.

A virtual disk partition that VMware Tools can prepare for shrinking, such as one of the drives that comprise the virtual hard disk. You can choose to not prepare certain partitions for shrinking.
See also Shrink.

Save the current state of a running virtual machine. To return a suspended virtual machine to operation, use the resume feature.
See also Resume.

All writes to a disk in undoable mode issued by software running inside a virtual machine appear to be written to the disk but are in fact stored in a temporary file (.REDO file) on the host file system while the virtual machine is running. When the virtual machine is powered off, 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 made the next time the virtual machine runs can be added to the log.
See also Nonpersistent mode, Persistent mode

A virtual disk partition that VMware Tools cannot prepare for shrinking. Unsupported partitions include read-only drive partitions, partitions on remote devices and partitions on removable devices such as floppy drives or CD-ROM drives.
See also Shrink.

A virtual disk is a 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. When you configure a virtual machine with a virtual disk, you can install a new operating system into the disk file without the need to repartition a physical disk or reboot the host.
See also Raw disk.

A virtualized x86 PC environment in which a guest operating system and associated application software can run. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same host machine concurrently.

The specification of what virtual devices (disks, memory size and so forth) are present in a virtual machine and how they are mapped to host files and devices.

A file containing a virtual machine configuration. It is created by the Configuration Wizard, the New Virtual Machine Wizard or the VMware Management Interface. It is used by VMware GSX Server to identify and run a specific virtual machine. This file has a .vmx extension on a Windows host and a .cfg extension on a Linux host.

On Windows hosts, a list in the local console window that shows the names and guest operating systems of virtual machines that have previously been used with VMware GSX Server. The virtual machine list makes it easy to launch a virtual machine or to connect to the virtual machine's configuration file in order to make changes in the configuration.

The service VMware GSX Server employs to authenticate users. The process is called vmware-authd on Linux hosts.

One of the components installed with VMware Tools that performs various duties in the guest operating system, like executing commands in the virtual machine, gracefully shutting down and resetting a virtual machine, sending a heartbeat to VMware GSX Server, synchronizing the time of the guest operating system with the host operating system and passing strings from the host operating system to the guest operating system.

A browser-based tool that allows you to control (start, suspend, resume, reset and stop) and monitor virtual machines and the server on which they run.

The service VMware GSX Server employs for managing connections to virtual machines and the management interface. This process is known as vmware-serverd on Linux hosts.

A suite of utilities that enhances the performance of your guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine. VMware Tools includes the SVGA driver, a mouse driver for some guests and a control panel.