Virtualization Essentials

Describing a Virtual Machine

A virtual machine, also referred to as a VM, has many of the same characteristics as a physical server. Like an actual server, a VM supports an operating system and is configured with a set of resources to which the applications running on the VM can request access. Unlike a physical server (where only one operating system runs at any one time and few, usually related, applications run), many VMs can run simultaneously inside a single physical server, and these VMs can also run many different operating systems supporting many different applications. Also, unlike a physical server, a VM is in actuality nothing more than a set of files that describes and comprises the virtual server.

The main files that make up a VM ...