Virtual machine components
Let us briefly touch upon what a virtual machine truly comprises. A virtual machine exists in an abstract form as a set of files. The files themselves are directly, or indirectly, representative of the virtual hardware components and configuration settings that the guest operating system will need at runtime. We shall discuss the files that make up the virtual machine and their respective uses later in the chapter. In simpler words, a virtual machine can be created, copied, or destroyed with basic file manipulation operations. This very attribute of the virtual machine enables a plethora of features, such as agility, availability, security, and portability.
A virtual machine is initially populated with the following ...
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