This set of flash cards / vocabulary words was originally designed for the VMWare VCP4 exam, but would be useful to anyone looking to reference VMWare terms.
| ACE Instance | An instance where the virtual machines created by ACE administrators associate to Virtual Rights Management (VRM) policies. |
| Activation | A step in an ACE instance setup which protects the package and sets up the ACE instance’s runtime authentication policy. |
| 802.3ad | A vSwitch functionality that bonds two or more pNICs together with a single IP address. |
| Administrative Lockout | A global password protection setting that restricts users from creating new virtual machines, editing virtual machine configurations or changing networks settings for Windows hosts. |
| Admission Control | The process of checking the system for CPU and memory resources when the virtual machine powers on. This check determines if the system can guarantee the Reservation for which virtual machine is configured. |
| Alarm | An entity that monitors one or a set of properties of a virtual machine. It also sends notifications. |
| Anomaly | A Capacity Planner indicator that detects the difference between the server performance and industry performance averages. More than three standard deviations from the industry average notes an anomaly. |
| Append Mode | A disk mode in ESX Server 2.x where software running in the virtual machine appears to write changes to the disk. |
| Array-based Replication | A replication of virtual machine that is managed and executed by storage subsystem than the virtual machine or the service console. |
| Asynchronous I/O (AIO) | A form of input and output processing that allows other processing to continue before the transmission finishes. |
| Boot from SAN | The ability of an ESX server system to load its operating system over a storage area network. The boot image is stored on a remote storage array. . |
| Bridged Networking | A type of network connection between the host’s physical network and a virtual machine. The virtual machine appears to be an additional computer on the same physical Ethernet network as a host. |
| Burst Size | It represents the maximum size of the data to be transmitted at any given time. It is the size of a burst of data over the network targeted for the vSwitch, |
| Child | A managed entity grouped by a folder object or another managed entity. |
| CIM Object Manager (CIMOM) | A component that stores class definitions and populates requests for CIM operations. It returns information from specific data providers. |
| Cluster Compute Resource | An extended compute resource that denotes a cluster of hosts available for backing virtual machines. |
| Cold Cloning | A process of cloning a local physical machine, running in WinPE from vCenter Converter Boot CD. |
| Concurrent Migrations | The task manager’s ability to direct conversions and migration of multiple virtual machines simultaneously. |
| Custom Networking | A type of network connection between virtual machines and the host that does not use Network Address Translation (NAT) configurations. |
| Data Source Name | An Open Database Connectivity object that must be configured to enable vCenter Server to access a database. |
| Datacenter Folder | An optional inventory grouping structure within the datacenter structure that supports multiple datacenter folders. |
| Datastore | The virtual representations of underlying physical storage resources in a datacenter. It is a storage location for virtual machine files. |
| Deployment Settings | A set of rules and settings in ACE associated with a package. To change package setting, a new package has to be created. |
| Differential Backup | A type of backup that backs up only files that have changed since the last full backup. |
| Disk Array | A group of multiple disk devices that is a typical SAN disk storage device. This array may vary in design, capacity, and performance. |
| Disk Mode | A property of virtual disk that identifies its external behaviour such as how virtualization layer treats its data. This mode is invisible to the guest operating system. |
| Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) | A feature which aggregates computing capacity across servers into logical resource pools. It allocates available resources among the virtual machines based on pre-defined rules. |
| Distributed Virtual Port (dvPort) | A vDS port that connects to host’s service console, VMkernal or to a virtual machine’s network adapter. |
| Distributed Virtual Switch (vDS) | An abstract representation which explains the concept of multiple hosts defining the same Vswitch and the port group. |
| dvPort Group | A port group associated with a vDS.It specifies port configuration options for each member port associated with a vDS. |
| Enumeration | The act of discovering resources available in a virtual machine environment. It relates to discovering all resources of a specific type. |
| Event | An action that triggers an event message. All event messages are archived in the vCenter Server database. |
| Fabric | A Fiber Channel network topology where the devices pass data to each other through interconnecting switches. |
| Favorites | The list in the main VMware workstation window that shows the names of virtual machines that a user has added. This can be used to start a virtual machine or connect to the configuration file. |
| Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) | A method which uses IP over the Internet to interconnect SAN arrays for replication. |
| File System Cache | A storage mechanism that provides speedy access to files stored on a disk by caching frequently accessed data. |
| Full Clone | A complete copy of the original virtual machine that includes all associated virtual disks. |
| Full Screen Switch Mode | A display mode where the virtual machine’s display fills the entire screen. The user has no access to the user interface. |
| Full Virtual Machine Backup | A process that backs up all files including disk images and .vmx files which make up the entire virtual machine. |
| Growable Disk | A kind of virtual disk where the disk space is not allocated to its full size. They increase in size with time. |
| Guest User | An unauthenticated user with restricted access who logs into the system with temporary user name and password. |
| Handle | A temporary token used by the Web service client to invoke Web service operations that require reference to an object. |
| Headless | A program that runs in the background without disturbing the interface connected to it. |
| Heartbeat | A process where a software emits a signal at regular intervals to show that it is still active. |
| Host Agent | Software that performs actions on behalf of a remote client when installed on a virtual machine host. |
| Host-based Licensing | One of the two modes for licensing ESX/ESXi software. in VMware Infrastructure 3. |
| Hosted Machine | The computer where VMware Workstation software (virtual machine) is installed. |
| Host-only Networking | A type of network connection between a virtual machine and a host. |
| Hot Cloning | A process of cloning a local or remote physical machine when it is running in its own operating system. |
| Hot Fix | An installable file that resets a user’s password, renews a virtual machine, enables a copy protected machine to run from a new location. |
| Hyperthreading | A technology that allows a single physical processer to behave like two logical processors that can run two independent applications. |
| Hypervisor | Software that controls virtual machines, managing resources and ensuring that guests are properly isolated. |
| Hypervisor | A platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer simultaneously. |
| In-Band Virtualizer Profile (IBVP) | A standard profile that VMware Migration Server adapts to describe ESX/ESXi server. |
| Incremental Backup | A type of backup which backs up only those files that have changed since the last backup. |
| Independent Disk | A kind of virtual disk that is not affected by snapshots. This disk can be configured in persistent and non-persistent modes. |
| Instance Customization | The process of customizing an ACE instance to make it unique from all other instances. |
| Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) | An IP-based storage networking standard used to link data storage infrastructure. It is used to facilitate data transfers over the intranet. |
| Inventory Mapping | The mapping between resource pools, networks and virtual machine folders on the protection site and their destination counterparts on the recovery site. |
| IP Storage | Any form of storage on the ESX/ESXi server that uses TCP/IP network communication. |
| Iptables | A packet-filtering firewall that is inherent in the Linux kernel. It is part of the ESX distribution. |
| Kerberos | An authentication protocol which allows nodes communicating over a non-secure network to authenticate in a secure manner. The messages used in Kerberos are protected against eavesdropping and replay attacks. |
| Legacy Virtual Machine | A virtual machine supported by the product in use, but not current for that product. |
| License activation code (LAC) | A unique code associated with one or more VMware products. It is sent to the purchaser after the purchase order is processed. |
| License Key | An encrypted text block in the license file. This determines the entitlement to one specific licensed feature. |
| License Mode | A method used to license VMware software. The license file is located either on ESX/ESXi server or the license server. |
| License Redemption Portal | A self-service Web portal that redeems your license activation codes and downloads license files for VMware Infrastructure. |
| Linked Clone | A copy of the original virtual machine which should have access to the virtual disks on the parent virtual machine. |
| Local Cloning | The process of making a copy of the virtual machine, or the physical machine to convert the physical machine to a virtual machine. |
| LUN Masking | A process for managing permissions to make LUN available only to some hosts. |
| Managed Object | An object that resides on a server. This object is passed between the client and the Web service only by reference. |
| Managed Object Format (MOF) | A language used to describe Common Information Model (CIM) classes. |
| Migration | The process of moving a virtual machine between hosts. The virtual machine should be in the power off mode while migrating. |
| Migration with vMotion | The process of moving a powered on virtual machine with vMotion activated on both source and target hosts This ensures that the virtual machine can continue without interruption. |
| Nbtstat | A tool used to troubleshoot NetBIOS name resolution problems. When a network is functioning normally, NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses. It does this through several options for NetBIOS name resolution, including local cache lookup, WINS server query, broadcast, LMHOSTS lookup, Hosts lookup, and DNS server query. |
| Network Address Translation (NAT) | A process of modifying network address information in the packet headers while in transit across a traffic routing device. This is done to remap one IP address space into another. |
| Network Attached Storage (NAS) | Computer data storage connected to a computer network that provides data access to diverse network clients. This type of storage is commonly used for backing up data. |
| Network Attached Storage (NAS) | A storage device which is attached to a network. It stores data for clients and is used for performing backups. |
| Network Interface Card (NIC) | An expansion card that plugs into the PCI slot; used to connect the computer to a network. It is connected to the network cabling used to transfer data on the network. |
| Network Interface Card (NIC) | An expansion card that plugs into the PCI slot; used to connect the computer to a network. It is connected to the network cabling used to transfer data on the network. |
| Network Quarantine | A group of controls which are governed by policies to ensure only up-to-date virtual machines have access to specific resources on the network. |
| NIC Teaming | The association of multiple NIC adapters with a single virtual switch that provides passive failover and shares traffic loads. |
| Non-persistent Mode | A disk mode where all disk writes issued by the software running inside a virtual machine appear to be written to the independent disk. |
| Not-shared storage | An amount of storage used by a single virtual machine and not shared with other virtual machines. |
| Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) | A distribution format that uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines with a standards-based XML wrapper. It gives the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters. |
| Open Virtualization Format (OVF) | A distribution format for virtual appliances that uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines. |
| Page File | A component of an operating system that provides virtual memory for the system. This swaps off the recently used pages from the memory and makes way for newer memory pages. |
| Paravirtual Appliance | Free virtual machines that are used to demonstrate the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) for virtual machine hypervisors. |
| Parent | The source virtual machine that takes a snapshot or makes a clone. If the parent virtual machine is deleted, the snapshot is disabled. |
| Partner Activation Code | A unique code identifying orders placed through VMware partners. This code can be used to register the purchase and obtain a license activation code. |
| Performance Counter | The directory where information about an entity such as a host or a virtual machine is collected and stored. The information includes group to which the counter belongs, counter ID, and counter name. |
| Persistent Mode | A disk mode where all disk writes issued by the software running inside a virtual machine are permanently written to the independent disk. |
| Physical Disk | A hard disk in the virtual machine which is mapped to a physical disk drive or a partition on the host machine. |
| Plain Disk | A file that contains an exact image of a raw disk. Plain disks can combine more than one raw disk into a single plain disk. |
| Pocket ACE | An ACE feature that allows the ACE administrator to distribute an ACE instance on a removable device like a USB key. |
| Point-in-time (PIT) Restoration | The process of recovering a usable copy of a defined data set from a specified time duration in the past. |
| Port Group | A construct used to configure virtual network options like bandwidth limitations, VLAN tagging policies for each member port. |
| Power Cycle | The process of disconnecting the power from a device and then adding the power again to the device. |
| Pre-allocated Disk | A type of virtual disk where all disk space for a virtual machine is allocated at the time the disk is created. |
| Preview Mode | An operating and viewing mode where the administrator can preview the ACE instance as well as run it on the user’s machine. |
| Property | An attribute of an object. The property can nested, or a managed object reference |
| Property Collector | A managed object used to control the reporting of managed object properties |
| Quick Switch Mode | A display mode where the virtual machine’s display fills most of the screen on the computer. The tabs at the top of the screen enable switching from one virtual machine to another. |
| Quiescing | The process of bringing the on-disk data of a physical computer or a virtual computer into a suitable state for backups. |
| Raw Device Mapping (RDM) | A mechanism that enables a virtual machine to have a direct access to a LUN on the physical storage sub system. |
| Raw Disk | A virtual disk where the contents are stored directly on a partition on the physical machine. |
| Record/replay Feature | A feature that lets you record all Workstation 5 or 6 virtual machine’s activity over a period of time. |
| Recovery Point Objective (RPO) | An acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. It is the point in time before which an organization should be able to recover all data lost during a disaster. |
| Redo-log File | The file that stores changes made to the disk in all modes except for persistent and independent-persistent modes. |
| Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk (RAID) | A technology that allows high levels of storage reliability using a technique of arranging the devices into arrays for redundancy. The different RAID levels are RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 3 and so on. The three key concepts in RAID are mirroring, striping, and error correction. |
| Remote Cloning | The process of making a copy of a virtual or physical machine which is easily accessible over the network by the VMware vCenter Converter. |
| Remote Console | An interface which provides nonexclusive access to a virtual machine from the server on which the virtual machine is running. |
| Resume | The process of returning a virtual machine to operation from its suspended state with all its application in the same state. |
| Revert to Snapshot | The process of restoring the status of the active virtual machine to its immediate parent snapshot. |
| Sar | A tool that records process data which can be used to determine how much resource and computing power a process is using. |
| Scheduled Task | An activity configured to occur at a specific time. Scheduled task include migration and configurations of virtual machines. |
| Serial ATA | A computer bus interface to connect host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. It uses cabling that is cost effective, faster and more efficient for data transfer. It also supports hot swapping. |
| Server-based Licensing | A VMware licensing mode in which all license keys are administrated by a license server managing a central license pool. |
| Service Console | A command-line ESX server system interface that enables an administrator to configure the system. |
| Service Instance | The managed entity that enables access to all other managed entities in the VMware vSphere SDK. All clients must access the service instance to begin a session. |
| Shared Storage | The amount of used storage space minus the not-shared storage that a virtual machine can share with other virtual machines. |
| Shrink | The process of reclaiming the unused space in a virtual disk. Shrinking is way to update an older virtual disk to the new format. |
| Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) | A standard way to encode parameters and return values using a XML based communication protocol that provides messaging framework for Web services. |
| Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) | A set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. It is used for hard disks and tape drives, scanners and CD drives. |
| Snapshot | The process of reproducing the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot in the powered on, off or suspended state. |
| Standalone ACE Instance | An ACE instance that is not managed by an ACE management server. Changes to this instance is done by the administrator. |
| Storage Area Network (SAN) | A mechanism of attaching remote computer storage devices to servers in such a way that the devices function as though they are locally attached to the operating system. |
| Storage Virtualization Device | A device that combines the capacity from multiple arrays and manages a logical representation of the combined capacity. |
| Stub | A local procedure that implements the client side of a remote procedure call. A client calls the stub to perform a task. |
| Sudo | A tool that provides root like access to individuals using their own passwords. It logs all activity and can be configured to limit which commands individual users can use. |
| Supported Partition | A virtual disk partition that the VMware Tools prepare for shrinking. |
| Suspend | A state in which the settings of a virtual machine are preserved and no further actions are performed. |
| Swapping | A process in which a corresponding swap file is created and placed in the same location as the virtual machine configuration file. (.vmx file). |
| Team | A group of virtual machines configured to operate as one object enabling power on / off and suspend mode with a single command. |
| Template | A master image of a virtual machine that includes an operating system and configuration that provides virtual counterparts to hardware components. |
| Templates List | A list of virtual machines that provide a means to import and store virtual machines as templates. These can be deployed to create new virtual machines. |
| Uncommitted Storage | Amount of unused physical and logical capacity. It is the amount of provisioned storage minus used storage. |
| Undoable Mode | A disk mode where all write operations are stored in a temporary .REDO file for the duration of the session. |
| Unsupported Partition | Virtual disk partitions on removable and remote devices and read-only drive partitions that VMware tools cannot prepare for shrinking. |
| Used Storage | A measure of storage used at the virtual machine or data store level. It includes space used by disks, swaps, and logs.. |
| vCenter Agent | Software installed on each virtual machine host that coordinates actions received from vCenter Server. |
| vCenter Converter Boot CD | An installation method through which a user performs a local cold clone of a physical machine. |
| vCenter Server Database | A persistent storage area for maintaining the status of each virtual machine and user in vCenter Server environment. |
| Vhandle | A reference to specific memory state of an object at a certain time. It is an object handle that has a version number. |
| Vintage Server | A server in the Capacity Planner Dashboard that does not meet the minimum CPU speed requirements. |
| Virtual Appliance | A software solution that includes one or more virtual machines packaged as a unit by an appliance vendor. |
| Virtual Disk | A set of files that appear as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system on the host machine or remote file system. |
| Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) | A vSwitch functionality where the trunk goes from the pSwitch to the pNIC to the vSwitch and then to the vNIC for the VM in use. |
| Virtual Hardware | A device that makes up a virtual machine. It includes virtual hardware components and virtual Ethernet adapter. |
| Virtual LAN (VLAN) | A network arrangement created to provide the segmentation services provided by routers in LAN configurations. It allows hosts to be grouped together even if they are not located on the same network switch. |
| Virtual Machine | A software computer that works like a physical machine with an operating system and applications hosted on the computer. |
| Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) | An interface that provides communication between two or more virtual machines on the host operating system. |
| Virtual Machine Configuration | The configuration which specifies virtual devices such as disks, memory are present in a virtual machine and their mapping to host files and devices. |
| Virtual Machine Configuration File | A file that contains a virtual machine configuration used to identify and run a specific virtual machine. |
| Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) | A file system which is optimized for storing virtual machines. |
| Virtual Machine Group | An optional grouping structure and subset of a farm that contains more than one virtual machine. |
| Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) | Software responsible for virtualizing the processors. A single VMM runs in kernel space for each running virtual machine. |
| Virtual Machine Settings Editor | A point-and-click control panel that is used to view and modify the settings of a virtual machine setting. |
| Virtual Network | A network connecting virtual machines that are not dependent on physical hardware connections. |
| Virtual Rights Management (VRM) | The centralized management of security policies and access rights applied to VMware ACE running on an end-user PC. |
| Virtual Switch | A virtualized network switch that manages traffic between virtual machines, server console, and physical network adapters on the ESX/ESXi host. |
| VLAN Tagging | A networking standard that allows multiple bridged networks to transparently share the same physical network link without leaking data between networks. |
| Vmkernel | A high performance operating system that occupies the virtualization layer and manages most physical resources on the hardware. |
| VMware Consolidated Backup proxy (VCB proxy) | A physical or virtual machine running MS-Windows 2003 Consolidated Backup software. It performs file and image level virtual machine backups. |
| VMware Guest Operating System Service | A component installed with VMware Tools that runs commands in the virtual machine, shuts down, and restarts the virtual machine. |
| VMware Management Interface | A web-based management tool that enables you to control, configure and monitor virtual machines and the server on which they run. |
| VMware Registration Service | The service that manages connection between virtual machines and the management interface. |
| VMware Server Console | A virtual machine interface that provides access to one more virtual machine on the local or remote host running vCenter Server. |
| VMware Virtual Machine Agent (VMA) | A web service that provides an interface to enable client programs to talk to each other using the SOAP protocol. |
| VMware Virtual Machine Console | An interface that provides access to one or more virtual machines on the local or remote host running vCenter Server. |
| vNIC | A virtual network interface card configured on the top of a system’s physical Network adapter. |
| World | A logical partition of processes which support virtual machines. Each world contains a single vmm implementing a single virtual machine. |
| Zoning | The process of providing access control in the SAN topology. Zoning defines which HBAs can connect to which storage processors. |
