TABLE OF CONTENTS In this chapter, we ll walk through building a virtual machine, discussing its basic requirements, as well as some issues to consider when building virtuals. We ll also discuss the concept of the Gold Master, why this concept is important in building your virtual infrastructure, and how to build your VMlibrary to leverage the power and flexibility of VMware. Along the way, the beauty of the clone will be discussed. Finally, we ll explain how to modify your Gold Master to your specific environmental needs.
Building a virtual machine is really quite similar to building a regular computer. All computers, virtual or physical, need a bare minimum of specific hardware such as a CPU (an important one), memory, disk space, and if you want it to talk with other computers on your LAN/MAN/WAN, a network interface card. Of course, to load software for instance, the operating system you may want a CD-ROM or floppy drive, at least initially.
The following is a brief overview (per VMware) of how virtualization of the CPU, memory, disk, and network works:
CPU virtualization Each virtual machine appears to run on its own CPU, or set of CPUs, fully isolated from other virtual machines, with its own registers, translation look-aside buffer, and other control structures. Most instructions are directly executed on the physical CPU, allowing compute-intensive workloads to run at near-native speed. Privileged instructions are performed safely by the patented and patent-pending technology in the virtualization layer.
