Frequently Asked
Questions

A virtual appliance is a pre-built software solution, comprised of one or more virtual machines that is packaged, maintained, updated, and managed as a unit. Virtual appliances are fundamentally changing how software is developed, distributed, deployed, and managed.

Software Developers create virtual appliances and license them to their customers. Software Developers create virtual appliances by developing self-contained and optimized application stacks that are customized for their workload and embedded with an Operating System of choice. The benefits to the Software Developer of creating and deploying a virtual appliance are a reduction in development and distribution costs, an accelerated time to market, an expanded customer reach, a more secure software delivery system, and the ability to leverage industry leading virtualization platforms.

Hardware Appliance Vendors (HAVs) are also reaping the benefits of virtual appliances. By leveraging virtual appliances rather than physical systems, HAVs minimize development and distribution costs, accelerate time to market, expand customer reach, deliver more secure software and leverage the industry’s leading virtualization platform.

Customers are also taking advantage of the benefits of virtual appliances such as quick and easy deployment, evaluations, and patching; an accelerated time to value; simplified software management; running more secure software; and leveraging existing investments in VMware Infrastructure (VI). Virtual appliances are more secure and reliable than traditional software; and by simply copying a set of files and powering on the virtual appliance (.vmx file), an application is instantaneously available.

Virtual appliances are packaged, deployed, managed, and maintained as a unit. They will run on VMware Infrastructure (VI), VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Server, and VMware Player. By deploying virtual appliances on VI, customers can instantly leverage key capabilities such as high availability, scalability, backup, and live migration.

A: A virtual machine is a tightly isolated software container created to run on virtualized platforms. It has four key virtualized resources (CPU, RAM, Storage, and Networking); but requires the installation of an Operating System and runs on one or more applications. A virtual appliance functions very much like a virtual machine, possessing the four key characteristics of compatibility, isolation, encapsulation, and hardware independence. However, a virtual appliance contains a pre-installed, pre-configured Operating System and an application stack optimized to provide a specific set of services.

Since virtual machines contain a general purpose Operating System which can run multiple applications, patches are delivered by both the Operating System vendors and application software vendors. IT Administrators, in turn, may need to test these patches for compatibility. In contrast, virtual appliances are a unified offering of JeOS (Just enough Operating System) and a single application. The application software vendor needs only to provide a single pre-tested update (containing relevant patches), thus eliminating the need for testing by an IT Administrator.

A: Application virtualization is an umbrella term referring to technologies that improve application compatibility and manageability by encapsulating applications from the underlying Operating System on which they are executed. Technology categories that fall under application virtualization include:

• Application Streaming. The application is delivered in a package that may include a subset of OS files and configuration settings. Running the package requires the installation of a lightweight client application and packages are usually delivered over a protocol such as HTTP or RTSP.
• Desktop Virtualization/Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The application is hosted in a Virtual Machine or blade PC that also includes an Operating System (OS). These solutions include a management infrastructure for automating the creation of virtual desktops, and providing for access control to target virtual desktops. VDI solutions can usually fill the gaps where application streaming falls short.
• Self-contained VM packages such as VMware ACE. These packages are typically launched with a small runtime player (which may be bundled with the package), and have the ability to be launched from a portable USB flash drive.

A: JeOS or Just Enough Operating System is a stripped down version of an Operating System. OS Vendors are creating stripped down JeOSes to support the Virtual Appliance paradigm. Some of the examples of JeOS are Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04. In addition, Novell has come out with Lime JeOS and Red Hat has come out with Appliance Operating System (AOS).

A: Virtual Appliances that follow the specifications of the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Program are built on a VMware supported Guest Operating System and are able to seamlessly integrate with VMware Infrastructure (VI).

A: Traditional software as sold by software vendors have to be customized to a variety of hardware platforms. Once shipped to end customers they are often difficult to deploy and configure. Virtual Appliances are pre-packaged and so help reduce the time to market for Software Developers, reduce complexity of installation and configuration for their end users and hence reduce support costs.

A: A virtual appliance extends the concept of a hardware appliance by offering the same benefits in a far more dynamic, scalable, and flexible way. Virtual appliances eliminate the need for custom or 3rd party physical hardware and enable solutions to be run on a virtualization platform.

A: With virtual appliances, IT organizations can maintain their applications and data within a virtual appliance in their own data centers for peace of mind and security. Virtual appliances also have a more traditional fee structure, eliminating the risk of unpredictable storage, bandwidth, and per seat costs of SaaS. In addition, virtual appliances can be used as a delivery mechanism for any software on an IA-32 x86 platform, including custom built software. For Software Developers virtual appliances do not require expensive reengineering of the application to support multi-tenancy. Creation of a virtual appliance can often be integrated directly into an Software Developers build environment.

A: The Virtual Appliances that follow the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Program and/or are built using VMware’s authoring tool, VMware Studio, are created in such a way that they are able to seamlessly integrate with the industry’s leading Virtualization Platform. In addition, all the management services that VMware provides like Lab Manager, Stage Manager, Life Cycle Manager, et al., are applicable to virtual appliances because they are after all virtual machines. In addition, Virtual Appliances built using VMware’s authoring tool, VMware Studio, have in-built agents that enable them to integrate closely with VirtualCenter’s Update Manager functionality.

A: Delivering software as a virtual appliance has numerous business and technical benefits, the end result of which is higher conversion rates, shorter sales cycles, and increased renewals. Virtual appliances enable software developers to address new customer segments, expand channels of distribution, and provide easy to use evaluation and proof-of-concept editions. Because virtual appliances are packaged as simple files, customers can download the file and then click ‘power on’ to get a demonstration, evaluation, or fully licensed application up and running instantaneously -- without the need for an onsite Sales Engineer.

In the virtual appliance model, Software Developers can select from various VMware supported Operating Systems and optimize the application for the selected OS, resulting in greater usability right out of the box. Software Developers can also remove unnecessary components leading to a thinner and more secure OS. By selecting a single OS to work with, Software Developers will vastly shorten their development cycles and simplify their testing matrix. This leads to lower overall development costs and a more stable and reliable solution for customers. By delivering software that is pre-integrated and pre-configured in a virtual appliance, Software Developers can reduce the costs of supporting applications.

All of VMware’s virtualization platform (VMware vPlatform) offerings share a core set of functionality (IA-32 x86 virtualization, virtual SCSI controller, virtual Ethernet controller, virtual mouse/keyboard/screen, etc...), bringing "build once, run anywhere" hardware abstraction to the rapidly evolving physical server space. This provides an opportunity for hardware appliance vendors to cost-effectively explore customer segments where dedicated physical appliances may be impractical.

A: Anyone can create a virtual appliance:

• Software Developers and Hardware Appliance Vendors can create virtual appliances as an alternative delivery mechanism for their solutions.
• IT organizations can create virtual appliances out of custom software or with standard 3rd party solution stacks to enable the rapid deployment of standard configurations worldwide.
• Resellers can package standardized application solutions in virtual appliances to enable customers to obtain solutions instantly and limit the need for onsite support.

A: Virtual appliances are created using virtual appliance authoring tools. VMware provides a virtual appliance authoring tool with robust management functionality called VMware Studio (Formerly the Virtual Appliance Development Kit). VMware Studio is available for free through VMware’s website.

A: When you are building an appliance with a Guest Operating System that is in the VMware Studio supported OS List (namely Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, CentOS 5, RHEL 5.1, SLES 10 SP2) and if your appliance can be created on a single VM. VMware Studio 1.0 supports single VMs. Multi-VM appliances are on the roadmap but are not supported by VMware Studio 1.0. It is advisable that the Software Developer/Hardware Appliance Vendor read through the VMware Ready Program Test Matrix and follow the guidelines therein to build an appliance.

A: If you are building a multi-VM Appliance (in VMware Studio 1.0 time frame), on a non-supported GOS (i.e., not on the VMware Studio supported OS list above).

A: There is a User’s Guide and an Install Guide available on the VMware Studio web page.

A: An Open Virtual Appliance is an appliance that is accessible to end customers for modifications/edits. The OS and the application for example can be patched individually and agents may be installed at the customer’s side. A closed VA on the contrary is always packaged and distributed as a unit and is maintained, updated, and managed as a unit.

A: VMware is putting forth a clear vision for the future of virtual appliances. A large range of applications are currently being virtualized by ISVs, HAVs, System Integrators, Value Added Resellers, and in-house software developers; virtual appliances are a subset of these virtualized applications. VMware is currently investing in building solutions around enabling software to be optimized to run on VMware platforms. These optimized software solutions fall under the category of vApps and vServices. vApps are software solutions optimized to run on top of VMware platforms, while vSerivces are software services that VMware Infrastructure offers to these vApps and benefit customers by providing a better user experience, guaranteed service levels, seamless integration with the industry’s leading virtualization platform--VMware Infrastructure. vApps are self-contained entities that are enabled by vServices to be mobile between on-site to off-site cloud environments.

A: No, VMware Studio is available for free.

A: No, VMware Studio is available for free.

A: VMware Studio is available through the VMware Website.

A: VMware Studio 1.0 inserts an HTTPD, Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM), and a VirtualCenter Update Manager agent. This enables stand alone management of virtual appliance as well as integration into VirtualCenter Update Manager.

A: The OSes that are supported are CentOS 5, 5.2; RHEL 5.1; Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, 8.0.4; SLES 10 SP2.

A: Common Information Model (CIM) is a management standard created by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). It provides a variety of schema to model various Data Center/IT elements.

A: There are open source CIM Providers available. VMware Studio uses a Small Footprint CIM Broker (SFCB). These CIM Providers provide a means for Software Developers/Hardware Appliance Vendors to implement additional methods. If you want to learn more about CIM and in general how to create CIM Providers please visit http://www.dmtf.org, http://www.dmtf.org/education/mof/, or http://www.dmtf.org/standards/cim/.

A: VMware Studio embeds an HTTP daemon into the appliance. This enables the enclosed management console to manage the appliance. The HTTPD server can be used for other purposes.

A: Yes, the communication is secure between VMware Studio and VI agents.

A: VMware Studio creates appliances that also contain a web console to manage the appliance. The appliance can be customized and updated through the enclosed web console. The in-built agent also enables integration with 3rd party management tools like HP Openview, IBM Tivoli, etc.

A: No, the Application does not need to be changed.

A: The CIM Provider inserted into the appliance built using VMware Studio enables them to integrate with all ESM Vendor solutions that implement CIM-based protocols like WBEM.

A: VMware Ready Virtual Appliances built using VMware Studio have stand alone web consoles that can be used at the end customer’s deployment site to connect to the appliance vendor’s site to check for updates and update the appliance to a particular release.

A: VMware Studio is a stand alone toolkit available for free and is available in the form of an appliance. You will need VMware Server 1.0.4 or VMware Server 1.0.5 to import the VMware Studio toolkit appliance. VMware Server is also available as a free download.

A: Virtual appliances relieve customers from the headaches of software installation and maintenance so they can focus on the value that software provides. Customers can deploy the application within minutes and begin using it immediately. Every component of the virtual appliance is pre-configured and optimized by the Software Developer who has the deepest understanding of the application, thereby eliminating interoperability issues. The Software Developer serves as the single point of contact for the virtual appliance, reducing the number of vendors the customer must engage with. Security is improved because customer data remains onsite with the virtual appliance in the customer’s data center. In addition, virtual appliances are built with a thinner more secure operating system; customers will know they are deploying a solution that is less vulnerable.

A: Look for the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Logo to ensure that a virtual appliance is safe to deploy in a production environment. VMware works closely with Software Developers to verify only those virtual appliances that are production-ready and optimized to run on VMware products. VMware Ready Virtual Appliances are reliable, secure, and optimized for a virtualized environment.

A: Virtual appliances will run unmodified on all of VMware’s hosted products (VMware Player, VMware Workstation, VMware Server for Windows, Linux, as well as VMware Fusion for the Mac). When built according to best practices, virtual appliances should also be easy to import to VMware Infrastructure 3.

A: We strongly recommend that the Software Developer select a Guest OS which is part of the officially supported list. Software Developers who use an unsupported Guest OS and request escalation assistance from VMware may be asked to reproduce some or the entire reported problem using a supported Guest OS.

This stance is consistent with general support expectations for VMware products.

A: On July 1, 2008 the Certified Virtual Appliance Program (CVAP) required all VAs to be built with a supported GOS. The hardware appliance to virtual appliance conversion market for Software Developers typically relies on a heavily audited, heavily tuned, in-house supported Guest OS, with as few changes made as possible to add virtual appliance capabilities. The capital costs and labor costs of this approach mean that the net entry cost into the "virtual" space is extremely low (and therefore very appealing!) to the hardware appliance Software Developer.

Note that (additional/future) certification tiers may only be available to virtual appliances which use a supported Guest OS.

With the upcoming launch of the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Program (which will replace CVAP in September 2008) VMware will require that all VAs that attain VMware Ready status be built on a supported GOS.

A: See above. Software Developers selecting to use a non-supported Guest OS incur additional support overhead, typically based on their own in-house familiarity and support expertise with that particular Guest OS.

In the past VMware enabled this to happen in an effort to build momentum for VAs in the industry. With the proliferation of VAs in the industry and various changes to the overall VA initiative at VMware we have decided to require a supported GOS to attain CVAP/VMware Ready status moving forward.

A: Any Linux OS listed here.

A: CentOS 5, 5.2; RHEL 5.1; Ubuntu 7.0.4, 7.10, 8.0.4; and SLES 10 SP2.

A: In order to create VMware Ready Virtual Appliances, please create appliances on supported Operating Systems only. Use of non-supported derivative OSes is not encouraged.

A: The dependency here is on Apple letting OS X be a virtualized OS that may land on non-Mac hardware. Should Apple determine that they are open to this VMware will evaluate this opportunity in the same way it evaluates incremental GOSes.

A: Any Windows OS listed here.

A: VMware is always evaluating new OSes to validate and support. This is driven by customer and business demand. VMware is continually updating our supported guest list and the latest can be found here.

A: Any Sun OS listed here. Sun Microsystems ships two major variants of Solaris (SPARC and x86), VMware supports the Solaris variant targeted at the IA-32 x86 platform, commonly known as Solaris x86 or Solaris x64/x86.

Sun Microsystems follows a published schedule for retirement of older releases, the overview can be found here. The table of current Solaris releases can be found here. And the discussion on binary backwards compatibility can be found here.

A: The exact support model is still being investigated -- the definition of "derived distribution" in the context of converting an existing supported Guest OS into a supported JeOS is still under active discussion.

A: VMware does not encourage the building of virtual appliances on non-supported derivative JeOSes. OS Vendors are best equipped to create the JeOS version of their OSes. VMware from time-to-time updates its list of supported GOS and JeOS.

A: OVF stands for Open Virtualization Format (OVF). OVF is a soon-to-be-released preliminary specification developed by the distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and detailing a portable packaging format for virtual machines. OVF describes how virtual appliances can be packaged in a platform neutral format to be run on any hypervisor. When a virtual appliance is packaged in OVF format, customers can deploy a virtual appliance on the virtualization platform of their choice, giving them ultimate freedom from vendor lock-in. DMTF is the industry organization leading the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management standards and initiatives. For more information on OVF and DMTF, please visit http://www.dmtf.org.

A: OVF completely describes a virtual appliance, including features that simplify and automate the installation of virtual appliances, as well as facilitate distribution and guarantee their integrity. As virtual appliances become more mainstream, there will be a greater need for standards to allow customers and solution providers freedom of choice. OVF allows customers to select the hypervisor that best meets their needs and still be able to run any virtual appliance a Software Developer provides without worrying about formats.

A: OVF formatted virtual appliances provide a better customer experience. To enable a streamlined and automated installation process, virtual appliances require critical information such as the definition of the virtual hardware, configuration information, and licensing information. Other virtual machine formats only provide information about the virtual hardware and require a user to manually supply other information or make assumptions about how to configure the virtual appliance while OVF formatted virtual appliances include all this information.

A: Yes, VMware Studio 1.0 is a virtual appliance authoring tool that supports OVF and is available for free on VMware’s website.

A: If you are comparing type-for-type conversion, no. OVF adds a negligible amount of metadata overhead.

When comparing in a non-type-for-type manner, yes. For example, conversion of a VA from VMware ESX native (VMFS3) format to OVF will typically yield significant footprint reductions, due to the pre-allocated nature of typical VMFS3 format VMDKs compared to the sparse (non-pre-allocated) nature of encapsulation formats favored by OVF.

Additional footprint savings may be had using on-the-fly compression of virtual disk objects within the OVF bundle.

Detailed technical analysis is outside the scope of this FAQ, interested parties are encouraged to review the VMware VMDK specification and the DMTF draft OVF specification.

A: More information about the Open Virtualization Format is available at http://www.dmtf.org. The current OVF Specification White paper can be found here. Further OVF material can be located on VMware’s website here.

A: The VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace is the industry’s largest online directory of virtual appliances which can be deployed in production or used for evaluations. The Virtual Appliance Marketplace represents a continuously growing ecosystem of virtual appliances that span the areas of security, content and collaboration, infrastructure, database management, and networking.

A: Listing a virtual appliance on the VMware’s Virtual Appliance Marketplace gives your company immediate access to a large customer base interested in purchasing virtual appliances. The VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace makes it easy for customers to access and install your virtual appliance Customers simply download, power on, and are up and running.

A: Participation in the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Program and successful completion of the virtual appliance testing process can be beneficial in a number of ways:

• VMware Ready gives you assurance that your product is ready to be deployed on VMware products with no additional work – allowing you to know that it has been tested and verified by VMware and it meets our technical standards from a virtualization perspective.
• VMware Ready will give your customers an easy way to recognize that your product is ready to deploy on their VMware installation and may lead a customer to choose your solution over a non-validated solution.
• Customers are starting to request, and even demand, that their virtual appliances to undergo VMware Ready testing.
• VMware Ready virtual appliances offer branding and differentiation from your competitors.

A: To list a virtual appliance on the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace, go to the List & Certify page. There are three ways to list a virtual appliance. Solution providers can read about the three ways to get listed (VMware Ready, Eval virtual appliances, or Community Contributed Virtual Appliances) and select the one that is the best fit for them. The steps to get listed on the marketplace are outlined on the link provided. It is a fairly straightforward process of completing and submitting a request to get listed.

A: VMware Ready Virtual Appliance validation requirements can be found here. Please review VMware’s VMware Ready Testing Matrix and Virtual Appliance Guidelines and ensure your virtual appliance is in compliance.

A: There is no SLA for validation but realistically it takes anywhere from 5 to 20 business days to complete an evaluation.

A: Yes.

A: There is no SLA for getting listed but realistically this can take 10 to 15 business days.

A: IT organizations can create Windows based virtual appliances for internal deployment of solutions. Software developers should always verify their licensing agreements prior to redistributing any 3rd party software.

A: Virtual appliances created with VMware Studio can run on:

• VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, or 2.0 RC2.
• VMware ESX 3.0.3 or 3.5 Update 2.
• VMware ESXi Installable Update 2.
• VMware Workstation 6.0.3.
• VMware Player 2.0.4.
• VMware Fusion 1.1.3.

VMware Studio supports the following versions of VMware Server for virtual appliance provisioning:

• VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, or 1.0.6.

VMware Studio supports the following browsers for accessing its web interface:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0.
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 or 2.0.0.16.

For the most updated information, please refer to the VMware Studio release notes.

A: Not necessarily. If your virtual appliance only uses core functionality, then you can typically publish a single virtual appliance image and use platform portability tools (VMware Converter and VMware OVFTool) to satisfy the needs of various deployment scenarios.

If you make use of extended features, you may wish to produce multiple editions of your virtual appliance (with and without extended features).

A: There are many options including:

• Trimming extraneous and transient files from the file systems (general in-Guest OS housekeeping).
• Zeroing out pagefile/swap-space.
• Zeroing out unused blocks on the file systems (most use free-on-delete and not zero-on-delete).
• "Shrinking" virtual disks using VMware Tools.
• Employing the compression algorithm (typically, 7Zip LZMA is better than BZip2 is better than GZip is better than Win32 ZIP).

A: See the answer above regarding packaging options.

Actually "growing" a virtual disk (increasing the total block count of the device) requires Guest OS level interaction to adjust file system parameters in most instances.

Some software developers have elected to provide instructions on adding a virtual disk at installation / provisioning time, typically for arbitrarily large "data" disks which the virtual appliance can prepare for use automatically.

A: VMware Studio 1.0 was released on September 15th, 2008.

A: The Beta for VMware Studio started on June 16th, 2008, and a targeted number of Beta customers participated.

A: No, VMware Studio will help build virtual appliances to “VMware Ready” requirements, however; virtual appliances still must pass the VMware Ready program to receive validation.

A: VMware Studio provides a web-based interface to customize virtual appliances. These customizations involve providing the pre-install and post scripts, first-boot, virtual resource configuration, Operating System, application package list, etc. At the customer side a web-based UI can be used to configure the IP Address and Proxy settings.

A: VMware Studio is a stand-alone tool that does not need other developer tools.

A: No, VMware Studio is a stand-alone tool that does not need other developer tools.

A: No, VMware Studio is a stand-alone tool that does not need other developer tools.

A: The virtual appliances are created in either Open Virtualization Format (OVF) package or VMX zip files. These can be imported and deployed on VMware’s virtualization platforms without the need of an auto-installer toolkit.

A: VMware Studio provides a way to harden your appliance. The software developer or hardware appliance vendor can suppress the root password and provide only a login/password of additional users to restrict access to delivered appliances at the customer’s site.

A: VMware Studio creates appliances that also contain a web console to manage the appliance. The appliance can be customized and updated through the enclosed web console. The in-built agent also enables integration with 3rd party management tools like HP Openview, IBM Tivoli, etc.

A: No, the application does not need to be changed.

A: The CIM Provider inserted into the appliance built using VMware Studio enables developers to integrate with all ESM Vendor solutions that implement CIM-based protocols like WBEM.

A: VMware Ready Virtual Appliances built using VMware Studio have stand alone web consoles that can be used at the end customer’s deployment site to connect to the appliance vendor’s site to check for updates and update the appliance to a particular release.

A: VMware Studio is a stand-alone toolkit available for free. Virtual appliances created with VMware Studio can run on:

• VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, or 2.0 RC2.
• VMware ESX 3.0.3 or 3.5 Update 2.
• VMware ESXi Installable Update 2.
• VMware Workstation 6.0.3.
• VMware Player 2.0.4.
• VMware Fusion 1.1.3.

VMware Studio supports the following versions of VMware Server for virtual appliance provisioning:

• VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, or 1.0.6.

VMware Studio supports the following browsers for accessing its web interface:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0.
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 or 2.0.0.16.

For the most updated information, please refer to the VMware Studio Release Notes.

A: If the tools components (specifically VMware -guestd) are at the "configured and responding" state, you will see entries like the following in the host log file (VMware .log or equivalent):

1 Aug 07 17:04:51.207:

2 vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 0, registration number 1, guest application toolbox.

vcpu-0| DISKUTIL: scsi0:0 : toolsVersion = 0

4 vcpu-0| DISKUTIL: Offline toolsVersion = 0

vcpu-0| TOOLS setting the tools version to '1'

6 vcpu-0| TOOLS setting the tools version to '7238'

vcpu-0| DISKLIB-DDB : "toolsVersion" = "7238" (was "1")

8 vcpu-0| VMXVmdbGuest_GetGuestUptime failed. ret = Type mismatch

vcpu-0| DISKUTIL: scsi0:0 : toolsVersion = 7238

10 vcpu-0| TOOLS installed version 7238, available version 7238

vcpu-0| TOOLS don't need to be upgraded.

12 vcpu-0| Guest: toolbox: Version: build-45731

vcpu-0| TOOLS unified loop capability requested by 'toolbox'; now sending options via TCLO

14 vcpu-0| Msg_Reset:

15 vcpu-0| ----------------------------------------

A: The annotation option should be set in the .vmx file; this option shows up as a free-form single-line wrapped text field in some but not all user interfaces. Typically it is set as a more verbose version of the displayName option, including for example the company's URL. Annotation values can span up to a paragraph or so, but must be stored in the .vmx file as a single "long" line of text.

annotation = "Some string of text here. No embedded hard line wraps." Tools suite itself. The ABI version number -also- relates to virtual disk format in some instances, as the disk library.

For example:

VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 is build 32039, and ships with Vmware Tools ABI version 7201.

VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 with the April 2007 patch-set is build 44686, but continues to ship with VMware Tools ABI version 720x. VMware Workstation 6.0, Player 2.0, and ACE 2.0, are build 45731 and ship with Vmware Tools ABI.

A: VMware does not encourage the building of virtual appliances on non-supported derivative JeOSes. OS Vendors are best equipped to create the JeOS version of their OSes. VMware from time-to-time updates its list of supported GOS and JeOS.

A: The most compelling points are:

• Reduced resource footprint (overhead costs perspective).
• Reduced attack surface (security perspective).

A: We encourage software developers to patch Virtual Appliances as a single unit. The patching/or updating is done by the software developers usually through a patch repository maintained at the software developer’s site. The Appliance usually has mechanisms to connect back to the software developer’s patch repository to determine updates. If the connection back is an issue, then the patches may be released in the form of a CD that can then be used to update the appliance at the customer’s site.

A: Yes. VMware Update Manager recognizes Virtual Appliances. IT Administrators can use VI client to create baselines and attach them to appliances. These appliances can then be scanned for compliance and remediate against the baseline.

A: The Appliance can be set in auto-update mode where it updates itself periodically. The update mode may be set by the web console of the VMware Studio 1.0 generated appliance. The Appliance may also be updated through VirtualCenter which will trigger the same mechanism.

A: The Appliances will become more complex and will contain one or more VMs. These appliances will become self-manageable and will be able to guarantee service levels dynamically by acquiring and releasing resources.

A. Yes, if you are running VI Client 2.5.0 and later along with ESXi 3.5.0 or ESX "classic" 3.5.0 and later, it is possible to access a list of downloadable virtual appliances for evaluation into an ESXi environment. To access that list of virtual appliances, open your VI client, select "Virtual Appliance" from the file menu, and then select "Import...” A popup screen will appear, select “Import from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace” and click “Next”, you will then be sent to a page where you can download the appliances.