10 1.Understanding VMs 1.2Examining Virtual Machines from the Outside a From the perspective of an ESXi host, a VM consists of several types of files stored on a supported storage device Although the VMX file is important, it is only the structural definition of the virtual hardware that composes the vm. It does not store any actual data from the guest OS instance running inside the vm A separate type of file, the virtual hard disk file, performs that role The virtual hard disk file, identified by a vmdk filename extension and hereafter referred to as the vMDK file, holds the actual data stored by a vm a Each VMDK file represents a disk device 河南中医药大学/阮晓龙/13938213680/htp/cloudxg.hactcm.edu.cn/http:/www5ucwebcn