Definition

VMkernel

VMkernel is a POSIX-like operating system developed by VMware.

The VMkernel is the liaison between virtual machines (VMs) and the physical hardware that supports them. VMware calls VMkernel a microkernel because it runs on bare metal, directly on VMware ESX hosts. The VMkernal is responsible for allocating memory, scheduling CPUs and providing other hardware abstraction and operating system (OS) services.

Related glossary terms: VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler), VMware Lab Manager, VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System), VMware Converter, VMware Virtual SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing), VMware template, VMware resource pool, VMware HA (High Availability), embedded hypervisor, memory overcommit (or overcommitment)

Contributor(s): Meredith Courtemanche

This was last updated in November 2012

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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