Configuring Virtual Machines

You configure a virtual machine in the process of creation.

You can later view and edit virtual machine settings by adding or changing the type of the storage controllers, configure the virtual disks, boot options, CPU and memory information, or networks. Virtual machine settings can be configured when cloning, registering and relocating an existing virtual machine.

Name and Location

You specify the display name and the location of the virtual machine by using the VMCreateSpec and VMPlacementSpec data structures.

When you create your virtual machine, use the name property of the VMCreateSpec data structure to set the display name of the virtual machine.

You must create also a VMPlacementSpec instance that describes the location of the virtual machine in regards to the resources of a given vCenter Server instance. Use the placement property of the VMCreateSpec data structure to set the placement information for the virtual machine. You can set one or all of the following vSphere resources: datastore, cluster, folder, host, and resource pool.

Hardware Version

The hardware version of a virtual machine reflects the virtual hardware features supported by a virtual machine. These features depend on the physical hardware available on the ESXi host on which the virtual machine is running.

Virtual hardware features include the BIOS and Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), the maximum number of CPUs, the maximum memory configuration, and other hardware characteristics.

When you create a virtual machine, the default hardware version of the virtual machine is the most recent version available on the host where the virtual machine is created. For information about the latest VMware products and virtual hardware versions, see Virtual machine hardware versions (1003746).

To set a hardware version different than the default, use the hardware_version enumerated type of the VMCreateSpec data structure. For information about the hardware features available for the virtual hardware versions, see Hardware features available with virtual machine compatibility settings (2051652).

You can set a lower virtual hardware version of a virtual machine than the highest supported by the ESXi host on which the virtual machine is running. Setting a lower hardware version can provide flexibility and is useful in the following cases.

• To help you standardize testing and deployment in your environment.
• In case you do not need the hardware features of the latest hardware version of the host.
• To maintain compatibility with hosts with a lower hardware version.

Boot Options

You can configure the boot options of a virtual machine by using the VmHardwareBootCreateSpec data structure.

By specifying the properties of the VmHardwareBootCreateSpec data structure, you can select one of the following settings when booting the virtual machine.

• Delay - Indicates a delay in milliseconds before starting the firmware boot process when the virtual machine is powered on.
• Retry - Indicates whether the virtual machine automatically retries to boot after a failure.
• Retry delay - Indicates a delay in milliseconds before retrying the boot process after a failure.
• Enter setup mode - If set to true, indicates that the firmware boot process automatically enters BIOS setup mode the next time the virtual machine boots. The virtual machine resets this flag to false once it enters setup mode.
• EFI legacy boot - If set to true, indicates that the EFI legacy boot mode is used.

Guest Operating System

The guest operating system that you specify affects the supported devices and available number of virtual CPUs.

When you create a virtual machine, you specify the guest operating system by using the VmGuestOS enumerated type of the VMCreateSpec data structure. The VmGuestOS enumerated type defines the valid guest OS types that you can choose from for configuring a virtual machine.

After the create operation finishes successfully, you can install the guest operating system on the mew virtual machine in the same way as you install it on a physical machine. For further information on installing a guest operating system, refer to the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html and the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide.

Starting with vSphere 7.0, you can use the vSphere Automation APIs to install the VMware Tool on the quest operating system and perform some guest OS customizations. See Installing VMware Tools.

CPU and Memory

The VMCreateSpec data structure allows you to specify the CPU and memory configuration of a virtual machine.

To change the CPU and memory configuration settings, use the VmHardwareCpuUpdateSpec and VmHardwareMemoryUpdateSpec data structures.

You can set the number of CPU cores in the virtual machine by using the count property of the VmHardwareCpuUpdateSpec data structure. The supported range of CPU cores depends on the guest operating system and virtual hardware version of the virtual machine. If you set the hot_add_enabled and hot_remove_enabled properties to true, you allow virtual processors to be added or removed from the virtual machine at runtime.

You can set the memory size of a virtual machine by using the size_MiB property of the VmHardwareMemoryUpdateSpec data structure. The supported range of memory sizes depends on the configured guest operating system and virtual hardware version of the virtual machine. If you set the hot_add_enabled property to true while the virtual machine is not powered on, you enable adding memory while the virtual machine is running.

Networks

You configure network settings so that a virtual machine can communicate with the host and with other virtual machines. When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.

You can add virtual Ethernet adapters to a virtual machine by using the VmHardwareEthernetCreateSpec data structure. The VmHardwareEthernetEmulationType enumerated type defines the valid emulation types for a virtual Ethernet adapter. The VmHardwareEthernetMacAddressType enumerated type defines the valid MAC address origins for a virtual Ethernet adapter. You can set the MAC address type to MANUAL, GENERATED, or ASSIGNED. To specify the MAC address explicitly, select MANUAL.

You can specify also the physical resources that back a virtual Ethernet adapter by using the VmHardwareEthernetBackingSpec data structure. The VmHardwareEthernetBackingType enumerated type defines the valid backing types for a virtual Ethernet adapter. You can set the backing type to STANDARD_PORTGROUP, HOST_DEVICE, DISTRIBUTED_PORTGROUP, or OPAQUE_NETWORK.