Virtual machines are the key component of a virtual infrastructure. When you create a virtual machine, you can add it to the host inventory, associate it with a particular datastore, and select an operating system and virtual hardware options.

After you power on the virtual machine, it consumes resources dynamically as the workload increases, or returns resources dynamically as the workload decreases.

Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same function as physical hardware. A virtual machine gets CPU and memory, access to storage, and network connectivity from the host it runs on.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create privileges.

Depending on the properties of the virtual machine you want to create, you might need the following additional privileges:

  • VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk if including a virtual disk device that refers to an existing virtual disk file (not RDM).
  • VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk if including a virtual disk device that creates a new virtual disk file (not RDM).
  • VirtualMachine.Config.RawDevice if including a raw device mapping (RDM) or SCSI passthrough device.
  • VirtualMachine.Config.HostUSBDevice if including a VirtualUSB device backed by a host USB device.
  • VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig if setting values in ConfigSpec.extraConfig.
  • VirtualMachine.Config.SwapPlacement if setting swapPlacement.
  • Datastore.AllocateSpace required on all datastores where the virtual machine and its virtual disks are created.
  • Network.Assign required on the network which is assigned to the new virtual machine that is being created.

Procedure

  1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM.
    The New Virtual Machine wizard opens.
  2. Select Create a new virtual machine and click Next.
  3. On the Select a name and guest OS page, provide a unique name for the virtual machine and configure the guest operating system.
    1. In the Name text box, enter a name for the virtual machine.
    2. From the Compatibility drop-down menu, select the virtual machine compatibility.
    3. From the Guest OS family drop-down menu, select the guest operating system.
    4. From the Guest OS version drop-down menu, select the guest operating system version.
    5. To enable VBS on the virtual machine, select the Enable Windows Virtualization Based Security check box and click Next.
      Note: The Enable Windows Virtualization Based Security option only appears for the latest Windows OS versions, for example, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, and if the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 6.7 and later.

      When you enable this option, hardware virtualization, IOMMU, EFI, and secure boot become available to the guest operating system. You must also enable Virtualization Based Security within the guest operating system of this virtual machine.

  4. Click Next.
  5. On the Select storage page, select the storage type for the virtual machine and a datastore where to store the virtual machine files.
    1. To save all the virtual machine disks and configuration files on a standard datastore, click the Standard button.
    2. To save the virtual machine hard disks on the host-local PMem datastore, click the Persistent Memory button.
    3. Select a datastore from the list and click Next.
      Note: You cannot store the configuration files on a PMem datastore. If you choose to use PMem, you must select a regular datastore for the configuration files of the virtual machine.
  6. On the Customize settings page, configure the virtual machine hardware and options and click Next.
    For information about virtual machine options and virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of devices, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.
    1. On the Customize settings page, click Virtual Hardware and add a new virtual hardware device.
      • Click the Add hard disk icon to add a new virtual hard disk.
        Note: You can add a standard or a persistent memory hard disk to the virtual machine. The persistent memory hard disk is stored on the host-local PMem datastore.
      • Click the Add network adapter icon to add a NIC to the virtual machine.
      • Click the Add other device icon to choose other type of device to add to the virtual machine.
        Note: If the virtual machine uses PMem storage, the hard disks that are stored on a PMem datastore and the NVDIMM devices that you add to the virtual machine all share the same PMem resources. So, you must adjust the size of the newly added devices in accordance with the amount of the PMem available to the host. If any part of the configuration requires attention, the wizard alerts you.
    2. (Optional) To view and configure device settings, expand any device.
      Option Description

      CPU

      The CPU or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. CPUs contain cores. The number of virtual CPUs that are available to a virtual machine depends on the number of licensed CPUs on the host, and the number of CPUs supported by the guest operating system. To use the VMware multicore virtual CPUs feature, you must comply with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.

      Memory

      You can add, change, or configure virtual machine memory resources or options to enhance virtual machine performance. You can set most of the memory parameters during virtual machine creation or after the guest operating system is installed. The memory resource settings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine.

      Hard disk

      You can add large-capacity virtual disks to virtual machines and add more space to existing disks, even when the virtual machine is running. You can set most of the virtual disk parameters during virtual machine creation or after you install the guest operating system.

      SCSI controller

      Storage controllers appear to a virtual machine as different types of SCSI controllers, including BusLogic Parallel, LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual SCSI. You can set the type of SCSI bus sharing for a virtual machine and indicate whether the SCSI bus is shared. Depending on the type of sharing, virtual machines can access the same virtual disk simultaneously on the same server or on any server. You can change the SCSI controller configuration for a virtual machine on an ESXi host only.

      SATA controller

      If a virtual machine has multiple hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM devices, you can add up to three additional SATA controllers to assign the devices to. When you spread the devices among several controllers, you can improve performance and avoid data traffic congestion. You can also add additional controllers if you exceed the thirty-device limit for a single controller. You can boot virtual machines from SATA controllers and use them for large-capacity virtual hard disks.

      Network adapter

      When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type. The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors:

      • The virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that created or most recently updated it.
      • Whether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the latest version for the current host.
      • The guest operating system.

      CD/DVD drive

      You can configure DVD or CD devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or Datastore ISO files.

      Video Card You can select the default settings or specify custom settings. You can specify the number of displays, the total video memory, and enable 3D support for guest operating systems on which VMware supports 3D.

      PCI device

      You can configure PCI devices on an ESXi host to make them available for passthrough. You can also change the hardware label to restrict the virtual machine placement to specific hardware instances.

      Dynamic PCI device

      PCI passthrough devices are automatically grouped by their vendor and model name. You can configure the desired devices by the vendor and model name instead of selecting a physical PCI device by the hardware address. You can add all available devices with the same hardware label or with a blank hardware label to a virtual machine. When you power on a virtual machine, specific physical PCI passthrough devices with matching vendor and model names attach to the virtual machine.

      Security devices

      You can configure Virtual Intel® Software Guard Extensions (vSGX) for virtual machines and provide additional security to your workloads. You can activate or deactivate vSGX when you create a virtual machine or edit an existing virtual machine.
    3. (Optional) To remove a device, click the delete (close) icon next to the device.
      This option appears only for virtual hardware that you can remove safely.
    4. (Optional) To customize virtual machine options, click the VM Options button.
  7. On the Ready to complete page, review the details and click Finish.