When a virtual machine is powered on, the system creates a VMkernel swap file to serve as a backing store for the virtual machine RAM contents.

You can accept the default swap file location or save the file to a different location. By default, the swap file is stored in the same location as the virtual machine configuration file.

Prerequisites

Power off the virtual machine.

Procedure

  1. Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
  2. Click the VM Options tab and expand Advanced.
  3. Select a swap file location option.
    Option Description
    Default Stores the virtual machine swap file at the default location defined by the host or cluster swap file settings.
    Virtual machine directory Stores the virtual machine swap file in the same folder as the virtual machine configuration file.
    Datastore specified by host If the host or cluster settings define a location for the swap file, this location is used. Otherwise, the swap file is stored with the virtual machine.
  4. Click OK.