After you have created a virtual machine, several files are generated and placed in the directory specified in the VirtualMachineConfigSpec.files property.

Table 1. Default Files
File Usage File Description File Format
.vmx .vmname.vmx Virtual machine configuration file. ASCII
.vmxf vmname.vmxf Additional virtual machine configuration files, available, for example, with teamed virtual machines. ASCII
.vmdk vmname.vmdk Virtual disk file. ASCII
.flat.vmdk vmname.flat.vmdk Preallocated virtual disk in binary format. Binary
.vswp vmname.vswp Swap file.
.nvram vmname.nvram or nvram Non-volatile RAM. Stores virtual machine BIOS information.
.vmss vmname.vmss Virtual machine suspend file.
.log vmware.log Virtual machine log file. ASCII
#.log vmware-#.log Old virtual machine log files. # is a number starting with 1. ASCII
.vmtx vmname.vmtx Virtual machine template file. ASCII

If you are using snapshots, the following additional files might be available. See Snapshots.

File Extension Usage File Description
.vmsd vmname.vmsd Virtual machine snapshot file.
.vmsn vmname.vmsn Virtual machine snapshot data file.
**.delta.vmdk Snapshot difference file. A number preceding the extension increases with more snapshots.
**.vmdk Metadata about a snapshot.
-Snapshot#.vmsn Snapshot of virtual machine memory. Snapshot size is equal to the size of you virtual machine’s maximum memory.