Changes

When creating virtual machines within VMware Server 2.0 there is a tendency to focus primarily on the configuration settings specific to each individual virtual machine. One area of configuration which it is important not to overlook when administering a VMware Server based virtualization infrastructure involves the host-wide configuration settings which impact all virtual machines. VMware Server 2.0 provides a number of host-wide configuration settings, an understanding of which is vital to the operation and overall performance of both the virtual machines and host system itself.

VMware Server provides the ability to take a snapshot of a virtual machine which can subsequently be used to later restore the virtual machine to the exact state that it was in at the point that the snapshot was taken. By default, VMware will take snapshots in the background, allowing the virtual machine to continue running during the snapshot process. This has the possible side effect that performance will degrade while the snapshot is being taken. To avoid this problem, turn off background snapshots by selecting the host from the ''Inventory'' panel, clicking on ''Edit Host Settings'' and unset the ''Take and restore snapshots in the background'' check box. Once the change has been made, click on ''OK'' to commit the new configuration setting and dismiss the settings dialog.