The VMM process runs in the VMkernel and consists of the vCPU and the MMU. The VMM can implement the monitor mode with software techniques, hardware techniques, or a combination of both. CPU hot plug and memory hot add, when enabled, allow for more CPU and memory resources to be added to virtual machines on demand. CPUID masks control the CPU features made visible to the guest operating system of the virtual machine. The CPU affinity setting allows you to restrict the assignment of the virtual machine to a subset of the available processors. The .vswp file can be placed on an alternate location besides the datastore, where all the other files of the virtual machine are stored. Generally, this is done for some sort of performance or storage tiering reason. VMware Tools is a utility suite that enhances the performance of a virtual machine's guest OS, which should be installed in every virtual machine and kept up to date.

The next chapter will discuss how virtual machines running multi...