understanding how .vmx file parameters control vm behavior

[tjrand8]

I apologize in advance if this question seems vague - I'm looking for a good explanation or someone who can point me in the right direction to some technical resources to understand the interaction between the vmx configuration file and the virtual machine. Ex - at what stage during the startup of the virtual machine is the file parsed and read? How is it able to interact with PhoenixBIOS to remove the boot menu option for network boot via the "vlance.noOprom = "true"" parameter? How do these parameters actually get passed to the guest OS (or, do they remain at the hypervisor layer?)

I've done what research I could online and through the community forums/knowledge base, sorry if I missed anything obvious or if my understanding of this file isn't quite right. Also, I'm not looking for a list of parameters, I've already come across a while back. Thanks!

[continuum]

as the vmx file represents the virtual hardware of a VM the process may look like this - just guessing of course.

I guess I forgot several further steps ... just listing the obvious required steps

• read registry and check license

• read config.ini and check global RAM-usage settings

• read preferences.ini

• syntax check of vmx-file

• read guestOS-parameter and set silent defaults as required

• check presence of referenced files - like nvram, vmxf, vmdks , isos, flps ...

• check presence of referenced physical devices - like raw-disks, physical CD-devices, physical floppies, com-ports, par-ports

• check availablitly of referenced physical resources like CPUs and RAM

• check existing snapshot-chains for consistency

• check if existing sparse disks are healthy

• check if vmem file is required / present

• check presence of vmss and vmsd files

• assemble virtual hardware

• allocate backing for vRAM

• if required load stored memory (if starting from a suspended state)

• launch vmware-vmx process ( this actually starts the VM)

Ulli

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay