What is swap file? · Ultra Transcenders glossary

When a VM powers on, ESX creates this file for it, normally in the same folder as the VM's configuration. Failure to create it stops the power-on, even on a host with plenty of spare memory.

In the Ultra Transcenders books

2V0-18.25

Each book explains swap file in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.

Terms in this definition

ESX
VMware's bare-metal hypervisor, installed on each host in a VCF fleet. Up to version 9.0 it was known as ESXi.
CRUD
Shorthand for create, read, update and delete, the four basic things you do with data. Data-plane roles in Azure Cosmos DB, for instance, authorise those operations on items.

Related terms

MFT
NTFS's table of file records. To exclude hibernation and swap file blocks, Veeam reads it; text files held within it are skipped when scanning for text artifacts.
VSWP
Swap file for a VMware VM. Unused ones are deleted by Register Replica VM (Storage) from the default folder, though not from a custom swap location, before the machine is started.

See swap file in the full glossary