Drivers and services that run inside a virtual machine's operating system to boost speed and enable clean shutdowns, heartbeats and guest operations. It should be upgraded ahead of the VM's compatibility level.
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Terms in this definition
- VM
A computer implemented entirely in software, having virtual hardware and its own guest OS; ESX hosts run it and vCenter manages it.
- OS
Operating system, which you manage yourself on IaaS VMs. PaaS offerings like App Service do not expose it.
- Compatibility level
Determines which Database Engine version a database's T-SQL and query processing imitate. Certain new functions,
REGEXP_LIKEamong them, won't work below 170.
Related terms
- Azure VMware Solution
Lets an organisation lift VMware workloads into Azure and keep managing them with the VMware tools it already knows, because vSphere private clouds run there on hardware dedicated to that customer.
- quiescing
Briefly freezing activity inside the guest OS so that a snapshot captures a consistent file system. It relies on VMware Tools in a powered-on VM and cannot be used together with capturing memory.
- VM Monitoring
Part of vSphere HA: if a VM shows no I/O and its VMware Tools heartbeats stop, it is reset.