Abstract

In reaction to the complexity of classic VMware® ESX®, simplicity was an overarching design driver for VMware® ESXi™. A very simple runtime file system with specific features was needed to allow the use case—stateless and embedded—that was envisioned for ESXi at the time. Those features turned out to be quite useful, as ESXi evolved beyond its original intent. This paper reveals what is special about visorfs and how it enables the efficient use of memory, clean handling of system images, and proper definition of system state.

Authors

Olivier Cremel