Описание тега vmware-workstation

VMware Workstation is a virtual machine software suite for x86 and x86-64 computers from VMware. The software is generally considered an end-user application, unlike VMware's ESX(i) platform, which is generally considered an enterprise platform. The software is an example of a "Type-2" Hypervisor.

Workstation allows for the virtualization of all x86 and x86-64 operating systems, provided the host meets compatibility requirements (See this link for more compatibility information) in the form of VMs ( virtual machines). VMs can share hardware resources with their host system (in the case of network adapters or CD/DVD-ROM drives) and can utilize virtualized resources (virtual hard drives for example) as well.

VMs are created within the software, or alternatively, can be deployed from pre-existing templates (OVF files, or VMX/VMDK bundles). Wikipedia has a concise description of the contents of an OVF file:

An OVF package consists of several files placed in one directory. An OVF package always contains exactly one OVF descriptor (a file with extension.ovf). The OVF descriptor is an XML file which describes the packaged virtual machine; it contains the metadata for the OVF package, such as name, hardware requirements, references to the other files in the OVF package and human-readable descriptions. In addition to the OVF descriptor, the OVF package will typically contain one or more disk images, and optionally certificate files and other auxiliary files. The entire directory can be distributed as an OVA package, which is a tar archive file with the OVF directory inside.

Additionally, you can view more about the OVF file format here