When you configure a virtual machines virtual hardware you can configure a lot of the hardware settings. Though, keep in mind that CPU and Memory do depend on physical hardware. You can't configure a VM to use 32 gigs of memory if your computer does not have 32 gigs of memory! Same goes with CPUs.  When you configure memory and CPU virtual hardware in a VM the settings you choose can also impact your primary OS.  We do not want to impact the performance of your primary OS. 

Next, we can also configure the storage that is available within a VM. When you configure the drive you want to make sure you provide enough storage. You can resize the disc to provide additional storage, but there are other steps required besides just increasing the space available in your type-2 hypervisor. Also, when creating a VM you have the option of configuring the bus (IDE, SCSI, SATA, NVMe) that you wish to disc to use.  

We also have the ability to configure a network card. You will want to make sure your VM has a network interface card (NIC) to be able to get online. With your NIC you will have several network type options to pick from (depending on your type-2 hypervisor these names can differ):

• Bridge: This will connect your VM directly to the physical network and it will receive an IP on the same network as the host OS.

• NAT: The VM will use NAT and share the hosts OS IP address

• Host-Only: A private network that does not have Internet Access

• Custom: You can create and specify your own network

• LAN segment: This is an advanced configuration. This provides the ability for VMs to use a private network. This is mostly used for testing, network performance analysis and VM isolation.  

You might be wondering why does my VM have a NIC and not a wireless adapter when my laptop only has wireless.  Recall, we are virtualizing the hardware, so it does not exactly mirror the hardware of your computer.  If you want to have a wireless network adapter to use on your VM it is actually really easy to do .  All you have to do is use a USB wireless NIC! 

Finally, we need to make sure we have USB configured correctly. USB should be enabled by default on your VMs, but it defaults to USB 2.0. If your computer has USB 3.0 this can cause problems when you wish to use a USB drive.  You will need to change USB compatibility setting to USB 3.0 for it to work. 

I have just focused on the main hardware components that are most commonly configured. There are other virtual hardware available too (parallel ports, serial ports, floppy disk drives). 

You can also learn more about configuring your virtual machine hardware settings by viewing documentation provided by VMware. Keep in mind this is specific to VMware.

Believe it or not VMs can have different versions of hardware that are available! The virtual machine compatibility setting is what determines what virtual hardware is available to the virtual machine. This can cause problems if you are trying to use a newer VM compatibility with an older hypervisor. Please read the following kb (knowledge base) article to learn a bit more about virtual hardware versions and what product each supports.

Virtual machine hardware versions