Virtuaalilevyjä

Virtuaalilevyjä, or virtual disks, are storage units that exist as files on a physical storage device, such as a hard drive or solid-state drive. They are created and managed by virtualization software, like VMware or VirtualBox, and are essential for operating virtual machines. When a virtual machine is running, it perceives the virtual disk file as if it were a real physical disk drive.

Virtual disks allow users to install operating systems, applications, and store data within a virtual environment without affecting the host system's storage. They can be created in various formats, such as VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) for VMware or VDI (Virtual Disk Image) for VirtualBox. These files can be of fixed size, meaning their maximum capacity is pre-allocated, or dynamically expanding, where the file grows as data is added, up to a defined limit.

The primary advantage of virtual disks is their flexibility. They can be easily copied, moved, backed up, and restored. Users can create snapshots of virtual disks to capture the state of a virtual machine at a specific point in time, allowing for easy rollback if something goes wrong. Furthermore, virtual disks can be configured with different performance characteristics and security settings. They enable multi-boot environments on a single physical machine and facilitate software testing and development in isolated, reproducible settings.