Virtual machines: guests, hosts and persistent data

You need a separate operating system for a test, but do not want to change your own machine. A virtual machine (VM) runs a guest operating system using hardware presented by virtualization software on the host.

You choose the guest's CPU, memory, disks and network connection. Use a VM when an exercise needs its own operating system or kernel; a container instead shares more of the host's operating-system machinery. A snapshot can help with some lab resets, but it is not automatically a consistent application backup or protection against losing the host.

Try it in a lab

Create a small test VM with explicit CPU, memory and disk limits. Compare its guest network address with the host address, then stop and restart it to observe which state persists.

Check your understanding

Explain the difference between restarting, reverting a snapshot and recreating a guest. Document how you would recover the data if the VM definition were lost.

Before you start

Snapshots may capture secrets and inconsistent application state. Use an application-aware backup and restoration test when the workload requires one.

Read the official guide

Use the project documentation for version-specific commands and prerequisites. Record the versions and results of your own exercise. This page proposes a learning activity; it does not report a Kubedex test.

This is a newly written study reference at an address from the original Kubedex course outline. The original lesson was not recovered. It does not include course enrolment, progress tracking or a certificate.