Virtual Machine (VM) Glossary Definition

A virtual machine (VM) is a software program or operating system that not only exhibits the behavior of a separate computer but is also capable of performing tasks such as running applications and programs like a separate computer. A virtual machine, usually known as a guest is created within another computing environment referred to as a "host." Multiple virtual machines can exist within a single host at one time.

Virtual Machine is a Cloud reliability or observability concept used to understand system behavior, measure service health, and recover from failures.

This term is commonly used in software engineering, programming, scripting, application design, testing, and development lifecycle work.

Operations and reliability teams use this concept when setting objectives, investigating incidents, improving resilience, and communicating service health.

Related concepts include Observability.

Additional Resource: CNCF Cloud Native Glossary.