VMware File Extensions

.vmx  The file which resides in the virtual machine folder hold the configuration information of the virtual machine. [including: memory size, hard disks, CDROM information, network configuration etc. ] Unlike all other files .VMX file can be opened by text editor.

.vmxf  This file is in XML format. This file holds additional information of the virtual machine.

flat.vmdk  This file is the physical file that contains that actual data stored on the drive of the VM. There is one for each drive attached.

.vmdk  This is a plain text descriptor file, that describes the characteristics of the “flat” vmdk, it contains information such as the SCSI device type, geometry, provisioning type, etc.  There is one for each hard disk attached to the virtual machine

<diskname>-<###>.vmdk  This is a redo-log file, created automatically when a virtual machine has one or more snapshots. This file stores changes made to a virtual disk while the virtual machine is running. One for each .vmdk disk.

.nvram  This file contains the VM systems BIOS NVRAM data.

vmware.log  The current log file for this VM. If the machine is running, this is where ESX is logging to, if the machine is stopped or suspended, this is the most recent log.

VMware-###.log  log files from previous instances of this machine, a new log file is created each time the VM is started, be it power on, resume (from suspend), or vmotion.

.hlog   If we have vMotioned the Virtual Machine, this file is created. This file can be safely be deleted.

.vmsn  This file contains the memory state of a VM at the time a snapshot was taken.

.vmsd  The VMSD stores information and metadata about the snapshot itself

.vmss  This file contains the memory state of a Vm at the time it was suspended.