virtual machine disk format (hard disk) (VMDF)

The Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDF) is a hard disk format developed by VMware for which virtual machine environments and virtual disks are defined.

It describes and documents the virtual environment and how it is stored. Many functionalities such as patching and provisioning, managing and upgrading, auditing and backup, and other infrastructural solutions for virtual environments are directly dependent on the Virtual Machine Disk Format.