vSphere component layers
The VMware software stack consists of three layers: virtualization, management, and interface. The relationship between these layers is shown in the following figure:
The virtualization layer of VMware vSphere consists of infrastructure services and application services. Infrastructure services abstract, aggregate, and allocate all hardware and other resources. Infrastructure services include:
Compute services: These services are VMware capabilities that abstract away from underlying server resources. Compute services also aggregate these resources across many servers and assign them to consumers such as virtual machines.
Storage services: These services are a set of technologies that are used to provide the most efficient use and management of storage resources across your virtual environment.
Network services: These services are a set of technologies that simplify and enhance networking for virtual environments.
Application services are designed to ensure availability, security, and scalability for applications; for example, features such as vSphere High Availability and Fault Tolerance.
The management layer is represented by VMware vCenter Server, which is the main central point for configuring, provisioning, and managing your virtual environment.
The interface layer is where user access to vSphere happens. Users can access the environment using GUI clients such as vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client. Also, users can access the datacenter using command-line interfaces or SDKs for automated management or third-party product connections.
