Managing Data Sets
You can use data sets to share information between a virtual machine and its guest
operating system.
Data sets provide a communication infrastructure that you can use to share information
between the host and guest. This information can then be used by guest agents or
applications to configure the guest itself or guest applications. The information is
grouped into data sets, each of which contains key-value entries comprising the data.
Each application that uses the service should have at least one unique data set in which
to store its data to avoid conflict with other applications. Each data set has
attributes that define its access control and interoperability configuration.
You should not store sensitive data,
such as passwords or private keys, in plain text.
To perform data set operations, the virtual
machine must be running virtual hardware version 20 or later.
You should modify each data set by using the
application that originally created that data set. If your application modifies a data
set owned by another application, the other application might stop working.
For more information about data sets, see
vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
and the VMware Guest SDK Programming Guide
.