A virtual machine is comprised of data and operating system files that define the virtual environment. Virtual machines are hosted and controlled by the virtual machine host. This section provides generalized instructions for installing virtual machines.
Virtual machines have few if any requirements above those required to run the operating system. If the operating system has not been optimized for the virtual machine host environment, the unmodified OS can run only on hardware-assisted virtualization computer hardware, in full virtualization mode, and requires specific device drivers to be loaded.
You should be aware of any licensing issues related to running a single licensed copy of an operating system on multiple virtual machines. Consult the operating system license agreement for more information.
NOTE: Virtual Machine Architectures
The virtual machine host runs only on x86, AMD64 and Intel 64 hardware. It does not run on other system architectures such as Itanium, or POWER. A 64-bit virtual machine host can also run a 32-bit operating system, while a 32-bit host cannot run a 64-bit client. This holds true for both, the controlling domain and all further guests.