Glossary
Core terms used across the documentation.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Backup | An incremental restore point of a VM. Lets you revert the VM or recover individual files. |
| Boot disk | The disk that holds a VM's operating system. Every VM has one. |
| Bucket | A container for objects in object storage (S3). |
| CIDR | Notation for an IP address range, such as 10.0.0.0/16, used to define VNets and subnets. |
| Customer Gateway | A representation of your on-premises router, used as the endpoint for a site-to-site VPN. |
| Direct Connect (LAN-to-LAN) | A dedicated, low-latency link between an on-premises network and a VNet. |
| DNS static record | An A record that maps a hostname to an internal IPv4 address inside a VNet. |
| Firewall rule | A rule, defined per VNet, that allows or denies traffic by direction, protocol, port, and source or destination. |
| Internet gateway | A public IP that acts as a VNet's egress point to the internet. |
| IPsec | A site-to-site VPN that connects an on-premises network to a VNet over an encrypted tunnel. |
| Network tag | A label applied to a VM's network adapter, usable as a source or destination in firewall rules. |
| NIC (network adapter) | A VM's connection to a subnet. A VM can have more than one. |
| Object storage (S3) | File storage accessed over the S3-compatible API, organized into buckets. |
| OpenVPN | A client-to-site (remote access) VPN for connecting individual users to a VNet. |
| Orphan disk | A disk not attached to any VM, available to attach later. |
| Perimeter Policy | A VDC-level security policy that filters traffic by country (Geo Guard), IP list, or threat intelligence. |
| Public IP | A routable external address from the VDC pool, attached to a VM or used as an internet gateway. |
| Snapshot | A point-in-time capture of a VM's state that you can roll back to. |
| Storage tier | The class of a disk: Performance, Standard, or Archive. |
| Subnet | A range within a VNet, defined by its own CIDR, to which VMs connect. |
| vCPU | A virtual CPU allocated to a VM. |
| VDC (Virtual Datacenter) | The environment that holds all of your infrastructure and quotas. |
| VM (Virtual Machine) | A server running inside a VDC. |
| VNet (Virtual Network) | A private network inside a VDC, defined by a CIDR and divided into subnets. |
| Volume disk | An additional data disk attached to a VM, beyond the boot disk. |