vm-struct.html.md.erb

---
title: Structure of a BOSH VM
---

All managed VMs include:

- BOSH Agent
- Monit daemon
- `/var/vcap/` directory

Each BOSH managed VM may be assigned a single copy of a deployment job to run. At that point VM is considered to be an instance of that deployment job -- it has a name and an index (e.g.  `redis-server/0`).

When the assignment is made, the Agent will populate `/var/vcap/` directory with the release jobs specified in the deployment job definition in the deployment manifest. If selected release jobs depend on release packages those will also be downloaded and placed into the `/var/vcap` directory. For example given a following deployment job definition:

```yaml
jobs:
- name: redis-master
  templates:
  - {name: redis-server, release: redis}
  - {name: syslog-forwarder, release: syslog}
  ...
```

the Agent will download two release jobs (listed in the templates property in the deployment job definition) into the following directories:

- redis-server into `/var/vcap/jobs/redis-server`
- syslog-forwarder into `/var/vcap/jobs/syslog-forwarder`

Assuming that the redis-server job depends on a redis package and the syslog-forwarder job depends on a syslog-forwarder package, the Agent will download two release packages into the following directories:

- redis into `/var/vcap/packages/redis`
- syslog-forwarder into `/var/vcap/packages/syslog-forwarder`

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Next: [VM Configuration Locations](vm-config.html)