Synopses & Reviews
Roll out your first virtualized or cloud infrastructure — this book shows you how!If your company has been talking about virtualization, you're in luck. This friendly guide shows you exactly how to create a virtual system using the VMware vSphere environment. Here's what you need to understand, design, and deploy one without drowning in details, plus plenty of maintenance and troubleshooting tips to keep it running smoothly.
Start here — learn what's in vSphere, how to plan what size your initial deployment should be, and everything you'll need for the project
See what's new — explore vSphere 4.1 upgrades, including more RAM, vCPUs, and guest OSs
Serve up your server — choose a system to run VMware vCenter Server and establish a command center for your host farm
Getting up to speed — see how vSphere 4.1 compares to previous versions
Size up storage options — find out whether local storage, fibre channel, Internet SCSI, or network-attached storage best fits your needs
Profile of the ideal host — discover the advantages of using host profiles even when your number of ESX hosts is small
Perfect timing — find easy ways to keep your server clocks synchronized
Open the book and find:
Enhancements and upgrades to vSphere 4.1
How to roll out vSphere effectively
Cool improvements to ESX
How vApps make management easier
Optimal specs for a machine to host vCenter Server
Troubleshooting tips
Advice on creating and cloning VM templates
Ten tools to make vSphere management easier
Learn to:
Design and deploy a reliable vSphere environment
Work with the newest vSphere ESX 4.1 features
Handle installation and configuration
Manage vSphere infrastructure through vCenter Server
Synopsis
A plain-English guide to the market-leading virtualization and cloud computing technologyWith virtualization, a single server can host dozens or hundreds of virtual machines running a variety of operating systems, and even hook them together in a virtual network or cloud infrastructure. This practical guide shows you how to create a virtual system using the VMware VSphere environment. You'll find all the information you need to understand, design, and deploy one—without getting overwhelmed with technical detail. And once you’re up and running, this book is the perfect reference for maintenance and troubleshooting issues.
- Introduces you to virtualization and VMware’s virtualization/cloud computing technology, the most recent version is VMware vSphere Shows you how to design a vSphere environment
- Covers installation, deployment, management, maintenance, and troubleshooting
- Provides what IT managers and system administrators need to roll out their first virtualized or cloud infrastructure, or to get up to speed on VMware’s technology
Get up and running on the cloud with VMware vSphere For Dummies!
About the Author
Dan Mitchell is Technical Director for DynamicOps and founder of www.StartsWithV.com, a Web site and blog focused on virtualization technology and the surrounding industry.
Tom Keegan has been working with VMware products for ten years and is certified as a VMware VCP and a Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 4—Datacenter Design. He is a Technical Director at Fresenius Medical Care.
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Part I: Deciding on vSphere.
Chapter 1: Getting the Most Out of VMware vSphere.
Chapter 2: Introducing Virtualization.
Chapter 3: Exploring the Capabilities of VMware vSphere.
Chapter 4: Comparing Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 with vSphere 4.x.
Part II: Getting Ready for Sphere.
Chapter 5: Planning for a vSphere Rollout.
Chapter 6: Preparing Network and Storage for vSphere.
Part III: Installing Sphere.
Chapter 7: Installing VMware ESX 4 for the First Time.
Chapter 8: Building the vCenter Server.
Chapter 9: Getting Started with the vSphere Client.
Part IV: Configuring and Connecting vSphere.
Chapter 10: Configuring a New vCenter Server.
Chapter 11: Wiring Up vSphere to the Network, Virtually.
Chapter 12: Connecting vSphere to Shared Storage.
Chapter 13: Assembling an ESX Cluster.
Part V: Administering and Maintaining vSphere.
Chapter 14: Creating, Cloning, and Converting VMs.
Chapter 15: Organizing vSphere Resources.
Chapter 16: Events, Alarms, and Monitoring.
Chapter 17: A Quick Tour of Your Virtual Infrastructure.
Chapter 18: One of These Hosts Is Not Like the Other — Host Profiles.
Part VI: Tuning and Troubleshooting vSphere.
Chapter 19: Making VMs Play Fair with Resource Pools.
Chapter 20: Using vSphere Availability Features.
Chapter 21: Troubleshooting vSphere.
Part VII: The Part of Tens.
Chapter 22: Ten Tools to Make vSphere Management Easier.
Chapter 23: Ten Places to Improve Your vSphere Know-How.
Chapter 24: Ten Pro Tips for a Successful vSphere Deployment.
Index.