Some of you might have recognized that it has been surprisingly quiet on my blog in the last couple of weeks. The reason for this was not that I have not been keen for blogging - rather I was working on something bigger that I'd love to present you today. 🙂

It is nothing less than a book about VMware vSphere named VMware vSphere Essentials that has been released recently on PacktPub.

I had the honour to contribute first as a reviewer and afterwards as coauthor (in addition to Kunal Kumar). The book addresses to (evolving) VMware administrators that are looking forward to learn the necessary subjects in compact form. For this it is favorable to already have understandings of basic virtualization concepts. The book dedicates all primary components of the VMware vSphere product portfolio including ESXi, vCenter Server, vSphere Update Manager and vSphere Data Protection. The book also contains information about vSphere 6.0, VSAN and NSX.

Pages: 228

ISBN: 9781784398750

The book can be ordered with PacktPub on several ways:

• As eBook (35,68 €)
• As eBook and printed version: (37,99 €)
• As eBook in a monthly abo (12,38 €)

Since 2004, Packt has published books and videos about various open source IT technologies for developers, administrators and end-users. Books can be ordered as eBook (ePub, Mobi) and have an option of print on demand. Packt's eBooks and videos are free from DRM. Since 2010 the whole library, that currently comprehends about 2000 books, can be accessed every time using a PacktLib Subscription.

On the PacktPub website there is an free example chapter of this book available. The book is also available on Amazon.

Working on the book was fun for me. Like some of you know, I already have been blogging in two languages (german and english) for a long time - but writing an english specialist book was a very valuable and new experience for me. I'm so excited to see the reader's feedback! 🙂

Content

The book's 12 chapters cover the following topics (outlines):

1. Introduction to VMware vSphere - Virtualization essentials, introduction to virtual machine's components, overview of VMware vSphere and competitor products, history and installation
2. VMware vCenter Server - Overview of vCenter Server family, architecture, installing and configuring vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance, managing hosts and virtual machines, backup of vCenter Server
3. Creating Virtual Machines - Creating and configuration virtual machines and templates, using clones and templates, storage provisioning, installing guest operating systems
4. Managing Virtual Networks - Virtual network essentials, virtual switches, portgroups, VLANs, Security Profiles, load-balancing
5. Network Virtualization with VMware NSX - NSX components and variants, architectures, installing NSX Manager, overview of routing and switching, introduction to virtual firewalls and load-balacing
6. Managing Virtual Storage - Creating and configuration VMFS and NFS datastores, upgrading VMFS datastores, shared storage, vSphere Storage API for Data Protection, backup and recovery using vSphere Data Protection
7. Working with VSAN - Overview of VSAN, installation and configuration, storage profiles, high-availability with VSAN
8. Managing Virtual Machines - Creating and using snapshots, updating virtual hardware, migratin virtual machines using vMotion and vStorage vMotion
9. Resource Management and Performance Monitoring - Memory management, monitoring resource utilization, implementing resource pools, limizations and reservations, configuration and using alarms
10. Incorporating vSphere High Availability, Fault Tolerance and DRS - Overview of high-availability, configuring High Availability and Fault Tolerance, using High Availability and DRS, load-balancing with DRS and Storage DRS
11. Securing and Updating vSphere - Overview of virtual firewalls and security profiles, integrating into Microsoft Active Directory, introduction to vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS), user access and permissions, updating ESXi hosts with vSphere Update Manager (vUM)
12. vSphere 6.0 Overview - Detailed overview over technical updates in vSphere 6.0, virtual hardware version 11, NVIDIA GRID vGPU, Instant Clone and Long-Distance vMotion, SMP Fault Tolerance, vCenter Server and Web Client, VMware Integrated OpenStack, vCloud Air Disaster Recovery, VSAN All-Flash