VMware is a powerful and flexible platform for pooling the resources from computer clusters or several hardware servers and distributing them quickly. This book provides a look into real-world use of VMware ESX and ESXi, with step-by-step solutions for problems that occur in a wide range of environments.
Many resources exist for learning virtualization technology and the foundations of the VMware software package, including installation and simple configuration. This book provides a deeper look into practical usage. Written by experts with experience using VMware in a production environment, VMware Cookbook (O’Reilly, US $39.99) by Ryan Troy and Matthew Helmke shares tips and tricks learned through trial and error, and supplies the background you need to apply them. You’ll view VMware as part of its environment, with attention to operating systems, storage, and logical and physical network components.
"’Virtualization is the future’ is a mantra we have heard repeated for some time now. We believe it is not only the future, but also the present," says Helmke.
He continues, "More and more accounting departments, executive officers and information technology professionals are finding virtualization to be a way to lower costs, maximize the use of resources, and make their infrastructure more secure, stable, and efficient. Of the various, quality implementations we have seen, VMware is the one we feel is best suited for certain tasks and environments because of its inherent capabilities that other platforms sometimes lack or include in less easy-to-use ways. It is our expectation that not only will virtualization continue to be chosen in greater measure by organizations, but that many and perhaps most will find that VMware is the specific platform that best meets their needs."
Major topics include:
- Installation best practices
- Disk storage implementations and configurations
- Logical and physical network configuration
- Security and monitoring
- Resource Management, using the Distributed Resource Scheduler, shares, and resource pools
- Cloning and migrating servers
- Configuration and fine-tuning
VMware Cookbook will ease the burden of system administrators who want more than a basic introduction to this complex and mission-critical technology.