Customer Reviews

Advanced Server Virtualization: VMware and Microsoft Platforms in the Virtual Data Center

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book provides a thorough (742 pages) implementation guide on VMware ESX, GSX and Microsoft Virtual server. This would help implementers/consultants tasked with implementing virtual servers within a datacenter. The authors are implementation experts and are upfront about the fact that this book will cover only the above 3 popular server virtualization products. This book covers how a bare metal or OS (Windows/Linux) based server can be carved up into logical servers. It doesn't defocus or attempt to look into alternative approaches that involve virtualizing I/O in addition to the server itself. I give it a 4 as it seems a bit on the wordy side and could have been presented in a more compact and succint manner. All in all a good book on an interesting topic.

One of the most outstanding books ever!

This book starts by excellent teaching of fundaments (In Chapters 1 to 3) by comparing Virtualization to Simulation and Emulation and demystifying it. An easy to understand and clear history - going back to IBM 360, Physical and Logical Partitioning and OS issues and concepts are discussed to clarify and explain. It also clearly, and very honestly, points out where Virtualization can, and where it can NOT be a solution.

Chapters 4 to 7 do a superb, professional job of covering best practices for Business Case, Planning, Budgets, Deployment, Price, Usage Scenarios, and specifications. I read this part wearing both my business and technical hats. I was impressed in both ways.

Chapters 8 to 12 focus on Microsoft Virtual Server Platform, Installation, Configuration, and Advanced Topics. Chapters 13 to 17 do the same for VMware ESX. Then in Chapters 18 to 22 a greater detailed focus is on Implementation and Configuration of VMware GSX. Chapters 23 to 26 cover Upgrades, Guest OS Techniques, Scripting, and Advanced Topics. And, finally, Chapters 27 to 29 do an honest introduction and summary of Open Source and competitive products such as: Cassat, Parallels, Serenity Virtual Station (SVISTA), Virtual Iron (VFe), Win4Lin, Bochs, QEMU, and Xen.

The authors are top-notch experts in the field and they are also excellent teachers. The book is a delight to read.

Bruce Razban
President/Founder, Razban Internet International,
Silicon Valley, CA, USA

I've worked with Virtual everything for a number of years and have collected a lot of resources on Virtualisation. Simply: This is likely to be voted the best and most complete to date. It is a little pricey but will save on your time to find knowledge elsewhere and could pay for itself in that respect.

If you want nearly all the answers, buy a book like this one where the authors try to ask all the right questions. If you want to be an expert, learn from experts. Buy this book.

I dropped it to four stars because of price and it probably has too much content which might have pushed back the date it would otherwise be published. Even with all this content, it still manages to miss some important and current virtualisation trends and topics. Nonetheless, it is still the best resource on this subject at this time.

Very likely the best book on the topic anywhere. Outstanding. Expensive. But if you are working in a large scale environment where server farms are being consolidated to save money, time and increase productivity and maintain highly redundant systems...this book is for you.

Yeah, I know it's not a history book like the rest of my reviews. But hey, I have to pay for my amazon orders some how.

This book was first published 3/17/2006, since then, virtualization has evolved, new versions were released and new technologies have emereged. The book talks about VMware GSX which was discontinued over a year ago, ESX 2.5 (Current version is 3.5 with 4.0 around the corner) and MS Virtual Server which is being replaced with Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008. No mention of any opensource option (Like Xen) which wasn't mainstream in '06 yet.
A good read if you're interested in the history of virtualization.

This book has all the information you need to create a virtual environment. Very well laid out, great for reference. It's about time something like this comes out.