Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator (VMware Press Technology) [Paperback]

Cody Bunch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0321799917 | ISBN-13: 978-0321799913 | Edition: 1

Unleash the Power of vCenter Orchestrator to Automate Tasks and Improve Efficiency

 

Today, VMware administrators are responsible for far more infrastructure, servers, and services than ever before. To succeed, they must take full advantage of opportunities to automate and orchestrate their vSphere environments. In Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator , three-time vExpert Cody Bunch shows how to utilize VMware vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) 4.2 to achieve far higher levels of operational efficiency and effectiveness.

 

Bunch reveals what vCO can do, walks through each step of installation and configuration, explains how its “moving parts” work together, and thoroughly introduces both plug-ins and workflows. Building on this core knowledge, he presents several start-to-finish case studies showing how to use vCO to address real-world challenges ranging from provisioning to snapshots, cluster management to decommissioning.

 

Whatever your VMware virtualization environment, this book will help you do more with less, save time, eliminate errors, and improve both performance and reliability.

 

Coverage includes

• Understanding how vCO fits into your environment and identifying your best opportunities to use it
• Choosing the right installation scenario and efficiently managing the vCO installation process
• Configuring vCO: services, passwords, networking, LDAP, databases, SSL, licensing, plug-ins, backup, and more
• Interacting with vCO through actions, packages, plug-ins, web views, resources, and workflows
• Automating manual tasks with vCO’s extensive workflow library
• Creating sophisticated workflows with drag-and-drop components and JavaScript
• Using plug-ins to control infrastructure within and around your vSphere environment
• Bringing consistency to VM provisioning, overcoming “VM sprawl” and resource contention, and simplifying support
• Optimizing VM lifecycle management, all the way through decommissioning
• Automating all snapshot monitoring processes and components
• Exporting logs, finding/deleting orphaned files, and performing other day-to-day tasks
• Efficiently conducting mass VM migrations
• Quickly adding vCenter hosts and clusters, configuring shared storage, and adding hosts to new clusters
• Using vCO and third-party plug-ins to gain “private cloud” benefits and flexibility

 

Networking/Virtualization

 

vmware.com/go/vmwarepress

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cody Bunch is a private cloud architect hailing from the hill country just outside San Antonio, Texas. Cody was recognized as a VMware vExpert in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and has been involved in the VMware community since late 2007. Cody has also spoken on virtualization and automation at VMworld 2011 and the Virtualization Congress 2009. Cody shares his nuts-and-bolts operations and automation guidance on his website ProfessionalVMware.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: VMware Press; 1 edition (March 12, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321799917
• ISBN-13: 978-0321799913
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Systems Analysis & Design

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Title for anyone working with VMware April 11, 2012

By Christos Partsenidis

Format:Paperback

Introduction

Virtualisation has completely revolutionised the entire IT industry in terms of deployment and maintenance of the IT infrastructure. Driven by the pressure of delivering robust, redundant and reliable IT infrastructure, and by the ability to manage them more efficiently and effectively in terms of cost, administrators have consistently migrated to more and more virtualised environments. This has enabled them to consolidate infrastructures and their corresponding workloads, and dramatically reduced cost for IT operations.

Needless to say, VMware has taken a major lead into the world of virtualisation. I would attribute VMware as not only the trend setters in the world of virtualisation but also an extremely deterministic element in the IT industry. More and more core IT service providers are moving towards a virtualisation environment prescribed by VMware and using their tools and services to do so as well. VMware has become a `must have' for many successful data centres. What has benefitted users is not only VMware's plethora of tools available, but their range of printed materials that users can utilise to effectively manage their VMware infrastructure.

Before talking about this book, a word of caution for the non - initiated. This is not a beginner's text, neither it is something that will help you if you have no prior exposure to the world of virtualisation, let alone any VMware product. I would however strongly recommend going through VMware's other materials which deal with concepts and tools used, which will build a good foundation before you start with this one. But I must add this. It's in your best interest to reach this title itself, and now let me tell you exactly why....

To begin with, I was impressed with the informal style of the writer's delivery. Sometimes this makes or breaks a book's popularity. Virtualisation is no mean subject, and it can become confusing at times. But the writer's style has ensured that the content is presented in a very lucid way without compromising the reader's ability to grasp the matter. Core technical books can become a chore to read through, thanks to a writer's inability to explain things in a simple way. This cannot be said for this book, which is a welcome change.

Equally impressive was the structure of the content, and how it was divided into distinct parts and chapters. Essentially there are three major parts:

Part I: Introduction, installation, and Configuration

Part II: Working with vCentre Orchestrator

Part III: Real World Use Cases (I loved the name of the company - Amazing Smoothies)

Now let's dig a bit deeper into those individual part themselves.

Part I: Introduction, installation, and Configuration

In Part I, we are introduced into the vCentre Orchestrator itself (I'll address it as vCO henceforth). This section deals with the `What, Why, Who, When' and most importantly, the `How To' of vCO. Every `What, Why...' has been fully explained, which makes your decision making regarding vCO implementation, extremely easy. I personally liked the `Note' section which helped in making the core understanding process easier. The chapters dealing with installation showed the pros and cons at every step depending on how you want your installation to be. The various installation flavours were introduced and there is a nice walkthrough of an entire installation process. In the Configuration section, the book does a good job of bringing a vCO install into operational status. The writer has done a good job at this, as in the hands of an amateur, this could have turned really messy.

Part II: Working with vCentre Orchestrator

In Part II, we are shown the `moving parts' inside the vCO architecture. As mentioned before as a word of caution, it is important the reader has prior knowledge of VMware products and virtualisation itself. This is where your knowledge will have a role to play. It is crucial for the reader's benefit that they understand how the vCO interacts with other components of the entire VMware based infrastructure on which vCO itself is being deployed. As explained throughout this section, there are namely 6 parts, which are Actions, Packages, Web Views, Resources, Plug-in and Workflows. Out of these 6, only Plug-in and Workflows have dedicated chapters which has a more detailed explanation. After going through these chapters, I felt perhaps the book could have consisted of dedicated chapters to the rest of the `moving parts' and not just the 2 out of 6. Also worthy of mention is that knowing Java scripting and the concepts of API is beneficial. Concepts like reusability of functions and methods come handy over here.

Part III: Real World Use Cases

Part III is my favourite part, not only because of the name of the company, but because, and I quote the author, "...I've found it easier to show folks technical concepts within a real world framework". Again, for the non - initiated, note of caution, as this part makes the assumption about your familiarity with vSphere and concepts of snapshots. Knowledge of Java scripting comes to play a significant role. The chapters are laid out in neat, coherent, and consistent order. It is a good example of how vCO is used from ground up to optimise the IT infrastructure in VMware. The processes of implementation, deployment, maintenance and decommissioning have been simplified. Particularly useful was the chapter where future expansion of clusters of hosts and shared storage was explained.

The Appendix does a good job of explaining features like Onyx which compensates where the knowledge of Java Scripting is lacking. There is a good troubleshooting and debugging section. Also worth mentioning is the quickfire explanation of the vCO vApp and the VIX plug-in which was used in Part III.

Conclusion

Overall, it's an easy read, and I would recommend this to anyone who's currently working with VMware and wants to optimise their VMware implementation. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing... March 8, 2013

By Pierre

Format:Paperback

I am seasoned Vmware admin and architect, and was looking for a intro to Orchestrator (since I was mostly using PowerCli before). But I found the book quite disappointing on several points.

-nearly 50 pages talking about vCO installation before talking about workflows??? Seriously ?
-unclear focus: the author switches back and forth between trivial things like what it means to create edit or duplicate various objects(without providing added value on most of self-explanatory items in the user interface) and just gloss over more technical details.
- mostly descriptive: while it is important to show how to do stuff and give examples , I am much more interested in the underlying logic and principles, which in my opinion are much more useful, and are not developed enough for me in the book. Yes, it is necessary to show how, but even more important to explain why and when.

It's a pity because the author is obviously very competent. But for example, when I started to work with PowerCli, bought Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches which is everything you need to build strong foundations on the subject and to be able to dig by yourself after.
In contrast, I found this one is a bit of a let down.... But obviously I am the only one :)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars automating vsphere book - May 24, 2012

By ciscokid

Format:Paperback

I really liked this book - each chapter focuses on useful vcenter features that include basic descriptions and examples for creating and supporting vcenter automation. Its not saturated with anything too complex. I think you'll find this book useful and a necessary addition to your virtualization library.

Automating vSphere: With VMware vCenter Orchestrator (VMware Press Technology)
ISBN: 0321799917
http://www.amazon.com/Automating-vSphere-vCenter-Orchestrator-Technology/dp/0321799917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333459127&sr=8-1

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written vCenter Orchestrator book May 8, 2012

By Raj

Format:Paperback

Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator is a well written book for someone who is new to vCenter Orchestrator, the Real World Use Cases seems to be the best part.
Overall, it's a well written book and very easy to read, no filler at all.

4.0 out of 5 stars Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator - Is a good introduction January 26, 2013

By saiello

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I picked up Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator with the hopes that I would give me a deep dive into vCenter Orchestrator, while it didn't do that it gave me a good start. I would have liked more examples around the deployment process, and using scripts inside the virtual machines.

Over all good book if you're just starting out with VMware vCenter Orchestrator

4.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to vCenter Orchestrator August 21, 2012

By Maupen

Format:Paperback

I been working with vCenter Orchestrator from V 1.0, but still I found it the Real World Use cases extremely helpful through an implementation.
It's an easy to read book, and you can start from the scratch or you can jump directly to Real World Use Cases

Overall, a must read book for VMware administrators that want to start automating routine maintenance tasks

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to vCO May 21, 2012

By Josh Coen

Format:Paperback

I received this book a little over a month ago and was excited to start reading it. Prior to reading this book I had heard of vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) and understood that it was a workflow engine used for automating vSphere (as well as other products), but that was the extent of what I knew about vCO.

For me this book was a great introduction into the vCO world. After the first couple of chapters I had a better understanding of vCO and its components and how to install it. Cody does a great job explaining how to go about configuring vCO and provides tips and tricks along the way.

What I liked most about the book were the real world examples. The real world examples took a current (manual) process and demonstrated how to orchestrate that process.

I wish there would have been more examples of straight-up out-of-box workflows and how they can be leveraged. Many of the real world examples included out-of-the-box workflows, but almost all needed custom script blocks in order to complete a process.

After finishing the book I realize that anything other than a basic task most likely requires custom scripting. Should you need custom code for a workflow there are a TON of examples and code already written and posted online, which helps, but having a resource in your organization that knows javascript may be beneficial to a successfully deploy and sustain vCO.

All-in-all the book was an easy read and I didn't need any propr vCO knowledge to understand the concepts. You don't need to know scripting to read this book. Automating vSphere: With VMware vCenter Orchestrator will give you a good foundation on vCO and within the first few chapters you'll be building workflows and start thinking about your process and what vCO can do for you.