VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use [Paperback]

Ryan Troy (Author), Matthew Helmke (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596157258 | ISBN-13: 978-0596157258 | Publication Date: October 30, 2009 | Edition: 1

If you want to gain insight into the real-world uses of VMware ESX and ESXi, this book provides scores of step-by-step solutions for working with these products in a wide range of network environments. You'll not only learn the basics -- how to pool resources from hardware servers, computer clusters, networks, and storage, and then distribute them among virtual machines -- but also the stumbling blocks you'll encounter when you monitor systems, troubleshoot problems, and deal with security.

In addition to the recipes, VMware Cookbook includes background information to help you determine your virtualization needs. You'll come to view VMware as part of the real environment, alongside operating systems, storage, and logical and physical network components.

• Follow best practices for installing VMware in your environment
• Discover how to secure and monitor your network
• Understand disk storage implementation and configuration
• Learn resource management using the distributed resource scheduler, shares, and resource pools
• Configure logical and physical networks
• Learn how to clone and migrate servers
• Gain valuable tips for configuration and fine-tuning

Many resources can teach you about virtualization and the basics of VMware. This book is for system administrators who are ready to go beyond an introduction.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ryan Troy has over 12 years of Unix/Linux system administration experience, working in diverse industries that range from web hosting to the newspaper industry. He has written articles for Linux Identity magazine and co-authored articles for Linux+ magazine. He is passionate about virtualization, specifically VMware's technologies. Ryan also founded the now-official Ubuntu Linux forums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org) in October 2004; he currently serves as technical administrator and chairman of the Ubuntu Forum Council.

One of Ryan's latest projects has been to architect and build a virtualization infrastructure for a large newspaper chain in Michigan using VMware's ESX product line along with Dell Equallogic Storage Arrays.

Ryan is also a VMware Certified Professional.

Matthew Helmke has written articles for magazines such as Linux+ and Linux Identity, helped write Prentice Hall's The Official Ubuntu Book, and has written and self-published two books about Arabic and Moroccan culture. He first used Unix in 1987 while studying Lisp on a Vax at the university. Currently, he is an active member of the Ubuntu Linux community as an Administrator and Forum Council member for the Ubuntu Forums (ubuntuforums.org), and a member of the membership approval committee for Ubuntu in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has run a business using only free software, has done some consulting, and is currently working on a master's degree in Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596157258
• ISBN-13: 978-0596157258
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective and useful guide for VMware, November 23, 2009

By 

WGARIDER (Douglasville, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use (Paperback)

As someone who works with VMware most everyday, I'm always on the lookout for new tips, ideas and things that make administration easier.

VMware Cookbook is organized into seven chapters that cover everything from installation to automation and much in between. The authors do a great job of explaining the nuts and bolts of core VMware functions in very understandable terms. The resource management and automation chapters were particularly useful and apply to tasks I come across frequently.

This is not a book that offers a broad reference - and doesn't claim to be; rather it offers VMware admins many, many useful tips, configuration options and excellent ways to fine-tune your systems. If you're looking beyond the basics of virutalization with VMware and want to get a better understanding of specific areas and learn more about optimizing and monitoring ESX, this is an excellent resource for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical, must-have guide for anyone maintaining an ESX environment, December 23, 2009

By 

PaulJ - See all my reviews

This review is from: VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use (Paperback)

The VMware Cookbook is all about VMware's enterprise products: ESX, ESXi, Virtual Center, as well as content on vSphere.

This book is a must-have for anyone responsible for implementing and/or maintaining an ESX environment. It is chock full of tips, tricks, and how-to's gleaned from real world experience, most of which provide detailed step-by-step instructions. There are cookbook style recipes included for just about every major topic within ESX: installation, networking, resource management, security, storage, and a huge section of miscellaneous tips.

What I really appreciate about this book is the mix of recipes using the command line as well as the virtual center client. We're not talking just a "man page" for a command - these are practical example uses of ESX commands - all in an easy to follow format.

I find it cumbersome to weed through four or five 300-page manuals trying to find information on how to perform a specific task (and worse, having bits and pieces of information scattered throughout all of them). This book pulls those pieces together to address real-world scenarios that systems administrators and engineers are faced with on a regular and sometimes not-so-regular basis.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Resource For VMware, December 31, 2009

By 

David L. Heckaman Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use (Paperback)

The people who built our ESX cluster from the ground up have both moved on to another company. The administration of ESX has now fallen upon me. With our training budget being nonexistent, this book has proven to be an extremely valuable resource in the day to day operations of our cluster.

I find the Recipe format very easy to follow. The Discussion section of the recipe provides clear and concise information. The links to websites that are provided have proven quite useful also.

The information in this book has proven invaluable for me and the support I am able to offer my company. I hope to see more information on Vmware 4.0 in the next edition.