Foreword

Most people out there have a “bucket list,” a list of things they hope to see, do, or accomplish at some point in their life. One of the items on my bucket list had always been writing a book. The desire to write a book first emerged in my early teen years and continued well into adulthood. No matter how hard I tried, though, it seemed as if this particular bucket list item wasn't going to get checked off the list. I know this seems like an odd statement to make now, but bear with me as I share the story—a story not everyone knows—about how that all changed.

The story starts in 2008. I'd managed to gain some visibility in the VMware community through my live-blogging of VMworld 2007 and VMworld 2008, and it was in 2008 that I met Chad Sakac. Chad is now a senior vice president at EMC Corporation, but then he was the leader of a small team of folks who later became known as the vSpecialists. At the time, making a connection with Chad was simply making a connection with a fellow virtualization geek. We chatted, traded virtualization stories, talked technology for a while, and that was that. Or so I thought.

Fast-forward to early 2009 when, somewhat out of the blue, I received an email from Chad. He'd been approached to write a book on VMware's upcoming vSphere 4.0 product release, the email stated, but he was unable to do it. Would I be interested in writing the book, he asked, saying he thought I'd be perfect for the task. Would I be interested? What a question to ask! Of course I was interested. So I responded in the affirmative, Chad connected me with his contacts at Wiley/Sybex, contracts were signed, and off I went. Later that year, at VMworld 2009, my first book, Mastering VMware vSphere 4, was released and quickly became one of the hottest titles in virtualization. (Chad contributed the chapter about storage in that book, in case you didn't already know.)

The rest, you could say, is history. My second book, VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference, was co-written with Jase McCarty and Matthew Johnson and released later in 2009. The third book, VMware vSphere Design, was co-written with Forbes Guthrie and Maish Saidel-Keesing and published in early 2011. Mastering VMware vSphere 5, an update to the book that started it all, was released later in 2011. Forbes and I teamed up again for VMware vSphere Design, 2nd Edition, which was released in early 2013.

Naturally, Wiley/Sybex had me in the crosshairs when it came time to talk about revising the Mastering VMware vSphere series for the vSphere 5.5 release. As much as I've enjoyed writing this series, this time around my mind went back to early 2009, and I thought about the excitement I'd felt when I was unexpectedly presented with the opportunity I'd always wanted. Sure, I could write the revision, but how much better would it be if I could “pay it forward,” so to speak, and give someone else in the community the same opportunity I'd been given? The opportunity to write Mastering VMware vSphere 4 had been generously dropped in my lap; why not do the same for someone else?

The book you're holding right now represents that decision to pay it forward. With the release of Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5, I'm officially passing the torch to Nick Marshall. Nick was a great selection to carry the torch. He'd already demonstrated a commitment to the community through his work on the vBrownBag podcast series as well as through his efforts with Alastair Cooke on AutoLab. During the writing of this book, I've been impressed with Nick's knowledge, dedication to quality, and attention to detail. I'm very excited about Nick taking over the series, and I hope you are as well. I further hope that the VMware community offers Nick the same level of support, feedback, and encouragement along his journey as an author as I have received during my journey.

I'm confident that you'll find this book to be every bit as useful, informative, and valuable as previous versions in the series have been. Nick, along with myself and a team of rock star contributors including Forbes Guthrie, Matt Liebowitz, and Josh Atwell, have put forth every effort to make sure that we have comprehensively addressed the new features and functionality in vSphere 5.5. This includes major new features like VSAN and expanded support for networking protocols like LACP. There's too much to mention here, but rest assured that the entire team has worked really hard to make this the authoritative title that you—the community—needs.

vSphere 5.5 represents a new release for VMware, and Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5 represents a new release for this series. I hope that you enjoy both.

—Scott Lowe

VCDX, vExpert