It seems like a lifetime ago, 2005. That was the year that I tried to convince my boss to use VMware GSX Server on our new DL385 and thus the start of my journey delving into the depths of virtualization. The world of information technology (IT) has definitely shifted a couple of times since then. The two most obvious changes are the proliferation of virtualization and the subsequent widespread adoption of cloud computing.
Virtualization—especially server virtualization—is readily embraced in datacenters worldwide. VMware has gone from being a relatively small vendor to having the commanding share of the server virtualization market. Over the years, other companies such as Microsoft, Red Hat, and Citrix have jumped into the server virtualization space, but after all this time, it's still VMware that's synonymous with virtualization. For all intents and purposes, VMware invented the market.
Cloud Computing is a somewhat natural evolution of virtualization. If virtualization is the abstraction of individual server hardware, cloud computing is the abstraction of entire datacenters' worth of hardware. The scale can be smaller or larger, but the abstraction type is the same. But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you're reading this, there's a chance you're just now starting to learn about virtualization. What is virtualization, and why is it important to you?
As I mentioned, I define virtualization as the abstraction of one computing resource from another computing resource. Consider storage virtualization—in this case, you are abstracting servers (one computing resource) from the storage to which they are connected (another computing resource). This holds true for other forms of virtualization, too, like application virtualization (abstracting applications from the operating system). When most IT professionals think of virtualization, they think of hardware (or server) virtualization: abstracting the operating system from the underlying hardware on which it runs and thus enabling multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on the same physical server. That is the technology on which VMware has built its market share.
Almost single-handedly, VMware's enterprise-grade virtualization solution has revolutionized how organizations manage their datacenters. Before VMware introduced its powerful virtualization solution, organizations bought a new server every time a new application needed to be provisioned. Over time, datacenters became filled with servers that were all using only a fraction of their overall capacity. Even though these servers were underutilized, organizations still had to pay to power them and to dissipate the heat they generated.
Now, using VMware's server virtualization products, organizations can run multiple operating systems and applications on their existing hardware, and new hardware is purchased only when capacity needs dictate. No longer must organizations purchase a new physical server whenever a new application needs to be deployed. By stacking workloads together using virtualization, organizations derive greater value from their hardware investments. They also reduce operational costs by reducing the number of physical servers and associated hardware in the datacenter, in turn decreasing power usage and cooling needs in the datacenter. In some cases, these operational cost savings can be quite significant.
But consolidation is only one benefit of virtualization; companies also realize greater workload mobility, increased uptime, streamlined disaster-recovery options, and a bevy of other benefits from adopting virtualization. And virtualization, specifically server virtualization, has created the foundation for a new way of approaching the computing model: cloud computing.
Cloud computing is built on the tenets of broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, on-demand self-service, and measured service. Virtualization, such as that provided by VMware's products, enables the IT industry to embrace this new operational model of more efficiently providing services to their customers, whether those customers are internal (their employees) or external (partners, end users, or consumers). That ability to efficiently provide services is the reason virtualization is important to you.
This book provides all the information you, as an IT professional, need to design, deploy, configure, manage, and monitor a dynamic virtualized environment built on VMware's enterprise-class server virtualization product: vSphere 6.7.
—Nick Marshall, Author
This book is written with a start-to-finish approach to installing, configuring, managing, and monitoring a virtual environment using the VMware vSphere 6.7 product suite. The book begins by introducing the vSphere product suite and all of its great features. After introducing all of the bells and whistles, the book details an installation of the product and then moves into configuration. This includes configuring vSphere's extensive networking and storage functionality. We wrap up the configuration discussion with chapters on high availability, redundancy, and resource utilization. After completing the installation and configuration, we move into virtual machine creation and management and then into monitoring and troubleshooting. You can read this book from cover to cover to gain an understanding of the vSphere product suite in preparation for a new virtual environment, or you can use it as a reference if you are an IT professional who has begun your virtualization and wants to complement your skills with real-world tips, tricks, and best practices as found in each chapter.
This book, geared toward the aspiring as well as the practicing virtualization professional, provides information to help implement, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot an enterprise virtualization scenario.
Here is a glance at what's in each chapter and the appendix:
The Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers with intermediate and advanced skills, in the form of top-notch training and development for those already working in their field and clear, serious education for those aspiring to become pros. Every Mastering book includes the following:
Starting out, it can seem difficult to build an environment in which you can learn by implementing the exercises and practices detailed in this book. It is possible to build a practice lab with minimal hardware, and we encourage you to follow along with the book. If you're just starting, we recommend that you build a nested virtual lab on your laptop or desktop computer. A nested lab runs the hypervisor itself, ESXi, as a virtual machine. It needs VMware Workstation or Fusion installed and at least 16 GB of RAM. Be sure to read Chapters 2 and 3 before you attempt to construct any type of environment for development purposes.
For the purpose of writing this book, we used multiple hardware configurations. When travelling, it was simple to spin up a simple nested lab on our laptops, but more often than not, we used a decent setup with a small number of servers and storage.
It's not impossible to set yourself up with a nice lab to follow along. But for some, this is not the sort of environment to which they have access. For entry-level NFS and iSCSI testing, a number of vendors, including DellEMC, HP, and NetApp, offer virtual storage appliances or simulators that you can use to gain some familiarity with shared storage concepts and the vendor's specific products. We encourage you to use these sorts of tools where applicable in your learning process. vSAN can also run in evaluation mode if you wish to use local disks.
In addition, the VMware Hands-on Labs (HOL) provide fully functioning environments, using nested virtualization at scale. You can find details on the HOL website: labs.hol.vmware.com
. They're free to use, and you don't have to follow the guides associated with the labs if you don't want to.
This book is for IT professionals looking to strengthen their knowledge of constructing and managing a virtual infrastructure on vSphere 6.7. While the book can also be helpful for those new to IT, a strong set of assumptions is made about the target reader:
We welcome feedback from you about this book or about books you'd like to see from us in the future.
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