With scores of step-by-step solutions, this cookbook helps you work with VMware ESXi 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 how to overcome the stumbling blocks you’ll encounter when you monitor systems, troubleshoot problems, and deal with security.

This expanded second edition covers recent advances in vCloud Director and vShield cloud security. Ideal for system administrators of any level, VMware Cookbook also includes valuable information to help you determine your virtualization needs.

• Move into the cloud with vCloud Director, and secure virtual datacenters with vSphere
• Secure and monitor your virtual environment from the command line
• Manage disk, SSD, and SAN storage implementation and configuration
• Discover options for managing resources, such as clustering, shares, and hot add/hotplug support
• Configure logical and physical networks, including virtual switches and software and hardware adapters
• Make virtual machine replication easier by automating ESXi installations
• Gain valuable tips for configuration and fine-tuning

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. VMware Infrastructure Installation

Chapter 2. Storage

Chapter 3. Networking

Chapter 4. Resource and vCenter Management

Chapter 5. Useful Tools and References

Chapter 6. General Security

Chapter 7. Automating ESXi Installations

Chapter 8. vCloud Director Overview

Chapter 9. vSphere Storage Appliance

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.