Virtualization Essentials

A full-color beginner's guide to the core concepts and skills of virtualization Virtualization is the IT world's hottest trend in recent years, and many colleges do not yet have curricula in place to prepare students for this important area. This guide fills the need, with a learn-by-doing approach to mastering the core elements of virtualization. Each chapter clearly outlines what is covered, thoroughly discusses the concepts, and engages readers with hands-on tutorials. The book covers how virtualization software operates; hypervisor products; how to manage CPU, memory, storage, and networking; and much more. Fills the gap left by the many colleges and universities that are unprepared to educate IT students on virtualization, a megatrend in the IT world Covers the fundamental concepts and skills, including how virtualization software operates within a computing environment Explains the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors and tells how to create a virtual machine from scratch or by migrating from physical to virtual Tells how to manage the basics and how to configure supporting devices for a virtual machine Virtualization Essentials gets IT students and practitioners up to speed on one of the most important aspects of today's IT environment.

Table of Contents:
Introduction xv CHAPTER 1 Understanding Virtualization 1 Describing Virtualization 1 Microsoft Windows Drives Server Growth 3 Explaining Moore's Law 6 Understanding the Importance of Virtualization 9 Examining Today's Trends 11 Virtualization and Cloud Computing 14 Understanding Virtualization Software Operation 15 Virtualizing Servers 15 Virtualizing Desktops 15 Virtualizing Applications 17 CHAPTER 2 Understanding Hypervisors 19 Describing a Hypervisor 19 Exploring the History of Hypervisors 20 Understanding Type 1 Hypervisors 21 Understanding Type 2 Hypervisors 23 Understanding the Role of a Hypervisor 24 Holodecks and Traffic Cops 24 Resource Allocation 25 Comparing Today's Hypervisors 27 VMware ESX 27 Citrix Xen 29 Microsoft Hyper-V 31 Other Solutions 32 CHAPTER 3 Understanding Virtual Machines 35 Describing a Virtual Machine 35 Examining CPU in a Virtual Machine 38 Examining Memory in a Virtual Machine 39 Examining Network Resources in a Virtual Machine 39 Examining Storage in a Virtual Machine 41 Understanding How a Virtual Machine Works 42 Working with Virtual Machines 43 Understanding Virtual Machine Clones 44 Understanding Templates 45 Understanding Snapshots 47 Understanding OVF 48 CHAPTER 4 Creating a Virtual Machine 51 Performing P2V Conversions 51 Investigating the Physical-to-Virtual Process 52 Hot and Cold Cloning 53 Loading Your Environment 54 Exploring VMware Player 60 Building a New Virtual Machine 63 Thinking About VM Confi guration 64 Creating a First VM 65 CHAPTER 5 Installing Windows on a Virtual Machine 71 Loading Windows into a Virtual Machine 71 Installing Windows 7 72 Installing VMware Tools 83 Understanding Confi guration Options 89 Optimizing a New Virtual Machine 95 CHAPTER 6 Installing Linux on a Virtual Machine 97 Loading Linux into a Virtual Machine 97 Installing Linux into a Virtual Machine 98 Installing VMware Tools 113 Understanding Confi guration Options 117 Optimizing a New Linux Virtual Machine 122 CHAPTER 7 Managing CPUs for a VM 125 Understanding CPU Virtualization 125 Confi guring VM CPU Options 129 Tuning Practices for VM CPUs 130 Choosing Multiple vCPUs vs. a Single vCPU 131 Hyper-Threading 132 Working with Intel and AMD Servers 134 CHAPTER 8 Managing Memory for a Virtual Machine 137 Understanding Memory Virtualization 137 Confi guring VM Memory Options 140 Tuning Practices for VM Memory 142 Calculating Memory Overhead 143 Memory Optimizations 144 CHAPTER 9 Managing Storage for a Virtual Machine 151 Understanding Storage Virtualization 151 Confi guring VM Storage Options 156 Tuning Practices for VM Storage 162 CHAPTER 10 Managing Networking for a Virtual Machine 171 Understanding Network Virtualization 171 Confi guring VM Network Options 181 Tuning Practices for Virtual Networks 187 CHAPTER 11 Copying a Virtual Machine 191 Cloning a Virtual Machine 191 Working with Templates 197 Saving a Virtual Machine State 201 Creating a Snapshot 204 Merging Snapshots 208 CHAPTER 12 Managing Additional Devices in Virtual Machines 211 Using Virtual Machine Tools 212 Understanding Virtual Devices 213 Confi guring a CD/DVD Drive 214 Confi guring a Floppy Disk Drive 215 Confi guring a Sound Card 218 Confi guring USB Devices 219 Confi guring Graphic Displays 221 Confi guring Other Devices 222 CHAPTER 13 Understanding Availability 227 Increasing Availability 227 Protecting a Virtual Machine 230 Protecting Multiple Virtual Machines 234 Protecting Datacenters 238 CHAPTER 14 Understanding Applications in a Virtual Machine 243 Examining Virtual Infrastructure Performance Capabilities 243 Deploying Applications in a Virtual Environment 248 Understanding Virtual Appliances and vApps 256 Index 261

About the Author :
Matthew Portnoy is a Senior System Engineer at VMware and has more than 30 years of work experience in the IT industry. He is an Adjunct Professor at Wake Tech Community College, teaching CIS classes since 2007. Matt has presented at many trade shows and industry events, including VMware User Group events and VMworld, which is the largest virtualization conference.