I’ve been discussing this over the last 12 months with Frank, and to be honest we are still not sure what is the right thing to do but we decided to take this step anyway. Over the past couple of years we released various updates of the vSphere Clustering Deepdive. Updating the book sometimes was a massive pain (version 4 to 5 for instance), but some of the minor updates have been relative straight forward, although still time consuming due to formatting / diagrams / screenshots etc.
Ever since we’ve been looking for new ways to distribute our book, or publication as I will refer to it from now on. I’ve looked at various options, and found one which I felt was the best of all worlds: Gitbook. Gitbook is a solution which allows you as an author to develop content in Markdown and distribute it in various different formats. This could be as static html, pdf, ePub or Mobi. Basically any format you would want in this day and age. The great thing about the platform as well is that it integrates with Github and you can share your source there and do things like version control etc. It does it in such a way that I can use the Gitbook client on my Mac, while someone else who wants to contribute or submit a change can simply use their client of choice and submit a change through git. Although I don’t expect too many people to do this, it will make it easier for me to have material reviewed for instance by one of the VMware engineers.
So what did I just make available for free? Well in short, an updated version (vSphere 6.0 Update 1) of the vSphere HA Deepdive. This includes the stretched clustering section of the book. Note that DRS and SDRS have not been included (yet). This may or may not happen in some shape or form in the future though. For now, I hope you will enjoy and appreciate the content that I made available for free. You can access it by clicking “HA Deepdive” on the left, or (in my opinion) for a better reading experience read it on Gitbook directly through this link: ha.yellow-bricks.com.
Note that there are links as well to download the content in different formats, for those who want to read it on their iPad / phone / whatever. Also note that Gitbook allows you to comment on a paragraph by clicking the “+” sign on the right side of the paragraph when you hover over it… Please submit feedback when you see mistakes! And for those who are really active, if you want to you could even contribute to the content! I will keep updating the content over the upcoming months probably with more info on VVols and for instance the Advanced Settings, so keep checking back regularly!
Kenneth Chan says
Thank you very much! Been waiting for this!
vcdx133 says
Nicely done! VCP/VCAP/VCDX candidates from around the world thank you and Frank.
prateekpatwal says
completed half, its just awesome… thanks for sharing
Suraj Kadam says
Thanks… This is great !!!
Leandro Ariel Leonhadt says
Very good Duncan, awesome ebook! Thanks
Andrew Dauncey says
Thanks Duncan & Frank. We all appreciate the work you guys put in.
Simon Hamilton-Wilkes says
Thanks Duncan & Frank. Agreed this is a VCDX must understand.
Anantha Dommeti says
Thanks Duncan for releasing it via gitbook…have been waiting for this 🙂
sandepkaushik says
Thanks a lot Duncan ..
sandeepkaushik says
Thanks a lot Duncan…
larstr says
This book series is the best thing since sliced bread and now you’re giving it away for free while allowing people to comment and contribute? Totally awesome!
Ronny says
Hi Duncan,
I really appreciate yours and Frank’s time and effort to give this awesome book out to the community for free!
Is it possible to donate something to you guys or an organization of your choice?
you guys rock!
acoleman1982 says
Hi Duncan!
Really appreciate the work you guys have put in on this. I have some night reading to do.
Thanks again!
Virtual Ewok says
Very much appreciated Duncan. The work you guys are doing is what makes this community so great.
BaptisteR says
Awesome! Thanks!
Rick Enright says
I was wondering if you were ever going to update your great Deepdive books. Having bought the 4.1 and 5.0 versions in paperback and the 5.1 in Kindle, I was hoping for a 6.0 version.
Your book is not only a great source for HA and DRS, it is also the only place I’ve ever seen resource pools properly explained. As a VCI, I always show any class that discusses resource pools your book on Amazon.
I look forward reading your HA updates. And thank you for the time you spend writing and updating.
sai13 says
Thank you very much! Duncan.
David espejo says
Thanks so much Duncan and Frank. I’ve been waiting for this
Weeliam says
Big thanks Duncan and Frank.
titomane says
Big thanks for both of U !
Lewis Bowman says
Will we be getting a Print version when it has reached a level of completeness, i do love my book collection?!
Duncan Epping says
I don’t know yet, depends on how much work it is to get it print ready.
Lewis Bowman says
To clarify, to purchase not for free
Ronak says
Thanks a lot Duncan & Frank. I was awaiting for this kind material.. It’s really very useful for us.
One question I would like to ask you.. In my test lab I have given a host isolation address to 127.0.0.1 & host never been isolated..
Can we use this trick in production as well ???
Joseph Griffiths says
The best vSphere book just became a collaborative book like a wiki. Awesome idea. Really excited to read. Thanks for taking time in your schedule to release it.
Joseph Griffiths says
This trick kills the point of using a host isolation address. Once you use 127.0.0.1 all the protection that host isolation provides is removed. The purpose of the host isolation response is to help the host understand if it’s isolated or partitioned from a network perspective and allowing it to take corrective action based upon the set response. With 127.0.0.1 you will never take that host isolation response. Depending on topology this may not be an issue. In other designs it would be critically bad. It would be interesting to understand the use case where you don’t want a host isolation response.
Bart Peeters says
Thank you very much! Good preparation for VCAP6 -DCD Exam.
Rolf says
Thank you ve mry much, I am not a VCP but want to get… Go on with that!
Len says
Thank you Duncan for such a great learning material!
I only have a few questions to ask, about LUN being locked by the host. What i’ve done in my lab is i chopped LUNs: LUN01 is for host swap files. This is where host-2235-poweron files are stored. And LUN02 is a place holder for only *.vmx. This is where i found protectedlist file. Let’s take the simplest scenario, there are two hosts in the cluster, hst01 master and hst02 slave. The cluster runs VM01 on the hst02. Which host will lock the lun and which one lun would that be? LUN01 (host swap) / LUN02 (*.vmx file) / LUN03 ( *.vmdk) ? In case of the host failure (which ever locks the LUN or LUNs) what would be the unlock process? (reboot hst01 and hst02?) Thank you in advance!
Duncan Epping says
LUNs are locked through the protectedlist, do note that there is no actual “locking” it just means that the host will claim ownership over it.
Duncan Epping says
Also note:
“As stated earlier, when a master is elected it will try to acquire ownership of all of the datastores it can directly access or access by proxying requests to one of the slaves connected to it using the management network.”
Ahmed says
Thanks a lot dear Duncan,
Merci beaucoup 🙂
Jamal says
I would like to thank you both for your great job and effort.
Phil Tun says
Many thanks for great contribution.
Solutions PT says
Can you download the eBook so I can listen to it offline? I have a long commute to work and would like to listen to it then if possible?
Chand Basha Shaik says
Thank you so much for your contribution to the VMware Community you been doing for the past few years…. The books, posts and articles are awesome as always…