Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Book

VMware Design Course

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As Eric Sloof blogged recently, the Design Course will be available soon. I’ve already received the course material a couple of weeks ago to prepare for the VCDX design exam. This course is targeted at architects and engineers developing designs. According to the datasheet the VI3 Install And Configure course is a prerequisite. Those who are preparing for VCDX should definitely look into the blueprint for this exam and I can also heavily recommend the VI3 Deploy, Secure and Analyze course.

Other documents that I can recommend for the VCDX certification track preparation:

Be sure to read them thoroughly and take your time to prepare for the exams(Enterprise & Design)!

Deploying the VMware Infrastructure

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Two months ago I blogged about an upcoming book! This book was written by John Arrasjid(VMware), Daniel Conde(VMware), Karthik Balachandran(VMware), Gary Lamb(INX) and Steve Kaplan(INX) and released during VMworld.

It was up for sale during VMworld and they did a great job cause they ranked 4th on the top selling books list at VMworld. John was so kind so send me a copy of the book and I managed to read it completely today. The fact that I read it completely today says something about the size of the book. Deploying the VMware Infrastucture holds 86 pages and is number 18 in the “Short Topics in System Administration” series by Usenix/SAGE.

This book isn’t like most VMware books out today. Most books are heavily technical and don’t talk about when to use which feature or product. This book is for those relativately new to virtualization and are in need of a guideline to write or come up with deployment strategies and use cases. Although I don’t consider myself a “newbie” I thought it was still useful to read cause it gives a nice clear overview in layman’s terms. I can imagine managers and architects also use this book to fresh up on their virtualization knowledge.

The structure of the book is good, starting out with an Intro on Virtualization and going from the benefits in terms of Capital Expense, ROI and TCO to Advanced Capabilities like HA and DRS. I can’t think of a single thing that’s left out that should have been in these 86 pages. So if you’re looking for a general guideline or writing a deployment plan than this book should be on your “must have” list.

You can find more info on the website of SAGE about the book and purchase it over there or here.

Book: Deploying the VMware Infrastructure

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There’s a new book launched at VMworld Vegas 2008! This book is written by John Arrasjid(VMware), Daniel Conde(VMware), Karthik Balachandran(VMware), Gary Lamb(INX) and Steve Kaplan(INX).

You can pre-order the book via Digital-Guru, and here’s there description just to give you an idea: Deploying the VMware Infrastructure is an introduction to the world of VMware virtualization technology written by hands-on experts in the field. This booklet explains virtualization, enumerates its many benefits, and describes a set of real-world use cases. Overviews are provided for each of the VMware server virtualization, desktop virtualization, and automation and infrastructure management products; and detailed information is given about virtualizing your infrastructure-from building a VMware Infrastructure and selecting candidates for migration, to managing and optimizing the virtual environment. Other topics include security and disaster recovery, virtual desktop infrastructure, and advanced capabilities such as high availability, virtual machine snapshots and consolidated backups. This booklet is highly recommended for anyone interested in virtualizing their IT infrastructure or expanding their knowledge of VMware Infrastructure, including managers, technical staff, and those new to virtualization or VMware technology.