Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

essential virtual san

Holiday gift: vSAN Essentials book available for free

· ·

Christmas is coming so Cormac and I figured we would do something special for everyone, after a long debate we decided to make the vSAN Essentials book available for free. Note that this is the “Essential Virtual SAN” book which was published by VMware Press / Pearson and is based on the 6.2 version of vSAN. The book however is still very relevant today, and of course we are considering doing an update of the content to either the latest release, or maybe even to an upcoming release. You can read the book online (which is what we recommend), but you can also download it as PDF, EPUB or MOBI format. Basically you can read it anywhere, anytime and using any device. Nice right!?!

We used the Gitbook platform to publish the book and decided to leverage the beta version of gitbook as it looks very clean and makes the content easy to read online. Also, I have used the gitbook platform in the past for the HA Deepdive, and I wanted to give back by beta testing their platform. Ah well, instead of rambling on, here’s the book:

vsan-essentials.com

If you find anything unusual, please leave a comment here. Hope you will enjoy it, and appreciates us (the authors) giving back to the community. If you do then I hope you will consider donating to charity, the amount doesn’t matter, all help is welcome! I personally support Hardcore Help Foundation, and I hope you will considering doing the same! A donation of 10€ will provide clean, safe water to a family for two years. They need your help to reach out to more families in need.

Essential Virtual SAN second edition paper copy available now!

· ·

As of today Essential Virtual SAN second edition paper copy is available on Amazon! If you are interested, pick it up today, note that there is also a Kindle version out there if you prefer that!

VMware’s Virtual SAN has rapidly proven itself in environments ranging from hospitals to oil rigs to e-commerce platforms. Along the way, it has matured to offer unsurpassed features for data integrity, availability, and space efficiency. Virtual SAN 6.x makes all-flash storage practical for even more use cases, while radically simplifying IT operations and supporting the transition to hyper-converged infrastructures (HCI). Now, the authors of Essential Virtual SAN (VSAN) have thoroughly updated their definitive guide to this transformative technology. Writing for vSphere administrators, architects, and consultants, Cormac Hogan and Duncan Epping explain what Virtual SAN is, how it has evolved, what it now offers, and how to gain maximum value from it.

If you want to order the paper version at a local book store, here are the ISBN details:

  • ISBN-13: 978-0134511665
  • ISBN-10: 0134511662

Win a free ebook copy of Essential Virtual SAN?

· ·

A couple of weeks ago the electronic version of Essential Virtual SAN was published and this week the first paper copies are shipping! Because of that Cormac and I decided we will give away 4 ebooks each. If you want to win one then please let us know why you feel you deserve to win a copy using the hashtag #essentialvirtualsan on twitter. Cormac and I will decide which 8 tweets will win an ebook, and of course we will favour the ones that make us laugh 🙂

So lets be clear:

  • tweet why you think you deserve the book
  • use the hashtag #essentialvirtualsan

The 8 winners will be announced Friday 8th of August.

 

Paper copy of Essential Virtual SAN available as of today!

· ·

3 weeks ago I announced the availability of the ebook of “Essential Virtual SAN”. Today I have the pleasure to inform you that the paper copy has also hit the streets and is being shipped by Amazon as of today. So for those who were waiting with ordering until the paper version was available… Go here, and order it today, and have it in house by tomorrow! The book covers the architecture of Virtual SAN, operational and architectural gotchas and sizing guidance, design examples and much more. Just pick it up,

Essential Virtual SAN book available as of today! (ebook first)

· ·

Yes, the day has finally come… Our pet project, the Essential Virtual SAN book is finally out! Cormac and I decided to take the “e-book first” route which enables us to have it out weeks before the printed copy. Before doing the thank you’s and provide you with some details on what the book is about, I want to thank my co-author Cormac! It was a great pleasure working with you on this project Cormac, thanks for asking me to be part of this exciting book!

We want to thank our technical editors Paudie O’Riordan and Christos Karamanolis, whom spent countless of hours reading and editing our raw materials. We would like to thank the VMware Virtual SAN engineering team for the countless of hours discussing the ins and outs of Virtual SAN. Especially Christian Dickmann and (again) Christos Karamanolis, it would not have been possible without your help! We also want to acknowledge William Lam, Wade Holmes, Rawlinson Rivera, Simon Todd, Alan Renouf, and Jad El-Zein for their help and contributions to the book. Last but not least we want to thank the Pearson team for their flexibility and agility and getting things done, and our management (Phil Weiss, Adam Zimman, and Mornay van der Walt) for supporting us on this journey.!

Cormac and I are also very pleased to say that we have two awesome forewords by no one less than VMware CTO Ben Fathi and SVP of Storage and Availability at VMware Charles Fan! Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule, we very much appreciate it.

What does the book cover?

Understand and implement VMware Virtual SAN: the heart of tomorrow’s Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC)

VMware’s breakthrough Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) initiative can help you virtualize your entire datacenter: compute, storage, networks, and associated services. Central to SDDC is VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN): a fully distributed storage architecture seamlessly integrated into the hypervisor and capable of scaling to meet any enterprise storage requirement.

Now, the leaders of VMware’s wildly popular Virtual SAN previews have written the first authoritative guide to this pivotal technology. You’ll learn what Virtual SAN is, exactly what it offers, how to implement it, and how to maximize its value.

Writing for administrators, consultants, and architects, Cormac Hogan and Duncan Epping show how Virtual SAN implements both object-based storage and a policy platform that simplifies VM storage placement. You’ll learn how Virtual SAN and vSphere work together to dramatically improve resiliency, scale-out storage functionality, and control over QoS.

Both an up-to-the-minute reference and hands-on tutorial, Essential Virtual SAN uses realistic examples to demonstrate Virtual SAN’s most powerful capabilities. You’ll learn how to plan, architect, and deploy Virtual SAN successfully, avoid gotchas, and troubleshoot problems once you’re up and running.

Coverage includes

  • Understanding the key goals and concepts of Software-Defined Storage and Virtual SAN technology
  • Meeting physical and virtual requirements for safe Virtual SAN implementation
  • Installing and configuring Virtual SAN for your unique environment
  • Using Storage Policy Based Management to control availability, performance, and reliability
  • Simplifying deployment with VM Storage Policies
  • Discovering key Virtual SAN architectural details: caching I/O, VASA, witnesses, pass-through RAID, and more
  • Ensuring efficient day-to-day Virtual SAN management and maintenance
  • Interoperating with other VMware features and products
  • Designing and sizing Virtual SAN clusters
  • Troubleshooting, monitoring, and performance optimization

ASIN: B00LODTZSA
ISBN-10: 013385499X
ISBN-13: 978-0133854992

You can buy it via Amazon.com for Kindle, and it will also be available shortly via Pearson.com for any other ebook format!