The one-stop guide to modern networking for every VMware® administrator, engineer, and architect Now that virtualization has blurred the lines between networking and servers, many VMware specialists need a stronger understanding of networks than they may have gained in earlier IT roles. Networking for VMware Administrators fills this crucial knowledge gap. Writing for VMware professionals, Christopher Wahl and Steve Pantol illuminate the core concepts of modern networking, and show how to apply them in designing, configuring, and troubleshooting any virtualized network environment. Drawing on their extensive experience with a wide range of virtual network environments, the authors address physical networking, switching, storage networking, and several leading virtualization scenarios, including converged infrastructure. Teaching through relevant examples, they focus on foundational concepts and features that will be valuable for years to come. To support rapid learning and mastery, they present clear learning objectives, questions, problems, a complete glossary, and extensive up-to-date references. Coverage includes: • The absolute basics: network models, layers, and interfaces, and why they matter • Building networks that are less complex, more modular, and fully interoperable • Improving your virtual network stack: tips, tricks, and techniques for avoiding common pitfalls • Collaborating more effectively with network and storage professionals • Understanding Ethernet, Advanced Layer 2, Layer 3, and modern converged infrastructure • Mastering virtual switching and understanding how it differs from physical switching • Designing and operating vSphere standard and distributed switching • Working with third-party switches, including Cisco Nexus 1000V • Creating powerful, resilient virtual networks to handle critical storage network traffic • Deploying rackmount servers with 1 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet • Virtualizing blade servers with converged traffic and virtual NICs Christopher Wahl has acquired well over a decade of IT experience in enterprise infrastructure design, implementation, and administration. He has provided architectural and engineering expertise in a variety of virtualization, data center, and private cloud based engagements while working with high performance technical teams in tiered data center environments. He currently holds the title of Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, a consulting firm based out of Chicago. Steve Pantol has spent the last 14 years wearing various technical hats, with the last seven or so focused on assorted VMware technologies. He is a Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, working to build better datacenters and drive adoption of cloud technologies.

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

A new and updated edition of bestselling Mastering VMware vSphere 4 Written by leading VMware expert, this book covers all the features and capabilities of VMware vSphere. You'll learn how to install, configure, operate, manage, and secure the latest release. Covers all the new features and capabilities of the much-anticipated new release of VMware vSphere Discusses the planning, installation, operation, and management for the latest release Reviews migration to the latest vSphere software Offers hands-on instruction and clear explanations with real-world examples Mastering VMware vSphere is the strategic guide you need to maximize the opportunities of virtualization.

"VMware vSphere PowerCLI is a must-have tool for any administrator managing VMware vSphere in a Windows environment. Having to repeat vSphere administrative tasks can be time consuming and error-prone, but PowerCLI--created specifically for Windows environments--allows VMware administrators to automate tasks. Written to the latest PowerCLI, this handy guide shows you step by step how to use the PowerCLI cmdlets for daily administration procedures and frequently performed tasks for VMware vSphere X. The reference is organized by vSphere tasks, providing a practical approach to accessing the information you need while you are on the job. Supported by real world examples and no-nonsense instruction, coverage includes installation, configuration, and management of a vSphere environment, management of the virtual machine life-cycle, security, and monitoring and reporting."--

DevOps for VMware(R) Administrators is the first book focused on using DevOps tools and practices with VMware technologies. The authors introduce high-value tools from third parties and VMware itself, and guide you through using them to improve the performance of all your virtualized systems and applications. You'll walk through automating and optimizing configuration management, provisioning, log management, continuous integration, and more. The authors also offer step-by-step coverage of deploying and managing applications at scale with Docker containers and Google Kubernetes. They conclude with an up-to-the-minute discussion of VMware's newest DevOps initiatives, including VMware vRealize Automation and VMware vRealize Code Stream. Coverage includes - Understanding the challenges that DevOps tools and practices can help VMware administrators to solve - Using Vagrant to quickly deploy Dev and Test environments that match production system specifications - Writing Chef "recipes" that streamline server configuration and maintenance - Simplifying Unix/Linux configuration management and orchestration with Ansible - Implementing Docker containers for faster and easier application management - Automating provisioning across the full lifecycle with Razor - Integrating Microsoft PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and VMware PowerCLI to automate key Windows Server and vSphere VM admin tasks - Using Puppet to automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration, orchestration, and reporting - Supercharging log management with ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) - Supporting DevOps source code management with Git and continuous integration practices with Jenkins - Achieving continuous integration, delivery, and deployment with VMware's vRealize Code Stream

Secure your VMware infrastructure against distrusted networks using VMware NSX. This book shows you why current security firewall architecture cannot protect against new threats to your network and how to build a secure architecture for your data center. Author Sreerjith Keeriyattil teaches you how micro-segmentation can be used to protect east-west traffic. Insight is provided into working with Service Composer and using NSX REST API to automate firewalls. You will analyze flow and security threats to monitor firewalls using VMware Log and see how Packet Flow works with VMware NSX micro-segmentation. The information presented in Zero Trust Networks with VMware NSX allows you to study numerous attack scenarios and strategies to stop these attacks, and know how VMware Air Watch can further improve your architecture. What You Will LearnKnow how micro-segmentation works and its benefitsImplement VMware-distributed firewallsAutomate security policies Integrate IPS/IDS with VMware NSXAnalyze your firewall's configurations, rules, and policies Who This Book Is For Experienced VMware administrators and security administrators who have an understanding of data center architecture and operations