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.

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