Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Chapter 1 An Introduction to Designing VMware Environments -- What Is Design? -- The Facets of vSphere Design -- The Technical Facet -- The Organizational Facet -- The Operational Facet -- The Principles of Design -- Availability -- Manageability -- Performance -- Recoverability -- Security -- The Process of Design -- Gathering and Defining Functional Requirements -- Assessing the Environment -- Performing a Gap Analysis -- Assembling the Design -- Documenting the Design -- Performing the Implementation -- Summary -- Chapter 2 The ESXi Hypervisor -- Evolution of the vSphere Hypervisor -- The ESXi Concept -- ESXi Design -- ESXi Components -- ESXi Agents -- ESXi System Image -- ESXi Customized Images -- ESXi Disk Layout -- Tardisks and Ramdisks -- ESXi Deployment -- Hardware Requirements -- ESXi Flavors: Installable, Embedded, and Stateless -- Auto Deploy Infrastructure -- Comparing Deployments Options -- Upgrading ESXi -- Migrating from ESX -- Testing -- Deployment -- Management -- Postinstallation Design Options -- Management Tools Overview -- Host-Management Tools -- Centralized Management Tools -- Hardware Monitoring -- Logging -- Summary -- Chapter 3 The Management Layer -- Reviewing the Components of the Management Layer -- VMware vCenter Server -- vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client -- vSphere Update Manager -- Management Applications -- Examining Key Management Layer Design Decisions -- Virtual or Physical vCenter Server? -- vCenter Server on Windows or vCenter Server Appliance? -- Local or Remote Database Server? -- Which Operating System for vCenter Server? -- Creating the Management Layer Design -- Availability -- Manageability -- Performance -- Recoverability -- Security -- Summary -- Chapter 4 Server Hardware -- Hardware Considerations.

Factors in Selecting Hardware -- Computing Needs -- Server Constraints -- Differentiating among Vendors -- Server Components -- CPU -- RAM -- NUMA -- Motherboard -- Storage -- Network -- PCI -- Preparing the Server -- Configuring the BIOS -- Other Hardware Settings -- Burn-in -- Preproduction Checks -- Scale-Up vs. Scale-Out -- Advantages of Scaling Up -- Advantages of Scaling Out -- Scaling Is a Matter of Perspective -- Risk Assessment -- Choosing the Right Size -- CPU to Memory Design Ratio -- Sizing the Hosts -- Blade Servers vs. Rack Servers -- Blade Servers -- Rack Servers -- Form-Factor Conclusions -- Alternative Hardware Approaches -- Cloud Computing -- Converged Hardware -- Summary -- Chapter 5 Designing Your Network -- Examining Key Network Components -- Physical Connectivity -- Network Traffic Types -- Software Components -- Exploring Factors Influencing the Network Design -- Physical Switch Support -- vSwitches and Distributed vSwitches -- IP-Based Storage -- 10Gb Ethernet -- I/O Virtualization -- SR-IOV and DirectPath I/O -- Server Architecture -- Crafting the Network Design -- Availability -- Manageability -- Performance -- Recoverability -- Security -- Design Scenarios -- Two NICs -- Four NICs -- Six NICs -- Eight NICs -- Looking to the Future -- Summary -- Chapter 6 Storage -- Dimensions of Storage Design -- Storage Design Factors -- Storage Efficiency -- vSphere Storage Features -- Designing for Capacity -- RAID Options -- Estimating Capacity Requirements -- VMFS Capacity Limits -- Large or Small Datastores? -- Thin Provisioning -- Data Deduplication -- Array Compression -- Downside of Saving Space -- Designing for Performance -- Measuring Storage Performance -- How to Calculate a Disk's IOPS -- What Can Affect a Storage Array's IOPS? -- Measuring Your Existing IOPS Usage.

Local Storage vs. Shared Storage -- Local Storage -- What about Local Shared Storage? -- Shared Storage -- Choosing a Protocol -- Fibre Channel -- iSCSI -- NFS -- Protocol Choice -- Multipathing -- SAN Multipathing -- NAS Multipathing -- vSphere Storage Features -- vSphere Storage APIs -- Performance and Capacity -- Storage Management -- Summary -- Chapter 7 Virtual Machines -- Components of a Virtual Machine -- Base Virtual Machine Hardware -- Hardware Versions -- Virtual Machine Maximums -- Hardware Choices -- Removing or Disabling Unused Hardware -- Virtual Machine Options -- SDRS Rules -- vApp Options -- vServices -- Naming Virtual Machines -- VMware Tools -- Notes, Custom Attributes, and Tagging -- Sizing Virtual Machines -- Virtual Machine CPU Design -- Cores per Socket -- CPU Hot Plug -- Resources -- Additional CPU Settings -- Virtual Machine Memory Design -- Resources -- Additional Memory Settings -- Virtual Machine Storage Design -- Disks -- Disk Types -- Disk Shares and IOPS Limits -- Disk Modes -- SCSI Controllers -- RDMs -- Storage vMotion -- Cross-Host vMotion -- VM Storage Profile -- Virtual Machine Network Design -- vNIC Drivers -- MAC Addresses -- VLAN Tagging -- Guest Software -- Selecting an OS -- Guest OS and Application Licensing -- Disk Alignment -- Defragmentation -- Optimizing the Guest for the Hypervisor -- Clones, Templates, and vApps -- Clones -- Templates -- Preparing a Template -- Virtual Appliances -- OVF Standard -- vApps -- Virtual Machine Availability -- vSphere VM Availability -- Third-Party VM Clustering -- Microsoft Application Clustering -- vCenter Infrastructure Navigator -- Summary -- Chapter 8 Datacenter Design -- vSphere Inventory Structure -- Inventory Root -- Folders -- Datacenters -- Clusters -- Resource Pools -- Hosts -- Virtual Machines -- Templates -- Storage -- Networks.

Why and How to Structure -- Clusters -- EVC -- Swapfile Policy -- Cluster Sizing -- Resource Pools -- Resource Pool Settings -- Admission Control -- Distributed Resource Scheduling -- Load Balancing -- Affinity Rules -- Distributed Power Management -- High Availability and Clustering -- High Availability -- Fault Tolerance -- Summary -- Chapter 9 Designing with Security in Mind -- Why Is Security Important? -- Separation of Duties -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- vCenter Server Permissions -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Security in vCenter Linked Mode -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Command-Line Access to ESXi Hosts -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Managing Network Access -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- The DMZ -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Firewalls in the Virtual Infrastructure -- The Problem -- The Solution -- Change Management -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Protecting the VMs -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Protecting the Data -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Cloud Computing -- Risk Scenario -- Risk Mitigation -- Auditing and Compliance -- The Problem -- The Solution -- Summary -- Chapter 10 Monitoring and Capacity Planning -- Nothing Is Static -- Building Monitoring into the Design -- Determining the Tools to Use -- Selecting the Items to Monitor -- Selecting Thresholds -- Taking Action on Thresholds -- Alerting the Operators -- Incorporating Capacity Planning in the Design -- Planning before Virtualization -- Planning during Virtualization -- Summary -- Chapter 11 Bringing a vSphere Design Together -- Sample Design -- Business Overview for XYZ Widgets -- Hypervisor Design -- vSphere Management Layer -- Server Hardware -- Networking Configuration -- Shared Storage Configuration -- VM Design -- VMware Datacenter Design -- Security Architecture.

Monitoring and Capacity Planning -- Examining the Design -- Hypervisor Design -- vSphere Management Layer -- Server Hardware -- Networking Configuration -- Shared Storage Configuration -- VM Design -- VMware Datacenter Design -- Security Architecture -- Monitoring and Capacity Planning -- Summary -- Chapter 12 vCloud Design -- Differences Between Cloud and Server Virtualization -- Role of vCloud Director in Cloud Architecture -- vCloud Director Use Cases -- Use Case #1 -- Use Case #2 -- Use Case #3 -- Use Case #4 -- Components of the vCloud Management Stack -- vCloud Cell and NFS Design Considerations -- Management vs. Consumable Resources -- Database Concepts -- vCenter Design -- vCloud Management: Physical Design -- The Physical Side of Provider Virtual Datacenters -- The Logical Side of Provider Virtual Datacenters -- Network Pool Decisions -- External Networks -- Designing Organizations, Catalogs, and Policies -- Correlating Organizational Networks to Design -- End Users and vApp Networking -- Designing Organization Virtual Datacenters -- Multiple Sites -- Backup and Disaster Recovery -- Summary -- Index.