4 Books in 4 Weeks – Book 2 VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise 2nd Edition
The task to complete 4 books in 4 weeks reminded me of a joke. A guy walks up to a 7/11 store and the clerk is locking the entrance. The guy asks “I thought you were open 24 hours?” The Clerk replies “Yes we are open 24 hours, just not in a row!” With that said I’m still on course to finish my books in 4 weeks, just not 4 weeks in a row!
About 4 years ago I purchased VMware ESX in the Enterprise. Back then it was based on ESX 3.x. It was a well written book and I had recommended it many times. When I saw the 2nd Edition published I knew I had to read it. This book covers ESX 3 – 4 and ESXi – Very cool!
Book Review / Summary
The book is comprised of 12 chapters ranging from hardware considerations through disaster recovery & backup. Like the previous book it includes lots of best practice guides, well written how to’s and superior charts/tables. According to the author the book is an attempt at a “Soup to Nuts” description of ESX/ESXi best practices, from what I read he did just fine at his attempt!
TIP: Read the Preface, usually I skip this part but I found this one to be worth the 6 pages, at least breeze through it. Also, there is a nice reference to my beloved Commodore 64.
Things I liked about this book….
- Book is not limited to VMware only, it covers some 3rd party tools as well
- Charts and Tables – I don’t think I’ve seen a technical book having more well written and meaningful charts and tables then this one.
- Throughout the book there are nicely highlighted Best Practices and tips – you would benefit if you just read these alone
- I can’t say this enough, and so do did the book – Check the VMware HCL prior to buying hardware
- 20 vCPU per pCPU core — of course don’t take my word read this book and find out why
- Nice tips on NUMA based pCPU’s and vCPU’s that will make you rethink your design
- Real world Examples throughout the book that get you thinking about your environment
- Great tips on BIOS settings, Especially around APCI
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Chapter 7 Networking is pretty detailed and has some great comparison charts
Things I didn’t like about this book…
- The occasional entire page or two of text without breaks in the flow, sorry I’m a sucker for charts and graphs
- Some of the how to guides seemed right from the manuals you get from VMware
- Chapter 3 – about 40+ pages in painstaking detail of how to install ESX/ESXi and boot it to SAN/iSCSI but less the 3 pages on Automating the process
- The writing style of the book sometimes drags on with play by play explanations and multiple versions of the play by play, for a beginner okay I get it, but for others it’s a bit painful
Quick Summary…
This books is worth every dollar you buy it for, granted you actually read it. 541 Pages is a bit long and it drags in places. However the Charts, graphs, and pics are PRICELESS.
If your new to VM this books is up your alley, if you’ve been around for a while you’ll pick up some good tips and tricks, and if your experienced suggest others read it.
Thanks for reading my post… I’m off to read my 3rd book of 4 VMWare vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive 215 Pages by Duncan Epping and Frank Dennerman
Paging Dr. Epping and Dr. Dennerman, your up…
vmexplorer 