Virtualization with VMware ESX Server eBook / IT (Information Technology) Books

Virtualization with VMware ESX Server

By Al Muller, Seburn Wilson

HIGHLIGHT
A virtual evolution in IT shops large and small has begun. VMware’s ESX Server is the enterprise tool to free your infrastructure from its physical limitations providing the great transformation into a virtual environment--this book shows you how.

Execute a Server Consolidation Like a Virtual Guru

Date: Jul 2005

Pages: 608 (est.)

User level: All

DESCRIPTION
This book will detail the default and custom installation of VMware’s ESx server as well as basic and advanced virtual machine configurations. It will also discuss the requirements for a server virtualization and consolidation project and the cost savings surrounding such an effort. Furthermore, the book will provide a thorough understanding of the benefits of a virtual infrastructure and a comprehensive examination of how VMware eases administration and lowers overall IT costs. Lastly, the book delivers a thorough understanding of the virtual evolution which is underway in many IT organizations and how the reader will benefit from shifting from the physical to a virtual world.

• Virtualization is just starting to explode and will over the next 18 months be required knowledge for all systems administrators and IT Managers.
• Gartner has stated that if companies have not begun or have planned to begin a virtualization effort; they are quickly falling behind the mainstream for IT organizations.
• Currently there are no books on VMware’s ESX server.

MARKET INFORMATION
Currently, VMware reports to have 2.5 million users and more than 5,500 enterprise server customers for their products. Diane Greene, VMware president, stated at the VMWorld conference that approximately 3% of all new x86-based servers are being run in virtual machines with software by VMware, and that figure is expected to grow to 5 percent by the end off this year. This shows incredible support and dynamic interest in VMware by many large and small IT organizations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Al Muller is a VMware Certified Professional as well as a MCSE and CCNA. He has planned, designed, and implemented a number of server consolidation and virtualization projects and currently works as a Senior Consultant for Callisma. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from San Diego State University.

Seburn Wilson has conducted large server consolidation planning as a Senior Consultant for Callisma. He holds a Business Degree from Saint Leo University.

TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUND
What VMware allows is for multiple operating systems such as Windows and Linux to run simultaneously on the same physical computer. So instead of one operating system, say Windows 2000, per computer, you can run multiple and differing operating systems simultaneously. Novell, Windows 2003, and Linux virtual machines all running on the same physical computer, all independent of one another is quite new and exciting in the x86 world. These virtual machines run completely encapsulated from each other and so if the Windows 2003 operating system crashes, it does not affect the other virtual machines, which keep running and providing their services.
The virtual machines run applications and provide services without interacting or affecting one another. And why is this important? For years now it has been common practice in both small companies and large to have one or maybe two applications or services run on one physical server. This of course has led to enormous server sprawl throughout many data centers and IT departments and costs have skyrocketed and management of the physical infrastructure has become increasingly difficult. VMware helps reduce the number of physical servers dramatically which reduces management headaches, administrative complexities and can lower overall IT costs significantly.