Virtualization For Dummies®

Book description

Virtualization For Dummies will provide a thorough introduction to the topic of virtualization. A reader will be able to pick up the book, knowing nothing about the topic, and, having read it through, be conversant with all aspects of the subject in the concise, lighthearted, and conversational manner that is the For Dummies hallmark.
The book is organized as follows:
Part I: Getting Started with a Virtualization Project
Part II: Server Virtualization
Part III: Server Virtualization Software Options
Part IV: Storage Virtualization
Part V: The Part of Tens

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Author's Acknowledgments
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
    1. Why Buy This Book?
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Getting Started with a Virtualization Project
      2. Part II: Server Virtualization
      3. Part III: Server Virtualization Software Options
      4. Part IV: Implementing Virtualization
      5. Part V: The Part of Tens
    4. Icons Used in This Book
    5. Where to Go from Here
  7. I. Getting Started with a Virtualization Project
    1. 1. Wrapping Your Head around Virtualization
      1. Virtualization: A Definition
      2. Why Virtualization Is Hot, Hot, Hot — The Four Drivers of Virtualization
        1. Trend #1: Hardware is underutilized
        2. Trend #2: Data centers run out of space
        3. Trend #3: Energy costs go through the roof
        4. Trend #4: System administration costs mount
        5. Four trends mean virtualization is hot
      3. Sorting Out the Types of Virtualization
        1. Client virtualization
          1. Application packaging
          2. Application streaming
          3. Hardware emulation
        2. Server virtualization
          1. Operating system virtualization (containers)
          2. Hardware emulation
          3. Paravirtualization
        3. Storage virtualization
          1. Direct‐Attached Storage
          2. Network‐Attached Storage
          3. Storage Area Network
      4. Creating the Virtualized Enterprise
    2. 2. Making a Business Case for Virtualization
      1. Virtualization Lowers Hardware Costs
        1. When servers just coast along
        2. A handy (if anonymous) real‐world example
      2. Virtualization Increases IT Operational Flexibility
        1. Virtualization's promise
        2. A handy (named) example
      3. Virtualization Reduces IT Operations Costs
        1. Virtualization makes hardware maintenance and upgrades easier and cheaper
        2. Virtualization means fewer servers and lower IT costs
      4. Virtualization Lowers Energy Costs
      5. Software Licensing Costs: A Challenge for Virtualization
        1. General software licensing practices
        2. Software licensing meets virtualization
    3. 3. Understanding Virtualization: Technologies and Applications
      1. Virtualization Technologies
        1. Operating system virtualization
        2. Hardware emulation
        3. Paravirtualization
        4. Assessing the implications of virtualization technology
      2. Virtualization Applications
        1. Development and testing
        2. Training
        3. Server consolidation
        4. Failover/high availability/load balancing
          1. Why failover is important
          2. Understanding the components of failover
          3. Failover: The simple case
          4. High availability
          5. Load balancing
        5. Products for failover/high availability/clustering/load balancing: The usual suspects
        6. Future directions in high availability
        7. Server pooling
        8. Disaster recovery
    4. 4. Peeking at the Future of Virtualization
      1. Virtualization Gets Integrated into Operating Systems
      2. Virtualized Software: Delivered to Your Door Preinstalled
        1. The software installation headache
        2. The virtual appliance: Oh, what a relief it is!
      3. Virtualization Diffusing into the Internet
        1. Software as a Service (SaaS)
        2. Ever more virtualization = ever less hardware
      4. The Changing Skill Set of IT Personnel
      5. Software Pricing: How Will It Respond to Virtualization?
  8. II. Server Virtualization
    1. 5. Deciding Whether Server Virtualization Is Right for You
      1. How to Decide Whether You Should Use Server Virtualization
        1. Figuring out whether virtualization is right for your organization
        2. Looking for clear financial benefits
        3. Checking to see whether important prerequisite conditions are in place
          1. Verifying that your software providers can support their products when virtualized
          2. Understanding whether your organization is willing to invest in virtualization
          3. Determining whether your co‐workers are willing to learn new skills
          4. Evaluating whether your future organizational plans dictate change and growth
      2. When Not to Use Virtualization
        1. When your computing environment is static
        2. When your software providers refuse support within a virtualized infrastructure
        3. When your applications don't lend themselves to virtualization
        4. When your organization is unwilling to invest to improve operations
    2. 6. Performing a Server Virtualization Cost‐Benefit Analysis
      1. Getting Your Cost‐Benefit Ducks in a Row
        1. Defining a solution
        2. Looking at current costs
          1. Hard costs and soft costs
          2. Hard costs in the data center
          3. Soft costs in the data center
        3. Identifying virtualization costs
          1. Selecting a virtualization deployment scenario
          2. Identifying new hardware needs
          3. Considering other physical equipment
          4. Purchasing new software
          5. Training employees
        4. Identifying the financial benefits of virtualization
          1. Reduced hard costs
          2. Reduced soft costs
        5. Creating your virtualization cost‐benefit spreadsheet
          1. My sample spreadsheet set
          2. What the example spreadsheet shows
      2. The Cost‐Benefit Bottom Line
    3. 7. Managing a Virtualization Project
      1. Understanding the Virtualization Life Cycle
        1. Planning your virtualization journey
        2. Implementing your virtualization solution
        3. Operating your virtualization solution
      2. Creating Your Virtualization Plan
        1. Identify your use cases
        2. Evaluate your organizational structure
        3. Select your architecture
      3. Implementing Your Virtualization Solution
        1. Confirming your planning assumptions and conclusions
        2. Choosing your virtualization software product(s)
        3. Choosing your virtualization hardware
          1. Capacity planning
          2. Getting help
          3. Cost justification
        4. Performing a pilot implementation
        5. Migrating to your production virtualization environment
        6. Administering your new virtualized infrastructure
    4. 8. Choosing Hardware for Your Server Virtualization Project
      1. Taking Hardware Seriously
        1. The multiple‐eggs‐in‐one‐basket syndrome
        2. The Big Four resources of servers
          1. Processors
          2. Network cards
          3. Storage
          4. Memory
        3. The big four resources — the story so far
      2. Choosing Servers
        1. Reusing your existing 32‐bit hardware
        2. Using 64‐bit servers
        3. Designed for virtualization: The new generation of servers
      3. Making the Hard Hardware Choices
      4. But Wait, There's More: Future Virtualization Hardware Development
        1. Virtualization‐enabled chips
        2. More efficient memory
        3. Faster networking for virtualized machines
        4. Better device support in virtualized systems
  9. III. Server Virtualization Software Options
    1. 9. Migrating to Your New Virtualized Environment
      1. Moving from Physical to Virtual: An Overview
      2. Getting Ready to Move: Preparing the Virtualized Environment
        1. Preparing existing systems for migration
        2. Preparing the new virtualization servers
          1. Common software installation scenarios: The manual path
          2. Common software installations: The automated path
        3. Install necessary infrastructure (hardware and software)
      3. Migrating Your Physical Servers
        1. Manual migration: The hands‐on approach
        2. Automated migration: Let software do the work
      4. Moving to Production
    2. 10. Managing Your Virtualized Environment
      1. Managing Virtualization: The Next Challenge
      2. Managing Free Virtualization
      3. Virtualization Management: The Two Philosophies
        1. Virtualization as a specialized resource
        2. Virtualization as an equal member of the data center
      4. Making Sense of Virtualization Management
        1. Where you are in the virtualization journey
        2. Your current system management approach
        3. What your current hardware mix looks like
      5. Deciding on Your Virtualization Management Approach
    3. 11. Creating a Virtualized Storage Environment
      1. Storage Overview
        1. What the heck is DAS?
        2. Shared storage
        3. Why use shared storage?
        4. LUNS and RAID
        5. Data redundancy
        6. Cost implications of storage
      2. Choosing Storage for Virtualization
        1. DAS and virtualization
        2. Shared storage and virtualization
          1. System cloning
          2. Horizontal scaling
          3. Large numbers of systems
          4. Mission critical
          5. High availability/failover
          6. Pooled virtualization
      3. Storage and the Different Types of Virtualization
        1. Operating system virtualization (containers)
        2. Hardware emulation virtualization
        3. Paravirtualization
      4. Storage and the Virtualization Journey
  10. IV. Implementing Virtualization
    1. 12. Implementing VMware Server
      1. Understanding VMware Server Architecture: Pros and Cons
      2. Getting Your (Free) Copy of VMware Server
        1. Acquiring VMware Server
        2. Installing VMware Server
      3. Creating a Guest Virtual Machine
        1. Starting the VMware Server Console
        2. Installing a new virtual machine
      4. Installing an Operating System
      5. Can I Skip the Boring OS Installation Process?
      6. Can I Skip the Boring Application Installation Process?
    2. 13. Implementing Fedora Virtualization
      1. Obtaining Fedora 7
      2. Installing Fedora 7
      3. Creating a Guest Virtual Machine
      4. Installing a Guest Operating System
    3. 14. Implementing XenExpress
      1. What Is XenSource, Anyway?
      2. Obtaining XenSource XenExpress
      3. Installing XenExpress
      4. Installing XenConsole
      5. Working with XenConsole
      6. Creating a Guest Virtual Machine
      7. Installing Paravirtualized Drivers
        1. A bit of background, or QEMU who?
        2. Baby, you can drive my virtualization environment
      8. Accessing a Windows Guest VM with an RDP Client
  11. V. The Part of Tens
    1. 15. Ten Steps to Your First Virtualization Project
      1. Recite After Me: Virtualization Is a Journey, Not a Product
      2. Evaluate Your Use Cases
      3. Review Your Operations Organizational Structure
      4. Define Your Virtualization Architecture
      5. Select Your Virtualization Product(s)
      6. Select Your Virtualization Hardware
      7. Perform a Pilot Implementation
      8. Implement Your Production Environment
      9. Migrate Your Physical Servers
      10. Manage Your Virtualized Infrastructure
    2. 16. Ten Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid
      1. Don't Wait for All the Kinks to Be Worked Out
      2. Don't Skimp on Training
      3. Don't Apply Virtualization in Areas That Are Not Appropriate
      4. Don't Imagine That Virtualization Is Static
      5. Don't Skip the “Boring” Stuff
      6. Don't Overlook a Business Case
      7. Don't Overlook the Importance of Organization
      8. Don't Forget to Research Your Software Vendor Support Policies
      9. Don't Overlook the Importance of Hardware
      10. Don't Forget to Have a Project Party
    3. 17. Ten Great Resources on Virtualization
      1. Get Free Virtualization Software
      2. Get Great Content about Virtualization
      3. Get the Latest News about Virtualization
      4. Read Blogs about Virtualization
      5. Keep Up with Hardware Developments Relating to Virtualization
      6. Find Out More about Virtualization
      7. Attend Virtualization Events
      8. Take Advantage of Vendor Information
      9. Keep Up with Storage Virtualization
      10. Get the Latest and Last Word on Virtualization

Product information

  • Title: Virtualization For Dummies®
  • Author(s): Bernard Golden
  • Release date: December 2007
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470148310