Introduction 1
Part I: Deciding on vSphere 7
Chapter 1: Getting the Most Out of VMware vSphere 9
Chapter 2: Introducing Virtualization 15
Chapter 3: Exploring the Capabilities of VMware vSphere 29
Chapter 4: Comparing Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 with vSphere 4.x 39
Part II: Getting Ready for vSphere 51
Chapter 5: Planning for a vSphere Rollout 53
Chapter 6: Preparing Network and Storage for vSphere 65
Part III: Installing vSphere 73
Chapter 7: Installing VMware ESX 4 for the First Time 75
Chapter 8: Building the vCenter Server 89
Chapter 9: Getting Started with the vSphere Client 103
Part IV: Configuring and Connecting vSphere 111
Chapter 10: Configuring a New vCenter Server 113
Chapter 11: Wiring Up vSphere to the Network, Virtually 129
Chapter 12: Connecting vSphere to Shared Storage 149
Chapter 13: Assembling an ESX Cluster 171
Part V: Administering and Maintaining vSphere 181
Chapter 14: Creating, Cloning, and Converting VMs 183
Chapter 15: Organizing vSphere Resources 205
Chapter 16: Events, Alarms, and Monitoring 219
Chapter 17: A Quick Tour of Your Virtual Infrastructure 231
Chapter 18: One of These Hosts Is Not Like the Other - Host Profiles 241
Part VI: Tuning and Troubleshooting vSphere 259
Chapter 19: Making VMs Play Fair with Resource Pools 261
Chapter 20: Using vSphere Availability Features 271
Chapter 21: Troubleshooting vSphere 287
Part VII: The Part of Tens 301
Chapter 22: Ten Tools to Make vSphere Management Easier 303
Chapter 23: Ten Places to Improve Your vSphere Know-How 313
Chapter 24: Ten Pro Tips for a Successful vSphere Deployment 317
Index 323
