Disclaimer I own the two previous versions of this book and have used them extensively and I was given a free copy of this book to review. I also know one of the authors @VirtuallyMikeB well and he assisted me on my VCDX journey too.
So this book is split up into multiple chapters, and I am going to break them down a bit more. I hope this will give you a better idea of what this book is all about and if it is something you would consider buying.
Chapter 1: The Virtual Data Center
So this chapter focuses on some of the basics, which you will probably already know if you are reading this book. Things like the core benefits of virtualizing workloads and even reasons where you may not want to virtualize things. This is becoming less and less common, but there are still some solid cases out there, where virtualizing the workload may cause more problems than it will solve.
It sets the stage at taking a holistic approach to everything. You are not designing something to just use the fancy new features, you are there to ensure that the design helps the customer meet their goals and helps them deliver what they need to their customers.
Passing the VCAP6-DCV Design exam (the book initially states VCAP6 and then proceeds to talk about VCAP6.5 exam) They are two different exams, 6.5 design exam is very different to the the older exams.
Now the design exam has caused many people anguish over the years, as 2 people could design things in different ways based on their interpretation on the information presented. In an exam this can be an issue because you can’t delve in deeper and get some clarification. I have done the 6.5 Design Exam and I thought it was very fair. If you follow what they recommend in the book you should be in a solid place to pass this multiple choice exam.
It also discusses the basis of the VCDX, not there is now ay this book could cover it all in detail but I am glad it has been mentioned and a basic overview given. Mike Brown one of the co-authors helped me when I was going for my VCDX-DCV and Hersey Cartwright is a VCDX in his own right, so you know you are getting solid information in this book.
Now keeping up to date with all the vSphere features is becoming more and more difficult as with many things in life the game is always changing, so they spend a bit of time just going over some KEY 6.7 features and then talk a bit about upgrading to 6.7.
Chapter 2: The Discovery Process
This is an area of great importance when doing any design, this needs to be done properly so the end result does exactly what everyone expects of it. Reading through this chapter reminded me heavily of me doing my VCDX design ha!
How to get capacity information, Requirements, Constraints, Assumptions and Risks. Every design decision that is made has an associated risk, even if it is small it’s still a risk that the customer needs to be aware of. You need to be getting this information from key stakeholders in the business too and the book delves into that some more.
They even delve into a bit more detail about using VMware Capacity Planner, there are other options such as Dells Live Optics etc too
Chapter 3: The Design Factors
Now the design factors are placed into Requirements, Constraints, Assumptions and Risks. The great thing about this chapter is they work through an example to help you understand! There isn’t much more I can say about this chapter without pretty much giving away the details of the book ha
Chapter 4: vSphere Management Design
Now Management Design really comes down to knowing the business and what they need, and the book goes into detail about the key questions you should be asking to get the correct information you need and ensuring you understand all the finer bits and the dependencies involved.
vCenter deployment models and understanding the things it depends on such as DNS/AD/NTP and then some information on if you need a separate management cluster or not.
Now ELM requirements have changed as time has gone on, and I am glad they spent some time discussing it. They discuss VCHA and upgrading too.
Chapter 5: vSphere Storage Design
Now storage is a hell of a topic, so many supported ways to do this. You can go with SANs or HCI. They use the example from earlier in the book and work through building a storage design. They go back to basics with a breakdown of RAID levels. Now for me the fundamentals and basics are so incredibly important. Without the basics handled well, how can you expect the fancy new things to work well?
They even do some calculations, now anyone who knows me …knows I hate calculations so it’s great to see them do it and break it all down. Now a lot of storage vendors have their own sizing tools, as every vendor does things very differently and their tools are tuned towards their kit and sizing it correctly. But as a designer is important you do your own calculations and see if they tally up, so you know you are in the right area!
They look at traditional style FC/iSCSi and then go into more detail about VVOLs/vSAN and NFS which is great to see
Chapter 6: vSphere Network Design
Now most people who have a vSphere background….myself included are a bit weak on networking. I remember doing my CCNA years ago and realising it just wasn’t for me. Now the thing is you have to have at least a good basic understanding of networking esp if you plan to design a vSphere environment. Now you don’t need to know it to CCIE level or anything, but Network+/CCNA level will help you immensely (this is my own personal opinion).
This chapter shows you have to find the networking b/w requirements and how to ensure everything is maximising the uplinks available without causing downtime. vSS vs VDS, Load Balancing polices, NIOC, VLANs, Private VLANs.
It also discusses the importance of taking IP storage design considerations seriously, esp if they all end up using the same 10Gb uplinks.
Custom TCP/IP stacks are discussed and the reasons for using them, VMKernel interfaces and designing vMotion networks correctly. Now the book mentions that vMotion requires 1Gb as a min, I know from experience it’ll work on 100Mb with no issues ha! (Well apart from limiting the number of vMotions and it taking longer)
Chapter 7: vSphere Compute Design
Now the compute is an area where the book goes into the details of HA/DRS/FT etc. They discuss how to calculate the CP/Memory requirements properly. They spend some time discussing TPS and all the new salting levels which is great to see!
Then they discuss the old debate about Scaling up or Scaling out!
They then work through their example and show you how to size. I love these practical examples, you are getting solid examples from very skilled people and you can be confident that what you are seeing is solid.
Then the other old debate about vCPU:pCPU ratios is discussed, and something like this there is no hard or fast rule, this comes from knowing your requirements and doing some testing to see what you can get away with
Chapter 8: vSphere Physical Design
This chapter is all about the physical hosts, the firmware and checking the HCL. You wouldn’t provide a design that used configurations that weren’t on the HCL would you? Good I am glad you said NO!
They show you how to make sure everything works together using the HCL and the Interoperability Matrix.
They then show you how to put together a Physical Computer/Storage and Networking design, including some example diagrams. See I learn best by seeing examples of how other people have done it, so this works for me really well.
Chapter 9: Virtual Machine Design
Now designing your VMs is just as important as any other part of the design. If these are not sized correctly, you can come across all sorts of issues and the business will not be making the best use of their investment….and as a designer you are there to make sure the customer is getting their money’s worth!
Now CPU is rarely the main design constraint these days, its normally RAM and Storage. I am sure we all know by now that giving a VM a bunch of vCPUs without looking at the correctly can be just as bad or if not worse than giving it too few vCPUs!
They discuss Hot Add and Hot Plug and using paravirtulized drivers in VMs. They also discuss VMware Tools, vApps, templates, P2Vs, and affinity rules and they go into a decent amount of detail in each area too!
Chapter 10: vSphere Security Design
Now security used to be something people did as an afterthought, the game has changed and designers need to have security at the forefront just as much as everything else!
This chapter goes into detail about Single Sign on password polices, and setting up identity sources such as AD and then discussing the Certificate Authority dealing with SSL certs always makes me cry a little. But they have made life simpler in 6.x and they spend some time going over it.
They discuss all the usual things such as Lockdown Mode, ESXi Firewall, RBAC, Hardening guide and networking security, so they have all your bases covered there!
Chapter 11: BC/DR
Now BC/DR is important for any business and how you design this could be key to saving the day if/when it all goes horribly wrong for the customer.
Now they discuss ESXi host configuration backups, a lot of people sleep on this feature and I use this in my home lab and where I worked as an admin. You can use PowerCLI to back up the configuration and store them somewhere, so if you ever need to rebuild a host, you can install it fresh and just restore the configuration and it was like it never changed, all password/licenses and configurations are restored and it’s good to go again! So I am happy it’s made it into the book!
The amount of times I have seen people not set up a persistent scratch location boggles the mind, so I am happy they have covered it in this book, as it is important. If the host dies and you don’t have that…well the logs are long gone too and so are the chances of figuring out what went wrong!
Now they talk about backing up the VDS, which should be done just for your own peace of mind, but interestingly they discuss deploying Veeam. I am a big fan of Veeam, it does exactly what you would hope it would do and it does it well! So that was a surprising but welcome addition.
They then discuss using vSphere Replication, now I am a big fan of vSphere Replication, as it doesn’t cost most customers anything and it can help you replicate VMs and its integration with SRM is flawless. Pretty much every issue I have ever had with SRM has been down to a storage vendors SRA (Storage Replication Adaptor). VMware have no control over the quality of it as it is down to the vendor. So I push vSphere Replication hard, as its simple and it works.
Finally they spend a bit of time discussing SRM (Site Recovery Manager), just a high level overview of it and what it can do for the business.
Chapter 12: Design Documentation
Now this short chapter goes over the basics of creating your own design documentation. This is a topic that comes up a lot in the VCDX mentoring I do. Everyone does it differently, but they key thing is it should cover all the bases and be easy to read. A lot of people focus on just the main design document, but forget all the additional documents that need to be supplied and handed over too (real life and the VCDX).
They give you some solid examples of key information that should be included in the documents.
Now to end I will say, I own physical copies of the 5.x and the 6.x cookbooks, and they have helped me plenty over the years. I am a massive fan of them! After going through this book and reviewing it I can say I am a massive fan of this book and it builds nicely on the older books!
Now I was given this book as a pdf for free to review as I know one of the authors, and I jumped at the chance, because the original 2 books and the authors (I know Mike Brown well) are well respected in the community and have serious skills.
I will be buying myself a physical copy of this book too, as I like having solid reference material that I can quickly reference to make sure I am doing things the best way for people
I have just purchased a copy on Amazon and cant recommend it enough. http://www.vblog.tips
I am glad you liked it, in my humble opinion it is a solid book!
Like to