Virtualization Essentials

About the Author Matthew Portnoy is an information technology professional and Sales Engineering Manager at Splunk. He specializes in data management and virtualization. He has over 30 years’ experience in the IT industry and is a former Staff System Engineer at VMware.

• Introduction xvChapter 1 Understanding Virtualization 1Describing Virtualization 1Microsoft Windows Drives Server Growth 3Explaining Moore’s Law 7Understanding the Importance of Virtualization 10Examining Today’s Trends 12Virtualization and Cloud Computing 15Hyperconverged Infrastructure 16Understanding Virtualization Software Operation 17Virtualizing Servers 17Virtualizing Desktops 18Virtualizing Applications 19Chapter 2 Understanding Hypervisors 23Describing a Hypervisor 23Exploring the History of Hypervisors 24Understanding Type 1 Hypervisors 25Understanding Type 2 Hypervisors 27Understanding the Role of a Hypervisor 28Holodecks and Traffic Cops 28Resource Allocation 30Comparing Today’s Hypervisors 31VMware ESX 31Citrix Hypervisor (Xen) 33Microsoft Hyper- V 35Other Solutions 36Chapter 3 Understanding Virtual Machines 39Describing a Virtual Machine 39Examining CPUs in a Virtual Machine 42Examining Memory in a Virtual Machine 43Examining Network Resources in a Virtual Machine 44Examining Storage in a Virtual Machine 45Understanding How a Virtual Machine Works 47Working with Virtual Machines 49Understanding Virtual Machine Clones 50Understanding Templates 51Understanding Snapshots 52Understanding OVF 53Understanding Containers 54Chapter 4 Creating a Virtual Machine 57Performing P2V Conversions 57Investigating the Physical- to- Virtual Process 58Hot and Cold Cloning 59Loading Your Environment 60Loading VMware Workstation Player 61Exploring VMware Workstation Player 66Loading VirtualBox 70Building a New Virtual Machine 75Thinking About VM Configuration 76Creating a First VM 77Chapter 5 Installing Windows on a Virtual Machine 83Loading Windows into a Virtual Machine 83Installing Windows 11 84Installing VMware Tools 97Understanding Configuration Options 102Optimizing a New Virtual Machine 107Chapter 6 Installing Linux on a Virtual Machine 111Loading Linux into a Virtual Machine 111Exploring Oracle VM VirtualBox 112Installing Linux into a Virtual Machine 115Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions 126Understanding Configuration Options 129Optimizing a New Linux Virtual Machine 135Chapter 7 Managing CPUs for a Virtual Machine 139Understanding CPU Virtualization 139Configuring VM CPU Options 143Tuning Practices for VM CPUs 145Choosing Multiple vCPUs vs a Single vCPU 145Hyperthreading 146Working with Intel and AMD Servers 147Chapter 8 Managing Memory for a Virtual Machine 151Understanding Memory Virtualization 151Configuring VM Memory Options 154Tuning Practices for VM Memory 156Calculating Memory Overhead 157Memory Optimizations 158Chapter 9 Managing Storage for a Virtual Machine 165Understanding Storage Virtualization 165Configuring VM Storage Options 171Tuning VM Storage 179Chapter 10 Managing Networking for a Virtual Machine 187Understanding Network Virtualization 187Configuring VM Network Options 198Tuning Practices for Virtual Networks 203Chapter 11 Copying a Virtual Machine 207Cloning a Virtual Machine 207Working with Templates 217Saving a Virtual Machine State 221Creating a Snapshot 224Merging Snapshots 228Chapter 12 Managing Additional Devices in Virtual Machines 231Using Virtual Machine Tools 231Understanding Virtual Devices 234Configuring a CD/DVD Drive 234Configuring a Floppy Disk Drive 235Configuring a Sound Card 239Configuring USB Devices 240Configuring Graphic Displays 242Configuring Other Devices 243Chapter 13 Understanding Availability 249Increasing Availability 249Protecting a Virtual Machine 252Protecting Multiple Virtual Machines 256Protecting Data Centers 261Chapter 14 Understanding Applications in a Virtual Machine 265Examining Virtual Infrastructure Performance Capabilities 265Deploying Applications in a Virtual Environment 270Understanding Virtual Appliances and vApps 279Open Stack and Containers 281Cloud and the Future of Virtualization 282Appendix: Answers to Additional Exercises 285Glossary 295Index 301