Virtual Strategy Magazine - Top 10 things you must read to get more technical with VI3

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Top 10 things you must read to get more technical with VI3

By Eric Siebert
published: Wednesday, July 23 2008

Once you have learned the basics of Vmware VI3 it's time to dig deeper into it and learn even more about it to get more detailed information on how everything works. There are many unique concepts in virtualization that vastly differ from traditional physical servers that you need to understand to become an expert with it. If you want to go beyond the basics then you need to learn more about things like memory usage, performance, resource management, cpu scheduling, SAN configuration and security. This top 10 list is a combination of white papers and documentation from VMware as well as VMworld 2007 presentations that will help you increase your knowledge to help you master VMware VI3.

The Role of Memory in VMware ESX Server 3

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_memory.pdf

A white paper from VMware that describes the advanced memory management features of ESX.

Understanding Performance in a Virtualized Environment

http://vmworld.com/vmworld/mylearn?classID=11049

A VMworld 2007 presentation on understanding virtulization performance and overhead as well as dispelling common myths.

ESX Server CPU Scheduling

http://vmworld.com/vmworld/mylearn?classID=11026

A VMworld 2007 presentation that provides an in-depth look at the sophisticated ESX Server CPU scheduler. It also covers some of the most common performance related issues with single- and multi-processor VMs with specific hints for how to deal with them.

VMware Infrastructure 3 in a Cisco Network Environment

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmi_cisco_network_environment.pdf

A document that is a collaboration between Cisco and VMware. It documents a set of suggested best practices for deploying VMware Infrastructure (VI) 3.x and VMware ESX Server 3.x in a Cisco network environment. The document provides details regarding the internal constructs of the ESX Server and their relation to external Cisco network devices are discussed.

Resource Management Guide

http://vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_resource_mgmt.pdf

A manual from Vmware that discusses resource management for VI3 environments. Its focus is on the following major topics: Resource allocation and resource management concepts, virtual machine attributes and admission control, Resource pools, Clusters, Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), High Availability (HA), advanced resource management options and performance considerations.

SAN Configuration Guide

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_esx_san_cfg.pdf

A guide from VMware that explains how to use an ESX Server system with a Storage Area Network (SAN). It also discusses conceptual background, installation requirements, and management information.

Understanding "Host" and "Guest" Memory Usage

http://vmworld.com/vmworld/mylearn?classID=11638

A VMworld 2007 presentation that defines the "host" and "guest" memory terms and answer some common questions related to them. It also discusses a variety of memory management concepts, such as virtual memory, large page support, memory pressure, and memory reclamation techniques and also provides some best practices around memory management.

Timekeeping in VMware virtual machines

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf

A white paper from VMware that describes how timekeeping hardware works in physical machines, how typical guest operating systems use this hardware to keep time, and how VMware products virtualize the hardware. The paper also describes several known timekeeping issues you may encounter and how to correct or work around them.

Security Design of the VMware Infrastructure 3 Architecture

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_security_architecture_wp.pdf

A white paper from VMware describing the security architecture of VI3 including networking, storage, service console and the hypervisor.

VMware Virtual Machine File System: Technical Overview and Best Practices

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmfs-best-practices-wp.pdf

A white paper from VMware that gives a technology overview of VMFS, including a discussion of features and their benefits. It also provides best practices and architectural considerations for deployment of VMFS.