Book Review: Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise
Book Review: Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise
By Mark F. Ewert published: Friday, July 01 2005
With so few virtualization books on the market, Chris Wolf and Erick M. Halter could easily have focused on just one type of virtualization and been successful. However, in their highly ambitious “Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise” the authors endeavor to provide a detailed technical guide to all major forms of virtualization and succeed brilliantly.
In addition to desktop and server virtualization systems, specifically Microsoft’s Virtual PC and Virtual Server and VMware’s VMware Workstation, GSX and ESX Servers; the authors cover Virtual File Systems provided by Microsoft’s Distributed File System (DFS) and the open source version of the Andrew File System (AFS); and Storage Virtualization enabled by such advances as iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and the SNIA Shared Storage Model. By guiding readers through the application of virtualization from the desktop to enterprise servers to major back-end storage systems, the authors are able to tie everything together in the final chapters to demonstrate how virtualization is transforming enterprise computing.
The book begins with a strong emphasis on best practices, which should be applauded. Virtualization is so complex; why make it more difficult by not covering the basics? The application of best practices is reiterated throughout the book to reinforce understanding.
Another pattern established from the start is the authors’ outstanding practice of covering the physical implementation of a technology before moving to its virtualization. In fact, if you removed the sections specific to virtualization from the book you would still have one of the best guides to workstation and server hardware, file systems, RAID, and storage protocols this author has ever found in one tome. The SCSI overview for example, and the excellent guide to performing incremental backups using Linux, are superb resources for administrators of any system, physical or virtual.
In the areas specific to virtualization, the authors do not lose their attention to detail. Though again they could have succeeded by covering only a fraction of the subject; the authors take care to fully cover both Windows and Linux virtualization systems. Linux administrators will not be disappointed by the books excellent sections on VMware Workstation and GSX Server for Linux, and Windows Administrators thinking of moving up to VMware ESX Server should buy this book for the ESX command line survival guide alone. As ESX Server utilizes RedHat 7.2 Linux for its command environment, such background is invaluable for Windows admins.
As VMware’s virtualization products support both Windows and Linux/Unix platforms, “Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise” recognizes that virtualization engineers are increasingly required to bridge the two platforms. In the chapters on system virtualization, for example, the authors provide an outstanding guide to backing up Linux systems from Windows and vice versa. In the chapters on Virtual File Systems the book even details how to implement Samba and Kerberos on Linux to integrate Linux file servers with the Microsoft Distributed File System!
More seasoned engineers will appreciate the book’s coverage of advanced topics, with its dissection of the Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware virtual machine configuration files, the guide to moving a Microsoft virtual machine to VMware and vice versa using Symantec Ghost and how to get troublesome SCSI and USB devices working in virtualized systems. The book provides useful guidance on how to make up for some of the limitations of the Microsoft virtual platforms, such as the lack of rich monitoring support or automated virtual machine shutdown.
In chapter after chapter the authors walk a fine line, risking providing too much information or attempting to cover too many topics. However, such attention to detail is required if one yearns to virtualize the enterprise. An example is in the chapters on implementing clustering and load-balancing. The authors certainly could have referred readers to more in-depth guides for these technologies, but this background is a foundation for the excellent chapter on how to build virtual test-clusters and use clustering to serve enterprise virtualization.
Every systems engineer should have a copy of “Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise” on their bookshelves. Regardless of experience and skill level, engineers grappling with the virtualization of their computing environments or even scratching their heads over physical computing issues will find themselves reaching for this book time and time again.
*****
Mark F. Ewert, a Freelance Solutions Architect, has been working with information technology for more than 25 years, with seven years hands-on experience with virtualization. Specializing in heterogeneous computing on every scale, Ewert won the 1996 NetWorld\InterOp Network Design Contest. He has designed and implemented hundreds of successful solutions for organizations of all sizes, including Fidelity Investments, the BBN Planet division of GTE Internetworking, and the State of New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
