Free eBook from VMware all about the Private Cloud

Tired of slow, ticket‑driven provisioning and fragmented cloud operations? The Self‑Service Private Cloud Dummies Guide shows you how to transform your virtual data center into a speed‑first, policy‑driven private cloud that gives developers instant access to the infrastructure they need — while IT keeps full control.

Thanks VMware for this handy little guide to the Private Cloud

Free ebook - Cloud Operating model for Dummies

 Another free ebook from VMware

This 66 page book by Mandy Storbakken, Martijn Baecke, and Ellie Ruano covers:

"Whether you’re just starting out on your cloud journey or well on your way, there’s considerable value in ensuring you have a cloud operating model to take you forward. This book can be your guide.

It’s loaded with information that will bring you up to speed on the whats, hows, and whys of cloud operations and management.

Armed with that knowledge, you can maximize your existing and future cloud investments — whether they’re private, public, hybrid, edge, or multi-cloud."

To download visit VMware Documents

Free eBook from VMware - Anywhere Workspace for Dummies

 

Last March 2020, we entered lockdown, and this in turn led to a new way of working for a lot of people.

I instantly went from working in offices across the UK to then being a completely home-based worker and this in turn led to the acronym WFH (working from home).

In the UK we are now emerging from the “work from home if you can” to a hybrid working model of perhaps going back into the office full time, a few days a week, or remain working from home.

What does this mean for IT professionals?

We’ve now had to develop new support skills and new ways of building and maintaining our corporate IT systems. Perhaps this is now a combination of corporate devices and BYOD (bring your own device) hardware.

We still need to maintain the security of our system and this is now becoming more complex.

People now want to work from anywhere.

“The nature of work has changed as a result of the global pandemic, and organizations have had to keep up. In this guide, learn more about the lasting impacts on the landscape of work and employee expectations. Delve into the emerging technologies needed to support today’s distributed workforce and keep pace with your competition, including Endpoint Security, Virtual apps/desktops, Zero Trust Security, Identity and Access Management, Cloud App Security, SD-WAN, Cloud Gateway, SASE and Experience Management. Understand workplace safety needs with the return to the office, and use cases for delivering exceptional employee experiences for this new flexible workforce.”

With all the above in mind, our friends at VMware have kindly produced an ebook

The book can be downloaded from VMware

The book covers the challenges of ensuring that we continue to deliver and maintain a reliable and secure working environment in an ever-changing world. 

vSphere 7.0 performance best practise

 In a previous blog I mentioned that the VMware vSphere 7 exam had been released, due to lockdown and the fact I've been teaching fairly constantly I haven't had much opportunity to look after my blogs or sit my exams.

I've now set aside some time to look at passing my VCP-DCV 2020 on vSphere 7 and I've found the following white paper extrememly useful, not only from a revision point of view, but in general for various labs etc. Click the link to download a copy

Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 7.0 

It contains all sorts of useful topics:

• Persistent memory (PMem), including using PMem with NUMA and vNUMA
• Getting the best performance from NVMe and NVME-oF storage
• AMD EPYC processor NUMA settings
• Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) 2.0
• Automatic space reclamation (UNMAP)
• Host-Wide performance tuning (aka, “dense mode”)
• Power management settings
• Hardware-assisted virtualisation
• Storage hardware considerations
• Network hardware considerations
• Memory page sharing
• Getting the best performance from iSCSI and NFS storage
• vSphere virtual machine encryption recommendations
• Running storage latency-sensitive workloads
• Running network latency-sensitive workloads
• Network I/O Control (NetIOC)
• DirectPath I/O
• Microsoft Virtualisation-Based Security (VBS)
• Selecting virtual network adapters
• vCenter database considerations
• The vSphere HTML5 Client
• VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager
• VMware vSAN performance

Enjoy, hope you find it as useful as I have

Free stuff from VMware, a new ebook, Data Center Modernization with VMware Cloud on AWS

I was fortunate to attend VMworld in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, and as part of the event, I visited Cloud city and listened to quite a few presentations on VMC on AWS. I also grabbed a copy of Data Center Modernization with VMware Cloud on AWS


VMware have very kindly made available for download  a free ebook version of the book.

The book covers the following:

The book is downloaded in PDF format, it consists of 9 chapters over 145 pages

The book is authored by Martin Hosken with Dan Gallivan

The 9 chapters are.

1. Introduction to VMware Cloud on AWS
2. Understanding the Business Drivers for Hybrid Cloud
3. VMware Cloud on AWS Technical Deep Dive
4. The Case for Data Center Modernization
5. Planning for Application Migration with HCX
6. Business and Technical Drivers for VMware Cloud on AWS
7. Operational Readiness
8. Building a Practice and Leveraging the Ecosystem
9. Final Word

To download the book, visit the VMware download site

Free stuff from VMware, a new ebook, Service Mesh For Dummies

At VMworld a couple of weeks ago I concentrated on the Modern App sessions , and was impressed by the concept of Containers and Kubernetes as a way to develop and maintain apps

VMware have very kindly made available for download  a free ebook called Service Mesh For Dummies.

The book covers the following:

The book is downloaded in PDF format, it consists of 6 chapters over 65 pages.

The book is authored by Niran Even-Chen, Oren Penso, and Susan Wu

The six chapters are.

1. The Rise of Microservices and Cloud-Native Architecture
2. Service Mesh: A New Paradigm
3. Service Mesh Use Cases
4. Recognizing Complexity Challenges in Service Mesh
5. Transforming the Multi-Cloud Network with NSX Service Mesh
6. Ten (Or So) Resources to Help You Get Started with Service Mesh

The book is available from VMware

Free VMware eBook - Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for Dummies

VMware have kindly produced a 2nd Special Edition of the Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for Dummies ebook.

The book covers the benefits of a Hyper-Converged infrastructure.

From the Introduction.

"Hyper‐converged infrastructure (HCI) does just that. HCI evolves the way that compute, storage, and management are delivered and provisioned to help you cut operational and capital costs, increase information technology (IT) and business agility, and improve application performance."

The book is 76 pages long and is written by Michael Haag

Download Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for Dummies and enjoy the read.

VMware - IT Automation for Dummies iPaper

One of the recurring topics in a lot of the cloud courses I teach now is DevOps, or for IT automation.

A lot of traditional IT support staff may see this as putting them out of a job, but I see it more as, making the IT department more efficient.

A lot of us work more hours than we're paid for, so IT automation allows us to regain some of that time.

The fantastic people at VMware have produced a 6 page iPaper entitled:

IT Automation for Dummies - written by Tracie Stamm and David Zolnier

Here's a little bit to wet the appetite.

"Automation is quickly becoming the key industry standard to achieve the agility required for faster access to IT resources. Automation helps organisations accelerate IT service delivery by automating the configuration and provisioning of the networking, security, and infrastructure components that support application development."

Yet another free e-book from VMware - Operationalizing VMware vSAN

Yesterday, I passed my vSAN specialist exam, I read a lot of books etc

Thanks to VMware press for making the Operationalizing VMware vSAN book available as a free PDF download.

Also thanks to Paul Wiggett and Kevin Lees for writing the book

As a key component of VMware’s approach for helping customers evolve to hyper-converged infrastructure, VMware vSAN™ provides an agile, secure, and high performance solution ready for future hardware, cloud, and application changes. But, to fully leverage vSAN’s capabilities in a sustained manner, VMware highly recommends making adjustments allowing you to optimise the way you operate a software-defined infrastructure. This book intends to provide you with guidance and best practices for achieving that optimisation when operating a vSAN- based storage infrastructure. It not only addresses tactical optimisations such as monitoring and troubleshooting
but also those of a more strategic nature such as the people and team considerations as well as supporting ITSM process considerations. By adopting vSAN technology as well as adapting your operational model, you will fully realise the benefits provided by, and leverage your investment in, software-defined storage.

VMware vSphere 6.7 Clustering Deep Dive - Download now

This is a book I always recommend that my delegates read when they attend my VMware courses.

VMware vSphere 6.7 Clustering Deep Dive 

Don’t miss the latest release from renowned virtualisation authors Frank Denneman, Duncan Epping, and Niels Hagoort. A must-read for every administrator, architect, consultant, and aspiring VCDX, Clustering Deep Dive takes you into the trenches of how to create a winning cloud infrastructure with vSphere Technologies, including how to implement:

• HA admission control policies

• DRS resource pools

• Datastore Clusters

• Network resource pools

• Resource allocation settings

All I can therefore say, is thanks to Rubrik, VMUG, Duncan, Frank, and Niels for making this available for download.

Visit Rubrik for more details and to download

NSX Free books from VMware

I like free ebooks, mainly because they're free, but they are also something I can refer my delegates to.

With this in mind, I'm happy to say that VMware have made available four new books available in their NSX 1 day guides.

For more information and to download visit the :

VMware NSX Day 1 Guide Library

Enjoy

Free eBook from VMware - Modern PC Management

VMware have very kindly made available another free ebook entitled:

Modern PC Management for Dummies

The book covers the following:

This is straight from the Intro page.

"Welcome to Modern PC Management For Dummies, your guide to effectively managing desktop, mobile, and rugged devices in the heterogeneous world of today’s  business IT.
First of all, what do we mean by “modern PC management”? In the context of this book, PC management refers to an IT department’s ability to effectively commission, support, and decommission computing devices assigned to individual users. The old methods that IT departments of the past have employed just aren’t cutting it anymore; modern solutions are needed to address today’s management issues.

Modern management brings the efficiency of mobile device management (MDM) with the full breath of capabilities of PC lifecycle management (PCLM) to enable UEM via a digital workspace platform. The digital workspace collapses the silos between mobile and desktop management and even line‐of‐business application management to enable all devices."

The book comprises of 5 chapters over 58 pages and is authored by Kevin Strohmeyer, Aditya Kunduri, and Justin Grimsley

Definitely worth a read.

Free eBook from VMware - Data Center Modernisation for Dummies

Here's another free eBook from VMware, this one is is all about Data Center Modernisation and is called.

Data Center Modernisation for Dummies

The book covers the following, with this introduction coming straight from the book.

"So, why do you need to modernise your data center? It all
begins with the digital transformation that is sweeping the
planet — and disrupting businesses at a fundamental level. In
every industry, companies are under pressure to interact with
their customers in new ways, through new channels, and to
delight them with new personalised experiences."

The book is written by Theresa Villatore-Silva and consists of 48 pages.

Enjoy.

Free eBook from VMware - Network Virtualisation for Dummies 2nd Edition

I have to say, I like free stuff, my delegates like free stuff, so thanks to VMware for more free stuff.

VMware have very kindly made available for download  a free ebook called Network Virtualisation For Dummies 2nd Generation.

The book covers the following, straight from the introduction of the book.

"Before we get to the heart of the matter of network virtualisation,

let us briefly describe some topics that we cover within these

pages. All the following requirements build the case for moving

out of the hardwired network past and into the flexible world of

network virtualization, which we describe in depth in Chapter 1:

The network needs to move as fast as the business.

Network security needs to move faster than cybercriminals do.

Applications need the flexibility to run anywhere.

So, how do you get there? The first step is to immerse yourself in

the concepts of this new approach to networking. That’s what this

book is all about."

The book contains six chapters over 79 pages and was written by Jonathan Morin and Shinie Shaw.

Definitely worth a look.

Upgrading to VMware vSphere 6.5 - Free ebook

September is fast approaching and with that, VMware vSphere 5.5 is coming to an end of support.

As a VMware Certified Instructor, I am still running a lot of VMware vSphere 6.5 courses.

Even though we now have VMware vSphere 6.7, 6.5 is still proving a popular choice, and with that in mind, it may be worth having a look at the following ebook.

UPGRADING TO VMWARE VSPHERE 6.5 - Insights for vSphere administrators

The book is only 32 pages long and breaks the upgrade into 3 phases

• Phase 1: Pre-Upgrade
• Phase 2: Upgrade
• Phase 3: Post-Upgrade

The book also has links off to various other useful documents.

Thanks to Emad Younis for his time in authoring this book.

Free ebook from VMware - Accelerating Digital Transformation with Containers and Kubernetes

Even as a trainer/lecturer firmly entrenched in the sysop mould, even I have to now concern myself with the move to Devop, on the majority of systems and infrastructure courses I now deliver, we cover containers.

I see the point, I see how they can make our lives easy, I can see how system become more fluid and dynamic.

But!!!!!! I've worked in IT since 1986 and my stereotypical view of developers still exists, these are people who sit in cupboards, have no communication skills and hate the sun light.

Fortunately my views are now be challenged, and at the company I work for, we deliver award winning apprenticeship programs, and seeing the next generation of IT professionals coming through I can see that my stereotypical view of developers is outdated.

VMware have kindly produced a free eBook entitled:

Accelerating Digital Transformation with Containers and Kubernetes

The book is written by Steve Hoenisch and covers.

From the introduction in the book:

Digital transformation, the commoditization of IT, the Internet of things,

the proliferation of mobile devices, the growing popularity of public

clouds, big data, and other seismic technological changes are radically

altering the way businesses are run. Innovative software applications

are, for many businesses, a critical objective. Consumers, customers, and

keeping ahead of the competition demand it.

But one-time innovation is often not enough. The digital era calls for

continuous innovation at an accelerated pace—and the kind of modernized

data centers and software development technologies that make it

possible.

Container technology can help transform a company into a digital

enterprise focused on delivering innovations at the speed of business.

Containers package applications and their dependencies into a distributable

image that can run almost anywhere, streamlining the development

and deployment of software.

By adopting containers, organizations can take a vital step toward

remaking themselves into flexible, agile digital enterprises capable of

accelerating the delivery of innovative products, services, and customer

experiences. Enterprises can become the disrupters instead of the disrupted.

But containers create technology management problems of their own,

especially when containerized applications need to be deployed and

managed at scale, and that’s when Kubernetes comes into play. Kubernetes

automates the deployment and management of containerized

applications. More specifically, Kubernetes orchestrates containerized

applications to manage and automate resource utilization, failure handling,

availability, configuration, desired state, and scalability.

This book introduces you to containers and Kubernetes, explains their

business value, explores their use cases, and illuminates how they can

accelerate your organization’s digital transformation.

Free ebook from VMware - Microsegmentation for Dummies

VMware have very kindly made available another free eBook, it's title is:

Micro-segmentation for Dummies v2 written by Matt De Vincentis and is 76 pages in length.

Introduction from the book itself.

"This book provides a broad overview of micro‐segmentation in the data center. After reading this book, you’ll have a good basic understanding of micro‐segmentation — like you’d get from a college‐level 101 class, but far more interesting than Microbiology 101 or Microeconomics 101 (and not as difficult either)!"

To download a copy visit the following link.

Micro-segmentation for Dummies

Free eBook – The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure

Microsoft have now released a new version of their developer guide to Azure as a free ebook

Free eBook – The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure

The book authors are Michael Crump and Barry Luijbregts

The book is 62 pages and downloaded as a PDF

Introduction from the book itself

"We created The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure to help you on your journey to the cloud, whether you’re just considering making the move, or you’ve already decided and are underway.

This e-book was written by developers for developers.

And it is specifically meant to give you, as a developer, a fundamental knowledge of what Azure is all about, what it offers you and your organization, and how to take advantage of it all."

Enjoy

Free eBook From VMware - Network Virtualisation For Dummies

One of my favourite topics when delivering courses, is always networking.

So a huge thank you to VMware for making available another free ebook:

Network Virtualisation For Dummies

The book is written by Mora Gozani

Here's the description from the book itself.

"This book is loaded with information that can help you understand and capitalize on network virtualization. In plain and simple language, I explain what network virtualization is, why it’s such a hot topic, how you can get started, and steps you can take to get the best bang for your IT buck."

The book is 77 pages in length. So if you have a few spare moments, give is a read.

VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive By Frank Denneman & Niels Hagoort - Free ebook

Exclusive access to the VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive download is brought to you by Rubrik and VMUG.

Visit the link

Nice book, excellent resource. Worth a look and a download.
 

"The VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive is a guide to building consistent high-performing ESXi hosts. Written for administrators, architects, consultants, aspiring VCDX-es and people eager to learn more about the elements that control the behavior of CPU, memory, storage and network resources."