Cormac Hogan (@cormacjhogan) and Duncan Epping (@duncanyb) are the authors of new book which has been released recently. Ben Fathi (CTO of VMware) and Charles Fan (SVP of VMware R&D) did wrote a foreword. By reading the foreword I learned that VSAN as a product was practically ready in June 2013, to be part of the vSphere 5.5, but finally delayed and GA as you already know just few months back with the release of vSphere 5.5 Update 1 earlier this year (March 7).
I've heard few times recently that VMware VSAN is what vMotion was 10 years ago for VMware. It's truly revolutionary product which is capable to turn any vSphere system into hyper-converged storage solution. VSAN is part of ESXi kernel module, it's baked in. Cormac and Duncan working in the VMware storage team has had a good idea to wrote a book about it!
There is 10 chapters in the book which full name is Essential Virtual SAN (VSAN): Administrator's Guide to VMware Virtual SAN. Those 10 chapters are covering most of what of VSAN has to offer and what an IT admin has to know from the design perspective, but also management and troubleshooting perspective.
The book is available at the major online shops like Amazon, Safari etc. The electronic version is already available now for $41.99. The paperback version shall be available later but you can already pre-order now.
The Chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction to VSAN
Chapter 2: VSAN Prerequisites and Requirements for Deployment
Chapter 3: VSAN Installation and Configuration
Chapter 4: VM Storage Policies On VSAN
Chapter 5: Architectural Details
Chapter 6: VM Storage Policies and Virtual Machine Provisioning
Chapter 7: Management and Maintenance
Chapter 8: Interoperability
Chapter 9: Designing a VSAN Cluster
Chapter 10: Troubleshooting, Monitoring and Performance
The book has 320 pages. It's possible the to browse some of the content online. Here is a screenshot from the first chapter
The Book coverage includes
- Understanding the key goals and concepts of Software-Defined Storage and Virtual SAN technology
- Meeting physical and virtual requirements for safe Virtual SAN implementation
- Installing and configuring Virtual SAN for your unique environment
- Using Storage Policy Based Management to control availability, performance, and reliability
- Simplifying deployment with VM Storage Policies
- Discovering key Virtual SAN architectural details: caching I/O, VASA, witnesses, pass-through RAID, and more
- Ensuring efficient day-to-day Virtual SAN management and maintenance
- Interoperating with other VMware features and products
- Designing and sizing Virtual SAN clusters
- Troubleshooting, monitoring, and performance optimization
The book has been published by VMware Press which is a publishing alliance between Pearson and VMware. VMware Press is also a official publisher of all training materials. Get your copy – Essential Virtual SAN (VSAN): Administrator's Guide to VMware Virtual SAN.
