Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
vSphere High Availability (HA)
◆
vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT)
◆
vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection and VMware Data Protection
◆
◆
Virtual SAN (VSAN)
vSphere Replication
◆
Flash Read Cache
◆
Rather than waiting to introduce these products and features in their own chapters, we will
introduce each product or feature in the following sections. This will allow us to explain how
each one affects the design, installation, and coni guration of your virtual infrastructure. After
we cover the features and products in the vSphere suite, you'll have a better grasp of how each
of them i ts into the design and the big picture of virtualization.
Certain products outside the vSphere product suite extend the vSphere product line with
new functionality. These additional products include VMware Horizon View, VMware vCloud
Director, VMware vCloud Automation Center, and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager,
just to name a few. VMware even offers bundles of vSphere and these other products in the
vCloud Suite to make it easier for users to purchase and consume the products in their
environments. However, because of the size and scope of these products, they are not covered
in this topic.
As of the writing of this topic, VMware vSphere 5.5 is the latest release of the VMware
vSphere product family. This topic covers functionality found in version 5.5. Where possible,
we've tried to note differences between vSphere 5.0 or 5.1 and vSphere 5.5. For detailed informa-
tion on VMware vSphere 5.0, refer to
Mastering
VMware
vSphere
5
, also published by Sybex (2011).
(If you are still running vSphere 4.
x
, Sybex also offers
Mastering
VMware
vSphere
4
[2009].)
To help simplify navigation and to help you i nd information on the breadth of products and
features in the vSphere product suite, we've prepared Table 1.1, which contains cross-references
to where you can i nd more information about a particular product or feature elsewhere in
the topic.
Table 1.1:
Product and feature cross-references
VMware vSphere Product or
Feature
More Information Found in This Chapter
VMware ESXi
Installation - Chapter 2
Networking - Chapter 5
Storage - Chapter 6
VMware vCenter Server
Installation - Chapter 3
Networking - Chapter 5
Storage - Chapter 6
Security - Chapter 8
vSphere Update Manager
Chapter 4
