This is an excellent book. Still reading it, but the information presented is easy to understand and the technical material is very good. The book summarizes each section and provides very good tips throughout the book which are applicable and type of best practices.

This is a beginner to intermediate+ level book for VMWare engineers. It it clear and concise in describing the build and configuration of ESX servers with easy to use, step by step instructions, screen shots for reference. There are valuable discussions as to how, why and when to configure certain features of ESX servers. The book is well organized and contains practical and relevant information for anyone wanting to understand and engineer ESX environments.

This book is a complete reference of ESX 3.0. Published this year, 2008, it provides the most up-to-date information on the topics that you would need to run your VMware environment. For example, I wanted to find out how VMware Consolidated Backup works; Chapter 10 answered my question with a ready-to-use example. The writing is very clear and on-target. I did not have the benefit of a training course before our system was brought up but now with this book I do not feel it is necessary.

I waited months for this book to be published and I am sorry to say I was very disappointed. I thought this book would be a solid and in depth overview of VMWare but I found it to be poorly written and poorly organized. The structure of the book seemed rather disjointed and choppy, and I felt many areas of VMWare were not covered that should have been. Maybe someday someone will write the VMWare book I am looking for.

I have been waiting a long time for a resource like Mastering VMWare Infrastructure 3. After 1/2 year navigating lengthy pdf files to get my job done, the author of this book pulled off a methodical, yet detailed resource to allow you to truly master VI3. I have found answers to questions even VMWare tech support couldn't give me. In one night, I am at least twice as knowledgable about my VI3 environment, and therefore twice as confident. If you can't get funding for the VCP course, get this book, and if you need an additional resource, get it anyway. It rocks.

Over the course of several years and having read many in depth technical books pertaining to VMware's ESX and VI. I would have to say that this book is by far the best I have read. The author has done a stellar job at making the book easy to read and absorb at all levels. In addition the author really drives home the point he is trying to make in all of the topics covered. Great job Chris!! Keep up the good work.

I don't even start reading the book but just jumping from one page to another i find solution to lot of problems and mistakes that i made at designing my data center. It just th begining!...

As a computing architect/engineer, I have cover-to-cover read many books
over my career. Part of my job is also to write detailed step-by-step
technical documentation for work I have done. With that as preamble, I'd
like to say that this book is extremely well written. You can tell
the author endeavored to give the complete story of the VI3 suite without
sacrificing the deep detail for each component. He succeeded. Not long
before I read Chris McCain's book, I participated in a 5 day (12hrs/day)
deeply intensive VMWare course covering the same VI3 material. I'm not
a fan of crash/boot-camp type courses, but this one was an exceptionally
thorough/good one. Well, you can pretty much replace that intensive
course with the contents of the "Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3"
book and one (and preferably two) servers qualified for ESX use. Almost
every aspect of VI3 that could be neatly partitioned off into its
own chapter and thoroughly treated, was in this book. Chapters either
cover a VI3 component and/or covers a real world best-practice use
of it. There is little hand-waiving in this book; and if you enjoy the
UNIX CLI way of doing things, as I do, you'll also appreciate the
ESX commands that are peppered throughout the book to
complement/supplement the UI screen shots. Job well done. Highly
recommended.