This is a great book to have on your desk or to learn a great deal about deploying vSphere 4. I think "mastering" goes a little far but I am by no means degrading the quality of this book because it has mastering in the title. The book flows well and speaks to you like you are indeed just starting out with a new deployment! If you need a "first" book looking to learn vSphere 4, you cant go wrong with this one!

It's down to earth, it explains the hows and whys pretty well, but it also acts as a great reference and "HOWTO" for many tasks. I used it extensively to build up my knowledge and pass my VCP 4 test. But I continue to use it as a reference on many topics. If you are looking for VSphere 4 knowledge, start with this book.

Technical book that doesn't put you to sleep and at same time very good source of knowledge on the vSphere product

The shipment is fast, I made an order in Singapore and received the delivery from US the fourth day. The book was in good condition, I had a shared one in our team, I bought this one for my own reference book.

It is obvious that the author has put a lot of effort into writing this book and it shows. It is amazing the breadth of information that he covers.
If I had to add something for improvement it would be more samples of basic things like a VM build for a SQL Server from start to finish using the new vSphere 4 features. Disk setup, type, adapters, etc...
All in all this a great book that i can highly recommend. Not only is it very informative but it is also easy to read. I hope he creates more like on using the included backup, or 3rd party tools, or situational like what to do if a host isn't responding but the VMs are still running fine.

A great read!

I have always been fond of Sybex books. This one is no exception. My experience with virtualization and VMware is nill. So I need a good book to start with. There are not a lot of books on VMware vSphere 4. The choice of this book was not hard, the preview looked good and when the book arrived it proved to be a good choice. I do recommend this book to everyone who wants to start with the subject.

Funny thing is that when I order the book from the US trough Amazon, it is about 40% cheaper than at a local store here in Holland.

Excellent Book! I would highly recommend it to anyone needing to get a good foot-hold on the VMware vSphere concepts from a real world prespective. Scott Lowe understands "virtualization" very well, and presents the vSphere product in a very articulate manner. I was able to pass the VCP-410 exam first try using this book.

It reads just as clearly as Scott's blog (but with more detail and reference material), well organized, and I think the depth of subjects covered was just about right. There's no question that it helped me pass my VCP4, but the fact is, this book should be included as a reference in the official VMWare instructor led training course "Install, Configure, Manage" that is required to get your VCP4. It would be a superior addition to the really fairly light weight student manuals.

I wish I would have had this book when I installed my first vSphere environment. If you're serious about vSphere, this needs to be in your cabinet. It's been said here before, but again - if you can buy only one book about vSphere, this is the one.

Just finished my VCP certification using mainly this book and some online docs as my study material. Have read a number of other books on 3I and by far I enjoyed this text much more. Seems to strike a very good balance of content vs. length in addition to the presentation is very good. Scott makes some very good points on planning a virtual environment that I had not seen in the other books but had learned by painful experience on 3i. This book is well worth the money and time to read!!!

I purchased this book three months prior to taking the VMware Installation, Configuration, and Management course to get a head start on framing my thinking to understand virtualization. This book did this and more. I took the book to class with me just so I could enhance my learning experience and boy did it!!

VSphere is definitely a step in the right direction for those who are using VMware version 3.x and possibly the right step those who have never used VMware previously. I guess the important question at the end boils down to "What is the path of least resistance both to bring your skills up to date and to introduce or update your environment as painlessly as possible to vSphere?" To cut a long story short, Unless you have the ability to attend the vSphere course or have the time and resources to swot the technical manuals; you will have a bit of a bumpy ride ahead of you. Getting started of vSphere for those who are new to the product or those who are living with VMware day and night is definitely made a lot easier and shorter by this book. It gets you started as quickly as possible by explaining the whole concept of virtualization and its implementation using VMware ESX 4.x known as vSphere. Tips, real life examples and recommendations from someone whose job is to design, implement and support the product are everywhere in the book and offer a very valuable insight into the product.

So, Should You Get This Book?
Newbie: For a VMware Newbie, this is a very good book. You're in for a proper initiation into the virtual world of computer resources. Still, you do need to work with the product otherwise your retention for the information presented will be very very short indeed.
Seasoned: Short path to upgrade your ESX 3.x knowledge to vSphere and see what's new in ESX 4.x. Once done, the possibilities are endless, or at least you can start reading the technical manuals for more details and specifics and the multitude of presentation, White & Technical papers and plenty of high quality training video on the net and You Tube.
Seeking VCP: The book will cut your study time in half; your will get all the essential information and a few valuable tips to get your nearly ready for the big day; but again you will have no choice but to scourge through the technical manuals and examine every screen in the product to get really really comfortable before attempting the VCP 4.x exams. There is no substitute to experience.
Attended ESX Course: From previous experience, ESX course are well laid and worth every penny spent.

No doubt, this is a good enjoyable book and quiet informative. I'm reluctant to say it's a "Mastering" as that stage of knowledge requires substantial commitment to work intensively with the product hand in hand with the technical manuals before you can say you have mastered the product; but it's a tool for mastering the product.

A quick note, you will outgrow this book quickly, so you may not end up keeping it as a reference; the products technical guides from VMware are 2nd to none in their quality.

Another interesting point, between me and my colleagues in the office we purchased about 5 copies of this book; we all loved it.

VSphere is definitely a step in the right direction for those who are using VMware version 3.x and possibly the right step those who have never used VMware previously. I guess the important question at the end boils down to "What is the path of least resistance both to bring your skills up to date and to introduce or update your environment as painlessly as possible to vSphere?" To cut a long story short, Unless you have the ability to attend the vSphere course or have the time and resources to swot the technical manuals; you will have a bit of a bumpy ride ahead of you. Getting started of vSphere for those who are new to the product or those who are living with VMware day and night is definitely made a lot easier and shorter by this book. It gets you started as quickly as possible by explaining the whole concept of virtualization and its implementation using VMware ESX 4.x known as vSphere. Tips, real life examples and recommendations from someone whose job is to design, implement and support the product are everywhere in the book and offer a very valuable insight into the product.

So, Should You Get This Book?
Newbie: For a VMware Newbie, this is a very good book. You're in for a proper initiation into the virtual world of computer resources. Still, you do need to work with the product otherwise your retention for the information presented will be very very short indeed.
Seasoned: Short path to upgrade your ESX 3.x knowledge to vSphere and see what's new in ESX 4.x. Once done, the possibilities are endless, or at least you can start reading the technical manuals for more details and specifics and the multitude of presentation, White & Technical papers and plenty of high quality training video on the net and You Tube.
Seeking VCP: The book will cut your study time in half; your will get all the essential information and a few valuable tips to get your nearly ready for the big day; but again you will have no choice but to scourge through the technical manuals and examine every screen in the product to get really really comfortable before attempting the VCP 4.x exams. There is no substitute to experience.
Attended ESX Course: From previous experience, ESX course are well laid and

No doubt, this is a good enjoyable book and quiet informative. I'm reluctant to say it's a "Mastering" as that stage of knowledge requires substantial commitment to work intensively with the product hand in hand with the technical manuals before you can say you have mastered the product; but it's a tool for mastering the product.

A quick note, you will outgrow this book quickly, so you may not end up keeping it as a reference; the products technical guides from VMware are 2nd to none in their quality.

Another interesting point, between me and my colleagues in the office we purchased about 5 copies of this book; we all loved it.

This book reads just like Scott's blog, it's technically juicy and lacks the standard additional marketing or sales hype that you need to skip over. Definately a must have for those looking to sharpen there skills and complete there knowledge of vSphere 4.

I liked the book to a point. I am a current user of Vsphere, so I would have like to know what the differences were between the versions. Other than that it was great and I think would be a good read for anyone getting into Vsphere.

I must say that I am only 4 chapters into the book and find it to be informative and well documented as far as the steps to follow when working with vshere.

The problem I have with this text is the graphics and figures are too damn small, if I don't have my magnifying glass next to me, I have to take it's word on what the graphic shows.

Sybex must have a format for these books, it is a very close read to the VI 3 book by Chris Mccain.

This is a VERY informative work on vSphere 4.0 - the compleat works are here and if you are a burgeoning VMware engineer or an experienced hand, this is explicitly helpful work you will want on your shelf.

For myself coming from MS Virtual Server and VM Workstation, found that VMWare was hands down better at Virtualizaiton. After playing around with ESXi, decided based on other reviews to get this book. This book describes some of the hidden gotcha's that you may or may not find while installing vSphere. Huge chapter on the networking capabilities that I thought was helpful. Very well written and geared towards someone taking a fresh stab at vSphere like myself. The walk thru's on installing and the details of the plugins for vSphere are great.

I just started diving into the book and I liked it right off the bat. Well organized and concepts are easy to grasp. Author does tell you in the beginning you need to have some understanding of Linux scripting commands for doing unattended installs of ESX and modifying kickstart files. He still walks you through the process and digs deeper in later chapters. Great book.

I have been working with Xen for 2 years and in Jan 2009 we switched to VMware. I have attend VMware VCP training and passed both VCP3 and VCP4. I think this book is a completed manual in fair details. Also it looks contains some secrete information that you cannot get it from official guides. I recommend this book to every vSphere admin.

This is one of the best overall books you will find in the Computer/Networking press. Scott Lowe has done an excellent job explaining how to work with vSphere 4, and writes at an appropriate level for active network and system administrators.

I needed a book to give me the details on vShere_4 and this is a great book.

Sybex books are among the best out there, I am RHEL5 Certified and I want to
get my VMware certification so I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I always found reading from a book you comprehend the material easier than
trying to read on-line manuals.

To "Master" you will need to read every article about the command line and vSphere out there on the Internet. The book does an outstanding job giving you all the must have knowledge, and if you understand the book's content, you can see yourself going forward with vmware. I am also using it as a part of my prep towards the vcp4 test, and love the way it is organized. Feels like it was written by a hands on person not some technical writer, it is very clear and concise, and very well chapter-ed. Highly recommending Scott's blog as well as David Davis from Train Signal, which is probably the best video instructor you ever had.

I got my book about 3 weeks ago. I've read it over at least once, but never straight through as the topics I'm looking for never seem to run together. This book is one of the VERY few that I feel are the easiest to read (assuming you also have some idea of how Infrastructure 3 worked). Definitely a must read if you're interested in vSphere.

This is a good book to have on vsphere. I would have liked to see more advanced and indepth information in some areas but this book does cover a lot.

I received this book during the first release, and was extremely pleased with my investment. Scott covers the basics and gives a great reference for this bleeding edge technology. An easy read for the experienced System Engineer, although may be too in-depth for the "new-be"

I read the book cover to cover, and it's chalk full of great practical information. It's easy to understand, covers a vast array of topics, and really explains where the rubber meets the road. It's actually FUN to read, good diagrams, and very few typos or mistakes. Cannot highly recommend the book enough. I highlighted good tidbits of information on nearly every page. If you plan to use vSphere or are using it, this book is a MUST read. By far one of the best technical books I've read in a long time.