I think Eric “Scoop” Sloof was the first to announce this yesterday, complete with a video and everything! Come on Eric, let some of the other bloggers have your scraps.

I received a copy of a brand new book hot off the presses titled VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS technical deepdive by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman.  Having just received it tonight, of course I haven’t had time to finish reading it yet.  This is the pre-game party blog post.  Just by thumbing through the pages, I’m going to draw a few conclusions.  I’ll see if I’m right by the time I actually finish reading the book.

1. 224 pages and 18 chapters in length.  I’ve seen entire virtual infrastructure books which have been written in as many or less pages than this.  And this book covers just HA and DRS.
   Conclusion: Even factoring in a fair amount of diagrams, this will be the most comprehensive HA and DRS handbook in existence.
2. HA and DRS are perhaps two of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted technologies in VMware’s suite of virtual infrastructure offerings.  What exactly is confusing about these tools?  First, they are both set-it-and-forget-it automation.  The technologies will more or less “just work” out of the box.  This simplicity bestows an overwhelming amount of confidence in cluster configuration because the complexity is masked by an easy to use interface.
   Conclusion: There’s a lot going on under the hood in both HA and DRS that administrators should know about to properly configure and tune their environment.  The detail this book goes into should rock your world.
3. This book covers DPM.
   Conclusion: That is good.
4. There are many great looking diagrams and flowcharts.
   Conclusion: Very helpful in reinforcing what’s written in detail.

I look forward to relaxing with this book while on vacation the rest of this week.  Nice job from what I’ve seen so far guys!

You can read a review, write a review, or purchase this book on Amazon’s web site here.