vSphere 4 Documentation Notes now released (v1.0)

Forbes Guthrie1 Comment

I’ve completed my Documentation Notes for vSphere 4.0.  You can grab them on the usual page.

Latest updates:

  • Completed the documentation set.  Just added:
  • vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide
  • vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide
  • vCenter Converter Administration Guide
  • vCenter Orchestrator Administration Guide
  • VMware Consolidated Backup – Virtual Machine Backup Guide
  • Added ESXi notes
  • Added 2 supplementary (not officially vSphere 4.0 documentation) notes covering:
  • vSphere Management Assistant Guide (vMA)
  • Data Recovery

vSphere 4 reference card – version 0.6

Forbes GuthrieNo Comments

Version 0.6 is – now here! Get the latest here

– I’ve finished the ESX and ESXi sections
– Made couple of corrections (thanks everyone)
– Re-written the firewall sections. I was never that happy with the way VMware and most people explain this. Now it is from the prospective of each component. Let me know how you think this compares to the last card. I think it makes more sense.

As ever, please leave your comments below and let me know of any errors or omissions. Suggestions and comments always help out, or just check out some of my other posts.

First draft of vSphere 4 Reference Card now available

Forbes Guthrie16 Comments

I’ve just upload the first draft of my vSphere 4 Reference Card – go and grab it now! Get the latest here

It’s only about 50% complete so far, but with old adage of “release early, release often”, I was keen to get it out there for some feedback.  It takes a considerable amount of time to collate, decipher, filter, augment and present these cards.  I just hope everyone finds them useful.   Don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten to finish the last 10% of the vSphere4 notes. However, I am concentrating most of my efforts towards getting the Reference Card to a “1.0” release before this year’s VMworld.

Please leave comments below (or you can contact me directly if you’re feeling shy), and let me know of any errors or omissions.  The layout and style isn’t set in stone either, so let me know what works for you.  Suggestions and comments always help out, or just check out some of my other posts.

VMware document nerds

Forbes Guthrie3 Comments

For anyone who is a VMware document addict like me, I was perturbed to see that they have separate download pages for ESX, ESXi embedded & ESXi installable.  This makes it triply hard to keep up to date with new updates.  Each documentation set is around 2,000 pages, so you can imagine the overlap.

Up until now I’ve been basing my ESX4 Documentation Notes, on the ESX page here: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx40_vc40.html, but always felt like I might be missing a thing or two.  So this morning I looked through and compared all three sets.  If you don’t want to miss a beat, then here’s what you need.  All 3 sets are identical except for:

  • The Getting Started guides have a handful of slightly different pages, but nothing that isn’t covered in the later PDFs.
  • ESX comes with an Installation Guide, whereas both ESXi streams come with Setup Guides.  There is a fair bit of overlap, but if you start with the ESX, you just need to supplement it with the first 6 chapters of the Installable ESXi PDF.  The Embedded one is the same except it misses out the small installing chapter.  The rest of these are the same except the ESX Installation Guide has additional Service Console and WebAccess stuff.
  • There is a different configuration document for ESX and ESXi, however if you start with the ESX one then everything is covered (again the ESXi one misses stuff like Service Console commands).

So in a nutshell, read the first 44 pages of the Installable Setup Guide and you’ll be covered.  I’m going to add a summary of these pages to my ESX4 Documentation Notes; however I’m working full speed on my ESX4 Reference Card right now so it will probably be post-VMworld before it gets added.  I will publish a preview of the Reference Card next week sometime, which will hopefully be about 50% complete.