Here are some condensed notes for the vSphere4 documentation. These notes aren’t meant to be comprehensive, or for a beginner; just my own personal notes. They’re snippets I found interesting while reviewing the official VMware documentation, either because:
- They were new to ESX4
- They were new to me
- I thought they might be useful for the next reference card
- I wanted reinforcement in that area
However, I think for anyone who is familiar with ESX3 and perhaps a VCP, that it should bring you up to speed fairly quickly.
Main Documentation Set
- Introduction to VMware vSphere
- Getting Started with ESX
- ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
- ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide (ESXi bits)
- Upgrade Guide
- Basic System Administration
- ESX Configuration Guide
- Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
- iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
- Resource Management Guide
- Availability Guide
- vSphere Web Access Administrative Guide
Additional Resources
- Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS)
- vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide
- License Server Configuration for vCenter Server 4.0
- ESX 4 Patch Management Guide
- Guest Operating System Installation Guide
Optional vSphere Products and Modules
- vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide
- vCenter Converter Administration Guide
- vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide
- vCenter Orchestrator Administration Guide
- VMware Consolidated Backup – Virtual Machine Backup Guide
Supplementary
- vSphere Management Assistant Guide (vMA)
- Data Recovery Administrator Guide
I hope they’re useful to you as well: vSphere4 Documentation Notes
You should also check out the Configuration Maximums document, and if you want to get up to speed quickly with vSphere 4. I also highly recommend the “What’s new” document for a good overview of the new features.
Forbes Guthrie
vSphere Design
Mastering vSphere 5
