Virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 Applications with VMware vSphere 4

Virtualize mission-critical Microsoft applications

How do you safely deploy Tier 1 apps in virtual environments? In this in-depth guide, VMware insiders Charles A. Windom, Hemant Gaidhani, and Alex Fontana show you how. Focusing on Microsoft applications, they guide you step by step through a Proof of Concept for virtualizing Windows Server, Active Directory, Internet Information Services, Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Remote Desktop Services—all on the VMware vSphere 4 platform.

You'll find out what to consider for each application before you virtualize it, and learn how to perform VM backup using VMware Data Recovery, Windows patch management using VMware Update Manager, application performance monitoring using VMware Appspeed, and more. Topics include:

A Thorough Overview of VMware vSphere 4

• Infrastructure Services

• Application Services

• Management Services (part of VMware vCenter Server)

Virtualizing Windows Server 2008

• Choose virtual hardware and learn how to add sufficient CPU and memory

• Run Microsoft Windows Server 2008 as a guest inside the vSphere environment

• Protect your applications and data and deliver high availability using Failover Clustering and Windows Network Load Balancing

Virtualizing Other Microsoft Applications

• Active Directory

• Internet Information Services 7.0

• Exchange Server 2007 and 2010

• SQL Server 2005 and 2008

• SharePoint Server 2007

• Remote Desktop Services 2008 R2

Charles A. Windom, MCSE, is the Microsoft Solution Architect at VMware, Inc. Before joining VMware, Charles worked for 29 years for such companies as Brocade, Compaq, Siebel, Taos, and Hitachi Data Systems, designing and implementing solutions including Microsoft infrastructure and applications. He has been Microsoft-certified since 1990. Hemant Gaidhani is a Senior Technical Marketing Manager at VMware, Inc., with extensive experience in software development and performance engineering. He has been instrumental in developing best practices for several multi-tier enterprise applications in VMware environments. In addition, Hemant has over 18 years of experience working for high-technology companies such as Informix, Commerce One, and EMC. Alex Fontana is a Technical Solutions Architect at VMware, with a focus on virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 applications. He has worked in the information technology industry for over 10 years, including five years designing and deploying Microsoft applications on VMware technologies. He holds VMware, Microsoft, and ITIL certifications.