Ask anyone in this industry and they will tell you those pivotal moments in their careers when they were inspired, mentored, coached by a select few that sling-shot them to great times. I have been fortunate to have several of those people that I got to work with or mentored by that have pushed me in the right direction in my career. I met Rebecca Fitzhugh while attending my vSphere 5.1 Install, Configure and Manage required classroom training in 2012. She was a delight to have as a teacher not only because of her vast knowledge on the topic of vSphere and vCenter, but also because she taught more than the manual and showcased real world scenarios, that we all know so well aren’t normally covered in these types of classes although VMware does a better job than other companies! At the conclusion of the class we exchanged information knowing that there would be opportunities to network in the future. Fast forward two years, Rebecca and I continue to network and she pushes me to pursue higher-level learning from VMware. Because of her suggestions, I have attained my VCA-Cloud, VCA-WM, VCA-DCV, VCP-DCV and VCP-DT. I am also currently studying for my VCAP-DTA and DCA. She truly has been one of those people that have inspired me to push further in my career and reinforce good values when working with my clients.

Rebecca approached me at VMworld 2013 in San Francisco about a book she was writing about vSphere Virtual Machines, I was intrigued about this great opportunity for her and pressed her to keep me in the loop should an opportunity come up where I could partially return the favor for the knowledge she gave me. I am proud to be writing this review for her, because I know the knowledge that is in this book has already been put to use by me and will be by countless others. The book itself comprises of 326 pages and 10 chapters and is a nice balance of introduction, technical and deep dive with regards to vSphere VM’s.

The book covers a lot of ground for all aspects of a VMware Admin from new to experienced. The author gives a thorough explanation of what a virtual machine is and the components that make one up, how to create virtual machines, provisioning, creating templates and how to configure resource pools. This is a great book for any admin that interacts with VMware vSphere and vCenter. I particularly appreciated the fact that most of the concepts in this book are current as of vSphere and vCenter 5.5. I highly recommend this book for any die-hard VMware person or someone brand new to the software suite. Grab a copy today and see for yourself!

As a special treat to those are interested, for a limited time, if you tweet the following you can receive a free copy of her book!

Learn how to optimize your virtual machine using this new guide http://bit.ly/1jTgF53  by @RebeccaFitzhugh @VMwarevSphere #OVF #VMware