If your company has been talking about virtualization, you're in luck. This friendly guide shows you exactly how to create a virtual system using the VMware vSphere environment. Here's what you need to understand, design, and deploy one without drowning in details, plus plenty of maintenance and troubleshooting tips to keep it running smoothly.

• Start here - learn what's in vSphere, how to plan what size your initial deployment should be, and everything you'll need for the project

• See what's new - explore vSphere 4.1 upgrades, including more RAM, vCPUs, and guest OSs

• Serve up your server - choose a system to run VMware vCenter Server and establish a command center for your host farm

• Getting up to speed - see how vSphere 4.1 compares to previous versions

• Size up storage options - find out whether local storage, fibre channel, Internet SCSI, or network-attached storage best fits your needs

• Profile of the ideal host - discover the advantages of using host profiles even when your number of ESX hosts is small

• Perfect timing - find easy ways to keep your server clocks synchronized

Open the book and find:

• Enhancements and upgrades to vSphere 4.1

• How to roll out vSphere effectively

• Cool improvements to ESX

• How vApps make management easier

• Optimal specs for a machine to host vCenter Server

• Troubleshooting tips

• Advice on creating and cloning VM templates

• Ten tools to make vSphere management easier

Learn to:

• Design and deploy a reliable vSphere environment

• Work with the newest vSphere ESX 4.1 features

• Handle installation and configuration

• Manage vSphere infrastructure through vCenter Server