If you are following the cloudscape, you may have noticed that OpenStack is getting a lot of attention right now.  If you never even heard of OpenStack, cookbook by Kevin Jackson is not the right place for you to start. For the very green I would suggest http://devstack.org/.

For those that want something a little more advanced, I would recommend picking up a copy OpenStack Cloud Computing Cookbook.  Whether you are building your very own private cloud or maintaining one, this book is right for you.

Recipes start with setting up sand box environment on VirtualBox, followed by Essex install on Ubuntu Precise (12.04).  After basic install, the book covers installing, configuring, and administering all of the components of OpenStack.  Chapters 2 and 3 cover compute and keystone components.  Chapter 4 starts out with a setup of swift (storage component) sand box environment. Chapters 5 and 6 are more Swift recipes. Glance, Nova, Horizon and Networking get the next 4 chapters, while 11 and 12 cover practical details like installing OpenStack on bare metal (MAAS) and monitoring. The last chapter delves into troubleshooting, logging, submitting bug reports, and getting help from community.

What this book is not: an in-depth explanation of OpenStack components. It is also not OpenStack for Dummies.  However, if you just want to get things working, this is a great reference book.