VMware introduced support for Microsoft SQL Server as a data service in VMware Data Services Manager version 9.1. In version 9.1.1, there are a number of enhancements, some of which I will highlight in this post. If you want to get the full list of enhancements, check out the VMware Data Services Manager 9.1.1. Release Notes. One of the major changes in version 9.1.1 is to enable the VCF Automation (VCFA) Provider Administrators to provision the SQL Server instances / engines directly from VCFA, rather than context switching back to the DSM UI to do it. Once the SQL Server…
One of the interesting new features of VMware Data Services Manager when it is integrated with VCF automation is the Network Security feature. In a nutshell, what this feature does is implement both distributed firewall rules and gateway firewall rules for each DSM database deployed via VCF Automation. Let’s take a closer look. By default, Net work Security is disabled. The VCFA Provider Admin will need to activate it. Navigate to VCF Services > Data Services. In the Data Services Manager menu, select Advanced. Here you will find the button to activate Network Security. When the Activate button is clicked,…
Many readers may have read this blog article on Native Object Storage from my good pal, Pete Koehler. In that post, which was published back in May of this year and coincided with the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) version 9.1 release, Pete talked about a tech preview of Native Object Storage. Well, with the release of VCF 9.1.1, the tech preview has now begun. Although the tech preview of Native Object Storage is not open to everybody, we will be working with a select set of customers and gathering critical feedback. Our objective is to have a robust Native Object…
As part of the latest VMware Cloud Foundation version 9.1.1 release (see this link for more details), it gives me great pleasure to announce that we also have a new 9.1.1 version of VMware Data Services Manager (DSM). This is a not just a patch release. It is a release that is chock-full of new features and enhancements. I will share the details with you in this post. This 9.1.1 DSM release is building on top of some of the cool features that we provided in DSM & VCF version 9.1. In later posts, I will delve into some of…
I was recently asked to assist with some troubleshooting of the Email Alerting mechanism in Data Services Manager (DSM). The first thing to note is that there are different types of alerts that can be raised and emailed in DSM. The first type are Global Alerts, and these are emailed to the DSM Admin. The second type are Database Alerts, and these are emailed to all of the DSM Users (permissions) who are part of the DSM Namespace where the database is provisioned. Those of you familiar with Data Services Manager will know DSM Users are granted permission to provision…
Many of my recent posts have focused on the new Microsoft SQL Server data service in the 9.1 version of VMware Data Services Manager (DSM). On the back of those posts, I had a query about whether it was possible to use the Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack for VCF Operations that is available on the VCF Solutions Catalog with DSM provisioned SQL Servers. The short answer is yes, you can install this management pack in your VCF Operations and create a SQL Server account for it. The Management Pack for Microsoft SQL Server now connects to your Microsoft SQL…
In my VMware Data Services Manager 9.1 launch post, I mentioned that this release now has the ability to use vSAN ESA snapshots to create a copy of a MySQL database. I also mentioned that this snapshot could then be used to very quickly spin up additional copies of the database using the “clone from snapshot” feature. I also mentioned that this feature is not yet plumbed up into the VCF Automation UI, but that it is available via the API. And since that is the case, it is then possible to go ahead and create VCF Automation blueprint. The…