Encrypting Data Service Manager databases with vSphere Native Key Provider

Following on from last weeks post on encrypting Kubernetes Persistent Volumes, I now wanted to see if I could use the vSphere Native Key Provider to encrypt databases provisioned by Data Services Manager version 2.1. The good news is that this is indeed possible, but we need to make some changes to the DSM Administrator Role’s privileges to enable it to perform encryption operations. Of course, the infrastructure policy used to provision the databases must also have a storage policy that has encryption. And, as stated in the previous article, this functionality is dependent on vSphere 8.0U3. This applies to…

Configuring LDAPS for database access in DSM v2.1

Data Services Manager version 2.1 introduces a much anticipated feature. This is the ability to use LDAPS to give users access to databases. Version 2.0.x already had LDAPS support for user access to the DSM Provider Appliance Portal/UI. Version 2.1 extends that support to the databases which DSM provisions. In this post, we will see how to configure secure LDAPS to connect to Active Directory, and then the steps which are used to grant users access to the databases. We will see how this can be done at database creation time, but also how it can be done after the…

Provisioning databases with Aria Automation, Cloud Consumption Interface and Data Services Manager – Part 4: DSM

Welcome to the 4th and final part of configuring the Cloud Consumption Interface (CCI) in Aria Automation to enable a user to provision databases using one or more Supervisor Cluster Namespaces. In the previous 3 parts to this setup, we saw how to install Aria Automation v8.17 for CCI support, and how to install the CCI Service onto the Supervisor.  In the most recent post, we went through the steps to configure the CCI to allow an Aria Automation user create Namespaces on a Supervisor and subsequently provision Kubernetes clusters using the TKG Service and VMs via the VM Service.…

Getting started with Data Services Manager v2.1

The latest version of Data Services Manager (DSM) is now available. DSM version 2.1 delivers a new set of capabilities and functionality, including simplified deployment, MySQL Clustering, LDAP access to databases, Certificate Management, and log shipping enhancements. In this post, I will go through the deployment process of DSM version 2.1 as there are some significant differences when compared the 2.0.x user experience. Our aim is to make the whole process of deployment in 2.1 a lot easier. In future posts, I will look at the other enhancements in more detail, but for now I just want to focus on…

Data Services Manager version 2.1 now available

It gives me great pleasure to announce the availability of Data Services Manager version 2.1. The team have been working tirelessly on this release to deliver on new features and functionality. In this post, I will cover a number of the big ticket items found in this release. In later posts, I will delve into these features in more detail, so watch this space. Visit the DSM section of the Broadcom Support Portal to download the product. VMware Cloud Foundation customers are automatically entitled to DSM, and in this release we are making it even easier to stand up your…

Data Services Manager Air-Gap deployment steps

Many customers have data centres which have restricted access to the outside world, commonly referred to as air-gapped. This was well understood in the early design stages of Data Services Manager (DSM), which led to the creation of an air-gap deployment methodology. Therefore customers who could not avail of the automatic download mechanism for database templates and updates could manually populate their provider repository with manually downloaded images. However, customers who wish to deploy the current version of DSM (v2.0.3) today will also have to use the air-gap approach to add the database templates to their provider repository. This is…

Provisioning databases with Aria Automation, Cloud Consumption Interface and Data Services Manager – Part 3: CCI Config

In this series of posts, we saw in part 1 how to setup Aria Automation version 8.17. This is required for Cloud Consumption Interface support. In part 2, we saw how to enable the Cloud Consumption interface (CCI) in the Supervisor of vSphere with Tanzu. However, even though CCI is now deployed as a Supervisor Service, it is not yet completely configured to work with Aria Automation. Thus, it is still not yet possible for an Aria Automation user to interact with the Supervisor in vSphere with Tanzu to create TKG clusters or VMs using the VM Service. This is…