In this post, we will take a look at another new feature of VCF Automation, IaaS Resource Policies. I will demonstrate how these IaaS policies can be used with Data Service Policies and DSM provisioned databases to fine-tune certain parameters related to the database. You may have already seen the concept of Data Service Policies in previous posts. These are policies set at the Provider level which can dictate which database engines, which database versions and which backup locations a tenant of an organization can consume. However additional validations or constraints in an IaaS policy can be applied at an…
In my previous post, I showed how the VCF Consumption CLI could be used to provision a MySQL database when Data Services Manager is integrated with VCF Automation. We could use the same VCF Consumption CLI to provision Postgres databases also. However, I wanted to show you another way that databases could be provisioned using blueprints in VCF Automation (VCFA). Readers may find this useful as it will allow you to track MySQL database instances provisioned via VCF Automation, even though the MySQL Data Service Policy and MySQL databases are not currently plumbed up into the VCFA UI (his will…
As the most popular DSM database, we always strive to improve our enterprise-ready version of PostgreSQL with each release. Data Services Manager v9.0.1 is no different. In this release, we have improved on the Disaster Recovery configuration. We want to enable Data Admins to seamlessly fail over and back between a Primary and a Secondary Postgres database, and make it easy to replicate in either direction. We also want this to occur without needing a full resync of the data. In this blog post, I will take a closer look at this new feature and describe the steps needed to…
Another new feature in Data Services Manager 9.0.1 is the ability to setup access to a Postgres database using Client Certificates. This security features removes the need for “password” based authentication. In order to be able to use this functionality, the Postgres database must already be configured with external/custom certificates. This includes the PEM formatted certificate chain that has the server leaf cert, any intermediate certs and of course the Certificate Authority (CA). It also includes the PEM Private Key. With the custom server certificates associated with the database in place, we can proceed with updating the pg_hba.conf (host based…
It gives me great pleasure to announce the availability of VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) version 9.0.1. Over the coming weeks I will be deep-diving into many of these new features, but for now I want to provide you all with a brief overview of the capabilities and enhancements that you can find in this release. Automated Active Directory integration for MS SQL Server We continue to enhance our MS SQL Server integration. Although the data service is still in tech preview in DSM 9.0.1, a significant enhancement in this release is the ability to specify a privileged Active Directory…
On a recent customer call regarding Postgres instances and databases provisioned by Data Services Manager (DSM), there was a question regarding Active Directory / LDAP integration. Specifically, there was a question on how to automatically provide an Active Directory / LDAP group access to a Postgres database. Now, as many readers are aware, DSM already supports Directory Services such as Active Directory and LDAPS for Postgres databases. See this earlier blog post on how to do that. But once Directory Services is configured in DSM, and selected during Postgres database provisioning, the DBA needs to create logins and grant access…
A quick note to highlight that I have published a new video on Data Services Manager integration with Aria Automation. This is on the back of a recent blog post discussing the same topic. This video shows the new config.yaml which makes it easier to include certificate information. It also shows you how to configure primary and secondary Postgres databases for replication purposes. Check it out below.