Data Services Manager 2.0 – Database Deploy (Video)

I have created a new video showing how to create an PostgreSQL database in Data Services Manager (DSM) version 2.0. The objective is to show how simple it is to not only deploy a database, but also how the provisioning steps allows different vSphere infrastructure resources to be selected during the provisioning stage. This is achieved through Infrastructure Policies which we learnt about in the previous video. The demo also touches on features such as automated backups, automated lifecycle management and advanced settings, all of which may be configured at database deployment time.

Getting Started with Data Services Manager 2.0 – Part 3: Deploy PostgreSQL

So far, we have seen how to create an infrastructure policy and how to configure the DSM Provider appliance. In this third post in the series, I will show you how to deploy a Data Service via Data Services Manager (DSM) 2.0. The data service in question is PostgreSQL, an open-source database which our telemetry tells us is a very popular database deployed on vSphere infrastructure by our customers. Let’s examine the steps involved in deploying PostgreSQL via the DSM UI, whilst also noting that DSM has a very rich API allowing deployment of these data services via various automation…

Aria Operations Integration with VMware Data Services Manager v1.5 (Video)

This is another short video showing the main steps to configure Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) to monitor databases provisioned via VMware Data Services Manager (DSM). Note that there is a requirement to install True Insight Management Packs for PostgreSQL (and MySQL) with Aria Operations. Thus, there may be a licensing cost associated with this. However, if you are already using Aria Operations as your single pane of glass for monitoring all of your vSphere Infrastructure, then there may be benefits to using the same mechanism to monitor your databases. The purpose here is to demonstrate that provisioning databases via…

PostgreSQL Extensions in VMware Data Services Manager v1.5

I had an interesting query earlier this week in relation to PostgreSQL Extensions in VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) v1.5. We do not give out superuser (postgres user) privileges when creating databases via DSM, although it is still possible to find those credentials and access the database with those privileges if necessary. Instead, we focus on the default user that we create when we deploy a database, a user that we have named ‘dbaas’. The query was how should extensions be added to PostgreSQL if ‘dbaas’ is not a superuser? The answer lies in our DSM documentation where we describe…

Database Backup, Restore and Recover in VMware Data Services Manager v1.5

In this post, I want to look at how VMware Data Services Manager v1.5 implements backup, restore and recover operations. I also want to highlight the difference between a restore operations and a recover operation since they are significantly different. We will look at these operations from the point of view of the different databases which are available in DSM, namely PostgreSQL, MySQL and MS SQL Server for Linux. Restore vs. Recover Let’s begin with a discussion on the differences between a restore and a recover in VMware DSM. The most significant difference is that a restore operations recovers the…

Aria Operations integration with VMware Data Services Manager v1.4

This is a post to address a query that I recently received  regarding the use of Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) with VMware Data Services Manager. The question was whether or not the vRealize True Visibility Suite for PostgreSQL and MySQL would work with the databases that are provisioned by DSM. tl;dr The answer is yes, the True Visibility management packs will successfully gather metrics from databases deployed via DSM, and allow you to build monitoring dashboards, etc. In this post, I will demonstrate the steps involved in configuring the integration for PostgreSQL as there are a few specific steps…

Configuring HA for PostgreSQL in VMware Data Services Manager (Video)

I created a short video on how to cluster a standalone PostgreSQL database in VMware Data Services Manager. PostgreSQL is a very popular virtualized workload to run on vSphere infrastructure. In this video, you will see how easy it is to create a clustered PostgreSQL database through VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) in just a few clicks. You will see how when a Read Replica is created, a PG_Monitor VM is also created. The PC_Monitor acts as a quorum or witness, and handles promotion of Read Replicas to primary role in the event of a failover. We will see how…