VMware vFabric Data Director
Powering Database-as-a-Service for Your Cloud

Overview:

What is VMware vFabric Data Director?

IDC predicts that private clouds will mature and dominate the enterprise infrastructure software agenda in 2011. One of the key building blocks of the private cloud is Database-as-a- Service (DBaaS). VMware, as the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, has developed advanced technologies and products to fundamentally simplify how the database is managed, consumed and virtualized in the cloud. VMware vFabric Data Director is a software solution that enables you to provide DBaaS for your cloud. It is designed for the cloud environment and is capable of managing thousands of databases while offering application developers self-service database management. vFabric Data Director combines the convenience and ease-of-use of public cloud database services with enterprise-grade security, flexibility, control and compliance.

At A Glance

VMware vFabric Data Director powers Databaseas- a-Service for your cloud and drastically accelerates application development cycles. Built for private and hybrid clouds, vFabric Data Director empowers administrators to securely automate and delegate routine tasks, including database provisioning, backup, cloning, and more. vFabric Postgres 9.0, the vSphere-optimized ACID and ANSI-SQL relational database, delivers the elasticity and performance required for the cloud. vFabric Data Director offers the agility of public cloud database services with enterprise-grade security, flexibility, control and compliance.

Key Benefits

• Dramatically reduce database operating and capital expenses by extending virtualization benefits to the database.
• Accelerate the application development cycle with self-service database management.
• Gain greater control and enforcement over enterprise database policy, with policy-based management.

Key Features:

vFabric Data Director has three pillars of data management capability:

• Self-service
• IT Control
• VMware vSphere™-optimized

Self-service
vFabric Data Director automates common database operations and presents these capabilities to application developers and DBAs through an intuitive self-service user interface. Key features include:

• Powerful Web-based Management Console – IT operators can manage thousands of databases through a single "pane of glass", significantly reducing management overhead and drastically increasing developer agility.
• Self-service Database Management – Self-service database provisioning and cloning provides database access to developers in a matter of minutes, while reducing IT management overhead and operational complexity.
• Innovative Database Cloning – The average production database has six clones for development and test purposes. Each clone often takes several days or weeks to create. The linked database clone capability of vFabric Data Director reduces cloning time to minutes regardless of the source database size.

IT Control
For administrators, vFabric Data Director provides policybased management capabilities to operate DBaaS easily and securely. Key features include:

• Fine-Grained Resource Management and Isolation – A major concern for moving databases to the cloud is the interference caused by multiple databases sharing the same pool of resources: the so-called "noisy neighbor" problem. vFabric Data Director offers flexible resource management and isolation at the tenant and database level, thus eliminating "noisy neighbor" concerns.
• Convenient Database Templates – Administrator-controlled database configuration and backup templates guarantee corporate compliance, increase resource utilization, and guide non-expert users during database provisioning and cloning.
• Robust Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – RBAC restricts system access to authorized users. Granular privileges enable IT administrators to control which users can take what actions at a fine-grain level. Customizable roles that can be delegated to users make RBAC easy to administer and maintain.
• Easy Upgrade and Patching – Streamlined database upgrade allows database upgrade at the individual database level with a few clicks.

VMware vSphere-Optimized
vFabric Postgres 9.0 is a vSphere-optimized PostgreSQL database designed for virtualized environments. Key features include:

• Elastic Database Memory – Patent-pending technology integrates the database memory structures with vSphere to finally enable databases to fully leverage vSphere's virtual resource capabilities, while maintaining consistent database performance even with unexpected workload spikes.
• Database Aware High Availability – Offers high availability capability comparable to Microsoft Cluster Server (MCSC) but without the deployment complexity.
• 100% PostgreSQL Compatible – vFabric Postgres 9.0 is based on the award winning, industry proven PostgreSQL database. It is a fully ACID and ANSI-SQL-compliant transactional relational database
• Smart Database Configuration – vFabric Postgres 9.0's smart database configuration algorithm automatically derives optimized database configurations without involving DBAs

Key Features

DBaaS architecture

• Scalable, elastic, multi-tenant
• Full security and resource isolation among different tenants and databases
• Policy-driven CPU, memory and storage resource management

Powerful management console

• Intuitive Web-based GUI ideal for self-service
• Single view for managing thousands of databases

User management

• Robust role-based access control
• Flexible customizable roles

Dashboards and reports

• Comprehensive view of resource usage for capacity planning
• Centralized view to highlight potential problem areas
• Proactive alerts to support management by exception

Upgrade and patching

• Flexible patching / upgrade at individual database level
• Integration with VMware vCenter™ Update Manager

Self-service database provisioning

• Template-guided rapid provisioning
• Override template values for power users
• Database-aware High Availability in a click

Backup and recovery

• Database-consistent snapshots provide instant backups regardless of database size
• Online hot backups
• Smart scheduling of backup jobs
• Point-in-time recovery
• External backups provide durable backups

Innovative self-service database cloning

• Linked database clone for instantaneous access
• Full database cloning for complete storage isolation

vFabric Postgres 9.0

• Compatibility with PostgreSQL 9.0
• Elastic Database Memory optimized for vSphere
• Adaptive buffer pool sizing and checkpointing

How To Buy:

The vFabric Data Director download includes vFabric Postgres 9.0

vFabric Data Director
Includes a license for 25 managed virtual machines. Support and subscription sold separately.

vFabric Postgres Standard Edition (Production Use)
Includes a license for 1 managed virtual machine with up to 2 vCPUs.  If your Postgres database will have more than two vCPUs, divide by two and round up. For instance, a four vCPU Postgres database will require two Postgres licenses. A five vCPU Postgres database will require three Postgres licenses. Support and subscription sold separately.

VMware vFabric Data Director Requirements

VMware vFabric Data Director requires VMware vSphere 5.0 Enterprise or Enterprise Plus licenses and one instance of vCenter Server 5.0 Foundation or Standard. Learn more about VMware vCenter Server licensing and VMware vSphere licensing.

Support:

VMware Production Support & Subscription

Technical Support, 24 Hour Sev 1 Support -- 7 days a week.

Focused, 24-Hour Support For Production Environments

• Global, 24x7 support for Severity 1 issues
• Fast response times for critical issues
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Production Support is designed with your production environments in mind. Our global support centers are staffed around the clock to provide you access to our industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

VMware Basic Support & Subscription Service

Technical Support, 12 Hours/Day, per published Business Hours, Mon. thru Fri.

Weekday Support for Test, Dev and Non-Critical Deployments

• Global, 12x5 access to support
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Basic Support is designed for non-critical applications and platforms that require support during normal business hours. Our global support centers have been strategically placed to provide you with fast and efficient access to the support center in your region. Each center is staffed with engineers that can provide industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

Feature	Production Support	Basic Support
Hours of Operation	24 Hrs/Day 7 Days/Wk 365 Days/Yr 1	12 Hrs/Day Mon–Fri 1
Length of Service	1 or 3 Years	1 or 3 Years
Product Updates	Yes	Yes
Product Upgrades	Yes	Yes
Products Supported	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)
Method of Access	Telephone/ Web	Telephone/ Web
Response Method	Telephone/ Email	Telephone/ Email
Remote Support	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Web site	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Discussion Forums and Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes
Max Number of Support Admins per Contract	6	4
Number of Support Requests	Unlimited	Unlimited
Target Response Times Critical (Severity 1 Major (Severity 2) Minor (Severity 3) Cosmetic (Severity 4)	30 minutes or less: 24x7 4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours	4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours 12 business hours
Business Hours North America and Latin America Alaska, Hawaii South America (NASA) Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA Asia, Pacific Rim, Japan (APJ) Australia/New Zealand	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)

1Hours of operation for Gemstone are Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST/PDT) globally.
1Hours of operation for VMware Go Pro and vCenter Protect products are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CST/CDT), except holidays.
1Hours of operation for VMware IT Business Management and IT Financial Management are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST/EDT/GMT) except holidays.
1Hours of operation for Socialcast are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT).

Documentation:

Download the VMware vFabric Data Director Datasheet (PDF).